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How We Raised $1200 to support My Dream To Become A Global Leader(We made It !!!!).
I always believed that one of the most important remedy to Africa’s development is Good Leadership. I agree with Prof. Stephen Adei’s statement that, “Leadership is cause, all else is effect” . This propelled me to learn more about leadership and how different I can act as a young leader, but a leader needs to think globally if he or she wants to assist in the development of his or her nation. Due to this goal, I started participating in the BarcampGhana “unconferences” which is a product of GhanaThink Foundation. These events helped me to think globally and address challenges from a global perspective. This drive urged me to search more for Global Leadership Training opportunities for young people. Through my search I came across the prestigious Preparing Global Leaders Academy (PGLA) training programme in Amman, Jordan. PGLA is a premiere international educational program for the best students and young professionals in the world. The program seeks to prepare aspiring global scholar-leaders with the tools that are necessary for effective leadership in an increasingly complex world. I was part of the over 300 outstanding applicants that submitted their applications from around the world, I got selected to be part of the 50 fellow young leaders from the Middle East, Europe, Africa, South East Asia and the United States. My first challenge as a prospective global leader was to raise $1200 to support my trip and with that I will be able to finance the rest even though it was difficult. Is it possible to raise that amount? How am i going to raise that amount? and who will i talk to about this? These were some of the questions i was asking myself.
HOW WE RAISED $1200
GhanaThink Foundation, an Africa-focused think-tank based in Ghana that aims to serve as a source and reservoir of ideas for the advancement of all humanity, beginning from the society and culture that has most influenced our way of thinking about the world ”our cultural neighborhood” Ghana; organize the mass of brilliant Ghanaian talent around the world in the service of their cultural neighborhood. I was as assisted by this foundation as they created an online fundraising platform with the caption “Support My Dream To Become A Global Leader” for my campaign to become a global leader. We used about 75% of social media (online) as our fundraising strategy and 25% offline strategy. I must say that GhanaThink Foundation has been very supportive in this fundraising. We posted the link to donate online on every social media platform – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Blogs, etc. We started to make some progress as people started to donate to support the dream, and the credibility of GhanaThink Foundation was also a factor that convinced donors. Some bloggers wrote posts to help spread the news to their audience, there were posts by www.acertainblog.com, www.thisweekinucc.com and www.mightyafrican.blogspot.com, thank you guys. Some online news website also wrote post on their platform to show their support for my dream, www.iq4news.com, www.totalshowbiz.com and www.konknaijamedia.com.
My family on all social media especially platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ shared the link to donate on their timelines and BarcampGhana, and other social groups were the power behind the spread of the message. One of the amazing things that happened was when one of my respected mentors Bright Simons wrote a very well crafted post about the fundraising to support my dream. This post had a very significant impact on the fundraising. You can read the post here. I learnt one thing from that incidence – its good to be credible than to sounder louder without credibility. So we did our best to raise $830 through our online fundraising (which is now $850).
THE UNEXPECTED PART ONE
We were left with $370 to hit the target of $1200. On Thursday, 4:25pm, 21 March,2013, I had a message in my inbox from an unknown to me indicating that I should call him for a little support to add up to my fundraising. I called him on phone and as the phone rang he answered, this is the conversation that we had:
Me: Hello sir (you know if someone is willing to give you money, you need to call him sir no matter his age), my name is Kofi Yeboah and i received your message through my inbox on Facebook.
Unknown: Oh ok, you are Kofi Yeboah eehhh!!
Me: Yes sir!
Unknown: Ok, stop the fundraising now!!
(I was getting confused at what he said)
Me: Ok sir (I unconsciously said ok)
Unknown: How much have you raised now?
Me: Sir (still behaving politely), we have been able to raise $830 out $1200.
Unknown: So how much do you need now?
(I was getting more confused and alarmed)
Me: Sir, I need $370 in addition.
Unknown: Ok, stop the fundraising and come to my office tomorrow for the $370.
(I got totally confused, I thought I was dreaming).
Me: Thank you sir. I will be there in the morning at 9am.
Unknown: Ok, no problem, take this number and call for direction to my office and tell the secretary that you have a meeting with me.
(I took the number and we ended the conversation).
UNEXPECTED PART TWO
Mr. Unknown 2, also sent me an inbox through my Facebook account and wrote that, he has called the organisation (PGLA) and they have confirmed my participation and my partial scholarship. He stated that he will pay the rest of the tuition so i should consider it sponsored.
I had never believed that we had such people in Ghana, but this men who don’t want their names to be known challenged my preconceived thought of Ghanaian donors. I can confidently say that, we have achieved our target of $1200.
APPRECIATION
I am very grateful to God and everybody who believed in my dream and supported me in anyway. I was amazed when my colleague students were asking for my account numbers and donating to support me. That is a sign of genuine generosity and love to support something that is worth it. I am very grateful for your support and the hope some of you gave me when i was very frustrated about how to raise this money. A very big thank you to all those who contributed in various ways such as money, posts, tweets, re-tweets, etc.
Note: If you want to start an idea, don’t let money be a hindrance. Just start it!!!
An exciting article that every student should read.
2012 in review- My Blog
Guys, a big thank you to all of you, i will not have achieved this without you.
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 2,500 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 4 years to get that many views.
Tips for Bloggers!
- Categories and Tags are for your visitors, not just search engines. Think of your visitors’ needs first.
- Categories and Tags are about navigation and sorting, grouping your content to help visitors find related information.
- Categories and Tags are not fashion statements. Don’t be colorful or imaginative with either.
- Categories are your site’s table of contents.
- Categories help identify what your blog is about.
- Categories represent your body of work on the subject.
- Categories are not for you, they are for your reader.
- Categories help reader know if they are in the right place.
- Categories must encompass collected groups of information.
- Categories must be specific enough to help visitors understand the content within, while not being too general or vague.
- A category that dominates a blog may need to be spun off to a separate blog.
- Categories with only one post tells the reader you don’t know much about that topic.
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FETU AFAHYE IN HONOUR OF THE LATE PRESIDENT EVANS ATTA MILLS.
“Fetu Afahye” is a cultural festival that is celebrated by the Fanti tribe of the people of Cape Coast, Ghana. The actual meaning of “Fetu Afahye” is “Cleaning Festival”, it is celebrated in order to help clean the environment of Cape Coast, the capital of the central region. It is a week long celebration and it begins on a Monday and ends on Sunday. This year’s celebration was a different one all together because it was celebrated in honour of the late President His Excellency John Evans Atta Mills. He is a native of the town.
This year’s theme for celebration is “Asafo companies ; the past, present and the future”. The main event which is done on the Saturday brings together people from across the globe where chiefs are carried in the palanquins and they dance and demonstrate authority. The whole town was coloured in red to signify that an important son has died, it was a form respect that was been shown to the dead. Chiefs were not carried in their usual beautiful palanquins, but they walked through the principal streets of Cape Coast to show respect for the late President. The paramount chief of the town did not take part of the walk as he sat at his traditional house and received greetings from visitors and the chiefs. The grand durbar brought many crowd, both foreigners and locals. The current President of Ghana took part in the celebration. I asked a lot old folks if this year’s celebration has been quite different from the previous years and they said yes it was due to the death of the industrious son of the town. He included that the celebration has been dull this year.
A group of young people also shared the event on Twitter using the hashtag #OguaaAfahye – @awittor, @kobebigs other social media groups include- @capecoastguide,@barcampghana and @bccapecoast.
Check out some pictures from the event.
BARCAMP CAPE COAST 2012
BarCamp Cape Coast 2012 is a free networking forum to bring people together for a day of discussion, demos and dialogue about Cape Coast, Ghana and beyond. BarCamp Cape Coast 2012 will take place on September 08, 2012 at the New Lecture Theatre at the University of Cape Coast. It follows last year’s event on November 12 where the theme was “Harnessing IT education for local innovation and tourism development”. The theme for this year is “Putting the tech in teach”. This Barcamp hopes to assemble Cape Coast stakeholders to network, build a supportive enterprising community and partner to build together.
The GhanaThink Foundation, an NGO based both in Ghana and the USA, has successfully organized 15 BarCamps in Ghana. Barcamp Cape Coast 2012 will be organized in conjunction with the University of Cape Coast (UCC) Google Developer Group (GDG). By partnering with the technology group, this Barcamp will focus on creating more awareness about the uses of technology and build knowledge on how to foster innovation in and around Cape Coast and increase visibility through tourism and online content creation. It will also investigate how to incorporate technology into teaching and education.
The Barcamp will feature multiple user-generated breakout sessions about business, social entrepreneurship, web tools and products, entrepreneurship driven sessions as well as breakout sessions on topics relevant to Kasoa and beyond. There will also be a speed mentoring session where mentors will give insights and answers to questions from attendees. We are also bringing a start-up bazaar to the Barcamp where young entrepreneurs and innovators can showcase their products.
Register/RSVP today at the BarCamp Cape Coast eventbrite website. You may also contact the BarCamp Cape Coast team through this website for sponsorship opportunities. If you are interested in organizing a breakout session, let us know, especially if you have special needs.
BarCamp Cape Coast 2012 is sponsored by the University of Cape Coast, Google Ghana, UCC-GDG,GhanaThink Foundation, Fienipa Group, etc. Our media partners are ModernGhana.com.
PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES (ADMINISTRATION SECTION) ON STRIKE
The administration sections of the public universities in Ghana are on strike over an alleged unsettled payment by the government due to this recent Single Spine innovation by the government. Others say the Administors are saying they want the same amount of money being paid to lecturers. This strike action has lasted for about seven weeks now. The only information that has been released to the students of these institutions is the fees for the next academic year. Students do not even know whether they will be going back to school on the scheduled date on the schools’ calendar. The most serious aspect of this strike action is that, the fresh students who are yet to enter the tertiary institution have not even received their admission letters yet and they are to report in the month of August this year.
Information (from a reliable source) reaching me states that, the issue at hand has now been turned into a court case. I ask myself this question, when are they going to settle this case at court? The administration sections might have a very genuine reason for doing this, but they should understand that the future of humanity is at stake. I have so far not heard any government official make any statement about this matter. Are we going to allow money to control and slow the pace of our development? If students do not go to school as scheduled on the calendar, there will be pressure on them when finally they resume. Please stakeholders involved should put effort s into this matter so as to resolve it quickly.
One issue I would like to address is the increase of the school fees by 40%. I will have no problem if this new increment comes with any new educational package that will be beneficial to students, but this is not so. What is the Student Representative Council (SRC) doing about this? Are they not to negotiate such viable issues on our behalf? I write with a passion as a student.
Journal for Farmerline
In a small, electronic box found in the pockets of farmers across the African continent lies the power to open up opportunities for smallholder farmers across Ghana. This is what is being proposed by the founders of Farmerline, a service that will give farmers and extension agents the ability to communicate in new ways using their mobile phones. The Farmerline platform allows extension agents to mass-message farmers by voice or SMS, allowing farmers to leave messages that can be categorized and addressed. It will potentially provide a voice-forum on which farmers from all over the country can communicate with each other. This would allow for a single message to be sent in case of a disease outbreak, or for timely information to be delivered through daily ‘tips’, such as weather reports, to a large number of farmers. Agents may be able to focus trips to the field more on demonstrations and hands-on problems, relaying other information through the mobile network.
Small holder farmers make up 60% of Ghana’s working population. They provide a large portion of the food consumed in the country, yet many struggle to make a good living. A major problem they face is accessing information about farming and about trends along other parts of the value chain, such as market prices. Extension services are one way of addressing this issue. Extension agents can bring farmers information about business planning, planting, crop treatment, farming, markets, saving, weather and even lifestyle choices like health. In Ghana extension services to subsistence and smallholder farmers are provided primarily by MofA, but are being supplemented more and more by private companies and NGOs.
For most farmers, access to information nonetheless remains a problem. They may have to wait for visits from extension agents to ask questions or learn about farming techniques, disease treatment, markets, and other relevant topics. This is a particular problem in farming where timing is very important to producing a successful crop. Information transfer is also a problem for agents, who are frequently responsible for visiting many communities of farmers with limited resources and transportation. Agents are responsible for 1000 to 2500 farmers and sometimes do not have time to address all their questions, even by mobile phone. Further, it is impossible to mass message information that needs to be communicated immediately, such as disease outbreaks or unexpected weather.
You will not find any Farmerline users quite yet – it will be another few months before the system is ready to be used. Research into the mobile usage of Ghanaian farmers is sparse, so the team is currently investing in interviews and testing with farmers and extension officers. They are, however, looking to secure funding to pilot the project in the near future!
INTERVIEW WITH MAUREEN AGENA
Maureen Agena, she is from Kampala, East Africa, Uganda. She is a New media enthusiast, trainer ,youth activist and a trained citizen Journalist. She currently works as a program Manager at Text to Change a Mobile for Development company. Prior to this, she worked at Women of Uganda Network(WOUGNET) for 3 years as an Information & Communications Officer. She holds a Bsc in Information Technology & Msc in Information Systems. Maureen was recipient of Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship and an ARDYIS 2010 EastAfrican award winner. She is passionate about ICT4D, mobile technology and Gender issues in Technology. she loves Hiking, game drives, swimming and traveling. She runs a blog- http://dignityinpoverty.blogspot.com/
Please enjoy the interview.
@kofiemeritus: Tell me briefly about yourself. (childhood days, where you schooled, where you work and family)
@maureenagena: I am a third born in a family of 3 and the youngest. I was born in 1985 and had all my education in Uganda with a BSc in Information Technology and later got a scholarship from the Canadian Common wealth program to study part of my Masters in information systems at St. Mary’s college in Halifax, Nova Scotia-Canada. After my first degree in 2008, I got a job as an information and communications officer at Women of Uganda Network where I managed projects on Gender and Technology as well as Citizen Journalism. While there, I traveled widely and implemented many projects on youth and ICT. I then joined Text to Change first as a program manager and later as a communications manager. Besides my full time work, I am a part time online communications consultant with UNFPA Uganda and I am involved in many Tech innovations in Kampala.
@kofiemeritus: When did you start getting the passion for ICT as a woman?
@maureenagena: I started getting this passion when I joined women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) in 2008 just right after my first degree. I underwent several training such as Gender and counseling, citizen journalism and several others. While at WOUGNET, I learnt that women face a lot of challenges when trying to use, access and apply technology in their work because of constraints like, limited skills, restrictions to their mobility and their inability to afford these ICT tools and service.
@kofiemeritus: How were your parents’ (especially your dad) reaction towards your decision to study ICT?
@maureenagena: (My dad passed on but he had always wanted me to study LAW at University because he thought I was too ‘smart’ and that I needed something so challenging) but my Guardians were very encouraging. It was my male Guardian Mr. Felix Ogwang a Civil engineer by profession who insisted that I should study a Technology course because in 2005, when I was just joining University, technology was a very big deal in Uganda. He told me that I would never go wrong and that I would be on very high demand for a job but I would also easily be my own boss and employ many people.
@kofiemeritus: Did you face any challenges as a woman and your involvement with ICT?
@maureenagena: Of course I did and I still do. The challenges started way back from school with intimidation from fellow students especially the male ones who kept on reassuring me that Science courses are not meant for girls. At the workplace, many employers do not have confidence in female IT staff and they always doubt their ability to deliver on their own without help from a man.
@kofiemeritus: Tell us why you are so passionate about gender and ICT?
@maureenagena: I am because there exists a big gender digital divide in Uganda. More men use, access and dominate the ICT sector as opposed to their female counterparts who are equally mentally capable. I am passionate because I advocate for gender sensitive ICTS policies to encourage more girls and women into technology and retain those who are already in the professional but struggling.
@kofiemeritus: What is “text to change”, what societal problem is it solving and what is your position or responsibility in this organisation?
@maureenagena: Text to Change (TTC) is a mobile for development NGO that conceptualizes, manages and analyzes mobile phone-based programs. TTC developed a flexible and easily scalable mobile platform, with state-of-the-art tools and techniques, to send out and receive text messages, mms, voice and data. TTC uses mobile technology to send out and receive information to educate and empower people on wellbeing related issues like health, education, economic development and Accountability.
I joined Text To Change as a program Manger but was later made a communications manager and I am, in addition to managing projects, responsible for the communication platforms and need of the text to Change.
@kofiemeritus: You wrote an article titled “Mobile Phones to Expand Demand for and Use of ANC/PMTCT services in Rural areas in Uganda”. Tell us about the purpose behind this.
@maureenagena: This article was to raise awareness about the urgent need to reduce maternal mortality in Uganda. And to also highlight the fact that the MDG has to be achieved as soon as 2015. It was also showing the potential of using the mobile phone to enable access of relevant and timely information on pregnancy to the mothers who needed it. http://www.texttochange.org/blog/if-we-do-not-save-mothers-and-children-we-are-putting-future-generation-stake
@kofiemeritus: Why do you think women should be given equal access to ICT?
@maureenagena: They should, because the biggest percentage of those who bear the burden caused by any conflict and disaster are women and children. They are also the key stakeholders in promoting good health and building stable, self-reliant communities. Therefore limiting their use, access and application of ICTs slows down the development process of a country.
@kofiemeritus: In your own opinion, how can mobile technology bring about social change in Africa?
@maureenagena: Mobile phones are effective in reducing the “distance” between individuals and institutions therefore making sharing of information and knowledge easier and more effective. The benefits of mobile phones are amplified by the fact that the spread of mobile technology in some rural areas has occurred much faster than with other information & communication technologies (ICTs). Despite these benefits of the mobile phone, challenges like high costs of handsets, limited network coverage and limited usage capacity still exist. These challenges can be solved by the potential of new models of phones that combine text, audio and video to be used in a more systematic manner that enables sharing of user generated multimedia content.
@kofiemeritus: Who is your role model and why do you like that person?
@maureenagena: My role models are mothers of all nations who struggle tirelessly to raise children and leaders. I have no particular role model but I am working towards being a role model to many.
@kofiemeritus: What has been the most challenging thing in your life?
@maureenagena: Since I am still alive, I am yet to experience the MOST challenging thing. Nothing has been so challenging so far.
@kofiemeritus: What is your view on the African Educational system/structure?
@maureenagena: I can only speak in the context of Uganda and maybe compare it to Canada where I partly studied. Africa is so broad and my education in Uganda is not representative enough of the education systems in other 53 African countries. Generally, it is still wanting. A lot of things have to change in the curriculum as well as perceptions of teachers towards a number of issues have to change. We need more courses that are relevant to our situations and conditions. We need positive attitudes towards girls studying technology to have the increase and encouraged. We also need more study on Agriculture since any African countries depend on it for employment and sustainability
@kofiemeritus: What is your advice to young women in Africa?
@maureenagena: Young Women in Africa should believe in themselves and know that it’s only them who can shape their future and destiny. They should not be intimidated because of their Gender.
emeritusky 