OUR STORY

Our Story

Like most of us who started Black independent full-day schools, our personal children brought the major impetus.  

We moved to Atlanta in 1996, thinking we’d bring our daughters to our good friend Jaliwa Owuwu to educate.  Jaliwa, capable and established, had moved to West Africa to teach there.  

What were we to do?  We tried a couple more schools, driving great distances to make it happen.  When these options were not panning out, we brought them back to our neighborhood schools.  

One day, I heard my oldest daughter’s friend say, “I can’t learn this math.”  She didn’t say she hadn’t learned it yet.  She was speaking of her capability, her capacity to learn.  I declared, “I will teach you all.”  The timing was pregnant for us to make this move as I had tired of going to Ife and Sarafina’s school almost every day attempting to supplement what they were getting.  I reasoned that I could teach them Math and any other subject and that this would prove easier in many ways than going to their school almost every day.  AYA’s full-day school was now off-and-running.

Afiya Madzimoyo, Co-Founder and Co-Director @ AYA