Who was Dokua Smith?

​Dokua Smith Foundation was founded in 2011 in memory of my mother. Dokua Dokyi was born in Kukurantumi, a small village in the heart of the Cocoa producing region of Eastern Ghana. Her father was Kofi Dokyi, a member of the Chieftaincy Royal house. She married Joseph Gabriel Smith of the Ghana Police service. J.G. Smith was to become Deputy Commissioner of Police and the mayor of Accra the capital city of Ghana.
______ Gladys Dokua Dokyi did not get the chance to go to school because all her elder sisters who were sent to boarding school came home pregnant so the father refused to send any more girls to school. The family built and donated a church and school to the village because they believed education was important. Even though she did not get a formal education, she believed in education as a tool to eradicate economic poverty. She used to say “Mental Poverty causes Physical Poverty which in turn causes Economic Poverty… which translates to if you are mentally rich with knowledge, you are energized physically and motivated to produce and therefore will not be poor economically”
THE FOUNDATION
Dokua Smith Foundation, is a California Public Benefit Nonprofit 501 c(3) organization based in San Diego County.
IRS EIN: 45-3834574
CA SOS: C3431783
CA DOJ: APPLICANT NUMBER: 1446970
OUR MISSION
The mission of the foundation is to establish a standalone philanthropic education scholarship fund for all the refugee children and the underserved children population in San Diego County to prepare them to become future productive citizens in the County. We believe that the County will be the true beneficiary of the success of the program. Research shows that well educated citizens have positive impact on economic development. We will provide funding for all resources necessary to guarantee student success including mentoring starting at the freshmen of High school, Vocational school, Junior college and University. We will partner with the learning institutions mentioned in the prior paragraph in the delivery of resources to support the children beyond High school.
FUNDING SOURCE
We have a proprietary fundraising platform that we are confident will generate the funds to support our mission. Our campaign will ask citizens of San Diego county to donate $3.65 a year each. Our goal is to convince at least one million citizens by December 31st 2020. Our foundation’s programs are designed as a continuing process for the children we embrace. Our approach will be more lenient by funding students who have the desire and not necessarily perfect grade.