Markin-Newsome
Foundation

Honoring our heroes · Empowering our youth

We put chess boards, books and trained teachers into Ghanaian classrooms, so children learn to think several moves ahead — in the game and outside it.

What we do

The Foundation works directly with schools in Accra. We supply the equipment a club needs to start — boards, pieces, clocks and learning materials — and we stay involved afterward, training teachers so the club keeps running once we leave the room.

Chess is where we start, not where we stop. The thinking a child practices over a board — patience, consequences, recovering from a bad move — is the thinking we want them carrying into everything else. As the programme grows, so will what we offer alongside it.

Schools we've reached

Every board below was delivered in person. Twenty more schools have been visited and vetted by our coordinators in Ghana, and are waiting on funding.

Jack & Jill School Accra Club running
Roman Ridge School Accra Club running
Christ the King International School Accra Club running
Alpha School Accra Delivery underway

Why heroes

Strategy is not new to Ghana. Long before any of our students sat down at a board, this country produced people who read a situation clearly, chose their moment, and moved. We teach chess in their company.

Yaa Asantewaa

Queen mother of Ejisu, who led the Ashanti in 1900 when the men around her hesitated.

Kwame Nkrumah

Led Ghana to independence in 1957, the first sub-Saharan African nation to get there.

The warrior queens

The women whose names our students learn alongside the openings they practice.

Where we are so far

80students equipped with boards and materials
4schools reached in Accra
20schools vetted and waiting
2coordinators delivering on the ground in Ghana

Get involved

Everything so far has been funded personally. If you want the next twenty schools to happen sooner, here is where to start.

Equip a school

About $250 outfits a full club — boards, pieces and learning materials for twenty children. Write to us and we'll tell you which school is next.

Bring us to your school

If you teach or lead a school in Ghana and want a chess club, we'd like to hear from you. info@markinnewsomefoundation.org

Follow the work

Deliveries, clubs and the children playing in them are posted as they happen. @markinnewsomefoundation