One Hen Celebrates First Anniversary at Wellesley Country Club

One Hen, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring young students to become active global citizens, will host a celebration commemorating its one-year anniversary at Wellesley Country Club on May 7 at 6:30 p.m.

One Hen, Inc. began two years ago with the publication of the book "One Hen," a true story about Kwabena Darko, a young African boy learning about microfinance and entrepreneurship after purchasing his first hen in rural Ghana. The purchase, which was financed by a small loan, enabled him to then sell the hen's eggs, purchase more hens, and eventually raise enough money to put himself through college.

"My publisher asked me if I could take my international development experience and write a book that would introduce kids to poverty alleviation," said Katie Smith Milway, author of "One Hen" and co-founder of One Hen, Inc. "When I stumbled on Darko's childhood story, I knew I had found the right starting point."

Now, two years later, Milway and the One Hen, Inc. team have transformed the story into a lesson plan, "Kojo's Market: Microfinance for Kids," and incorporated it into a national education program designed to teach young students about financial literacy.

One Hen works with educators throughout the country to help develop its global curriculum and enrichment programs. The curriculum based on Darko's childhood story became the first such program in the spring of 2009, while the second, "Maria's Garden: How Kids Can Fight World Hunger," is set to launch in the fall.

 "Teachers are our R&D … We develop our lesson plans with them, and we massage what the teachers develop and share it on the website with other educators," Milway said. "('Maria's Garden') is about food security and how kids can help the food crisis."

The lesson plans, which incorporate skills of entrepreneurship and financial responsibility into core subjects, are available for download from the site for free, and One Hen is sold through a link on the site to Amazon.com.

"Over 7,000 children have participated in One Hen programs," said One Hen, Inc. Executive Director Amma Sefa-Dedeh said. "Visitors from over 133 countries use www.onehen.org, and educators and youth leaders from more than 43 U.S. states and 15 countries have downloaded One Hen curriculum to inspire young people."

The May 7 event will feature many cultural festivities, including a South African a cappella choir, West African drummers and dancers and an African handicrafts market, Sefa-Dedeh said.

Attendees will also be treated to testimonies from One Hen students, educators and Milway herself, Sefa-Dedeh added.

The anniversary celebration, which costs $75 to attend, is also a fundraiser to help students learn One Hen's financial literacy program, Kojo's Academy. The 16-session program includes a book, Web site, teaching modules and student workbooks, and can either be integrated into the classroom or run as an individual after-school program.

 "It costs $50 to put a child through the program," Sefa-Dedeh said. She said she hopes the event will raise funds to help send 1,000 inner-city kids through the One Hen financial literacy summer school enrichment program.

The financial literacy program, which gives pre- and post-summer school assessments, saw strong results from its initial run last year. According to One Hen, Inc.'s web site, 100 percent of the students, after graduating, felt that they could succeed in starting a business, compared to just 62 percent in pre-testing. Additionally, in post-testing, there was a 27 percent increase in the likelihood students would donate business profits to charity.

"We have been encouraged by the early results of the programs," Sefa-Dedeh said. "It's been such a pleasure seeing this happen in the past year through One Hen's programs."