Hixson resident Kathleen Majoras Collins always longed for a large family. After adopting three brothers from Ghana who needed a home and medical treatment – and traveling back one year later to adopt their best friend – her maternal nature is kicking in again.
Ooltewah-Collegedale Kiwanis Club president Brien Applewhite, left, welcomes guest speaker Academics 4 Africa nonprofit founder Kathleen Majoras Collins, of Hixson, center, as Kiwanis Club Lt. Gov. Elect Adam Dutton assists in welcoming her.“We made a promise to our children that we would find a way to help as many orphans as we could throughout the Ghana area,” she said.
The Collins family is launching Academics 4 Africa to help pay for the education and uniforms of Ghana’s orphan children. Kathleen Majoras Collins is the founder and president of the new nonprofit.
“Upon arriving home we witnessed firsthand the struggle our new boys went through due to no previous opportunities at schooling,” said Collins, who has two other grown children. “Their low self-esteem and constant struggle told us that this was the area we should concentrate on.”
She said her new sons had to catch up quickly in school because of the lack of education they had received in Africa. Now, she said, they are doing well academically despite having to go through numerous grade levels in a couple of years’ time.