Auckland woman Jeanette Brown Opoku was 30 when she moved to Ghana.

She'd travelled in Africa before and was attracted to its vibrancy.

"Since I was a child I've really liked the developing world," she says. "I had contacts in Ghana and that's what got me there.

"It was very tough at the beginning, but little by little things fell into place."

She settled in the eastern region of Kitase where she bought a piece of land. Not long after that she met her husband Bennett Opoku and had three children.

For the past ten years, she's run an after-school educational programme called Children of the Light.

Classes take place in makeshift classrooms on her property between 3:30 pm and 6pm, six days a week.

A two-storey learning centre is under construction. Opoku is visiting family in Lynfield and trying to raise funds to complete it.

The aim has always been to give kids a brighter future, the 51-year-old says.

"The main thing is to get them reading.

"I have children come to me who are 13 and they can't read."

The centre provides classes in literacy, maths, social studies and science.

Between 50 and 70 children enrol each year. Once the new building is complete, the goal is to increase that to 500.

See childrenofthelightghana.org for details.