KarunaNews Story

This year, Bronx high school teacher Alhassan Susso received $25,000 when he was honored with the FLAG Award for Teaching Excellence, a prize given to New York City teachers who inspire “learning through creativity, passion, and commitment.” And he immediately gave it all away. For years, Susso has been raising funds for a teacher-of-the-year prize in his home country of Gambia. The prize is offered through a nonprofit he started, the Namie Foundation, which is named after his grandmother. Susso had been seeking funding through a public diplomacy grant, which ceased to exist. So when Susso received his own prize money in June, he said it was a “no-brainer” putting it towards the Namie Foundation’s teacher-of-the-year prize. For Susso, it’s not just about rewarding hardworking teachers in critically underfunded school systems. As someone who is legally blind in one eye and losing sight in another, it’s also about funding programs that help disabled students thrive.