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Mari Mora Trubenbach
1st Place Winner for
YOUR VOICE - YOUR CHOICE
Video Contest

2nd Place Winner

Sara Kitnick
Young Journalist

Founder, Tess Cacciatore, will be joining the youth next week to facilitate the 5 days of event to build a bridge between US and Ghana, as well as begin training for the mentorship of the young leaders.

The curriculum for the Young Leaders will surround the Millennium Development Goals and how to become an ACHIEVER!

Check out the video that was just sent in (July 30th, 2009) by three Young Leaders from the US to Ghana. Mari Mora (on the right) is our video contest winner for YOUR VOICE - YOUR CHOICE. (see her video below for her winning entry)

A time of this nature is what we are waiting and preparing to see. To challenge the youth and employ them with ways to developing this powerful world we called -the earth.

First of all, we need peace through which we can pave our ways through. We must first have one mind, one understanding, one feeling and one nature. If my children need a brighter future, so yours deserve too. Let us create the atmosphere for togetherness.

Secondly, we must stop all political fights and accept that we are preparing the earth not really for ourselves but for the future generation. If Ghana fights for peace, so is Africa fighting for peace and so is the world.

Moreover, with peace we can plant that tree on that land to serve as a carbon sinker and sequester, we can put up that library in that community to ease research and learning, we can build the economy, and we can combat deviant behaviors and have positive minded people. All the seven colors of the rainbow are found in the world and in each part of it. Even if you have not seen it before, you have read on it or have heard of it. Whether black, white, yellow, or red we are all on the planet earth and have to protect it.

Consequently, having heard that fire burns you don’t still have to put your hand into it to know how true it is. We must take the challenge for our voices to be heard now because they are our choices. Pollution is not good and we must fight it, illiteracy is not good and we must fight it, unstable economy is not good and we must fight it, war is not good and we must fight it. For those that stand for peace and security we support and believe we can have a peaceful world.

Furthermore, not until we combat racism we can’t find peace. We all breath the same air, have the same blood and we must stand for ourselves not one for one’s self but we all for one. So the adage goes cola nuts lasts in the mouth of those who value it; we must begin to value each other as well as the world-Earth. If I value you, am not going to hurt you, I will accept your view and we all reason together. We must focus on how the future generation may cope if we should make the earth a home for the “survival of the fittest.” It’s only those that have the ability to adjust or acclimatize who may survive; but this isn’t the kind of world we want to build. We need to build a NEW WORLD free from pollution, war, corruption, robbery,   ethnocentrism, and a world free from immature democracy.

In a nutshell, not until we use our knowledge positively in society we have not acquired it. We need to put our heads together and plan for sustainable and productive EARTH by protecting our environment, being ready to value other people and their culture and all of us standing for one. For we stand for peace and once more I challenge every young leader  to take action from his home and reaching the world at large. We shall build this new world with one spirit and one mind.

Thank you very much and God bless you all.          

BY COLLINS GAMELI HODOLI

Collingee88@yahoo.com

+233264762998

ESSAY WRITTEN BY PRINCE KWESI OTABIL, A STUDENT OF KNUST, FOR THE WORLD TRUST FOUNDATION’S ESSAY COMPETITIONORGNANIZED FOR YOUNG LEADERS

         TOPIC: LET US SEQUESTER CARBON DIOXIDE

 No wonder that contemporary studies put the carbon dioxide content in fresh air between 0.036% and 0.039% depending on the location. This rate of increase has been quite speedy due to increased human activities with the environment in relation to the continuous inclining of global population. Accordingly, clearing the vegetative cover for farming, industrial and infrastructural purposes has seen an unprecedented upward shift. Combustion of wood and fossil fuels as well as industrial processes, and other controllable and uncontrollable factors have also contributed to this plaque woefully. With all considerations to the adverse effect of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it becomes imperative that if nothing is done, life will be brought to extinction in times to come.

 This situation is even being worsened to a further degree by the continual destruction of the vegetative cover of the environment by some ignorant and unscrupulous individuals. Lamentably, many people indiscriminately cut down trees for construction and other purposes without being aware of the lasting effects of their acts. Others, prevalently in Africa, set fires into bushes to enable them catch game.  This bush fire kills the microbes in the soil that make use of organic carbon for their activities. It is thus interesting to note that this barbaric practice usually happens in countries with less education on environmental issues and weak environmental protection laws. This indeed, calls for a well structured global orientation to augment other effective measures like trees planting, which has taken off in some parts of the world, and substituting fossil fuels with bio fuels.   

The effects of abnormal concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are manifold. In the case of destructed vegetative cover, there is a resultant decrease in carbon dioxide absorption by plants, contributing to increased atmospheric heat. This global warming causes ice blocks from the poles to melt, thus escalating storms, and other weather disasters. Also, dry places become drier and vice versa

According to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, "Prolonged exposure to moderate concentrations can cause acidosis and adverse effects on calcium phosphorus metabolism, resulting in increased calcium deposits in soft tissues. Carbon dioxide is toxic to the heart and causes diminished contractile force. At concentrations of three per cent by volume in air, it is mildly narcotic and causes increased blood pressure and pulse rate, and causes reduced hearing. At concentrations of about five per cent by volume it causes stimulation of the respiratory centre, dizziness, confusion and difficulty in breathing accompanied by headache and shortness of breath. At about eight per cent concentration it causes headache, sweating, dim vision, tremor and loss of consciousness after exposure for between five and ten minutes."

Responsively to the above  menace of carbon dioxide, the challenge now becomes rescuing the world from this deleterious effect of carbon dioxide through corrective  measures that will not only focus on controlling carbon dioxide but will also adequately educate the public on the menace of their acts on the environment. In the pursuance of this astute move, equipping responsible youth and assigning them to challenging tasks in their respective communities would be very useful.

Amongst such measures that we cannot do without in the eradication of carbon dioxide is a broad spectrum trees planting. Honestly, trees are noted for their ability of converting carbon dioxide to oxygen through biochemical processes like photosynthesis, in addition to neutralizing the microclimate as well as their economic and social value. Thus planting trees will not only help to sequester carbon dioxide, but will also improve the economic and social life of the beneficial communities considerably by providing income for people, especially the marginalized and the deprived in the labor force. Trees will also serve as wind breaks and anchor buildings and other important assets that are liable to wind destruction.

Another equally effective measure in combating carbon dioxide is the use of bio fuel as an alternative source of energy. It is an irrefutable fact that fossil fuels are spelling a doom for the world through their enormous contributions to the plaque under discussion. It is my firm belief that if bio fuel is resorted to, and this venture is painstakingly explored, we shall live devoid of any threat of carbon dioxide doom.

To buttress the above actions, adequate education on environmental issues should be embarked on to help bring the memories of ignorant people appall with the elite positive thinkers. This target of sequestering carbon dioxide through the mapped out strategies above will indeed be meaningless if inhabitants and users of the environment continually dwell in their negative practices. It is in the light of this that people must be duly enlightened in order to complement the carbon dioxide control efforts.     

If controlling carbon dioxide will save lives; if saving lives will ensure continuity; why not do it to make the world a lively place? If doing this will cost us only money, and not lives, why not commit our economic resources towards this good course? We can indeed rescue our environment and lives through collective efforts. Yes we can!

A PROPOSAL FOR TREES PLANTING PROJECT TO TAKE PLACE AT TWIFO HEMANG

I hereby present this proposal as required of me for the young leaders writing contest. This is to reiterate my outcry for environmental safety in my essay, and to pinpoint the process of realizing such strategies in a more quantitative and descriptive manner. The proposal describes what problems the project addresses and outlines the duration of project and the tentative resources required to successfully execute the project.

                                        BACKGROUND

The global climatic trends continually change for the worse. The atmospheric temperature is unprecedentedly becoming hotter, making man’s existence very unlovely. Many dwellers of the earth continue to live in fear and terror as a result of the high rate of increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere with its associated negative effects. This increment resulting mostly from the destruction of the vegetative cover thus causing a reduced conversion of carbon dioxide into oxygen by plant, and other industrial processes will persistently torment people if nothing is done about it to remedy the situation. 

                                    PROPOSED ACTION

It is in the light of the above consequences that I propose a trees planting project to commence in Twifo Hemang in the Central Region of Ghana. This project, if successfully executed, is hoped to achieve the following:

üThe trees will sequester carbon dioxide through biochemical processes like photosynthesis.

üThe trees will regulate the rainfall pattern, and also help to neutralize the microclimate for man and animals, thus ensuring a safe biodiversity.

üThis project will provide employment for those who will be engaged in various operations, so help in raising the economic and social status of those people.

üThe trees will anchor buildings and properties against strong winds.

üThey will help to control erosion and other forms of land degradation by preventing the direct impact of rain splash on the land, and by binding the soil with their tap roots.

üTrees also have aesthetic values which help people to relieve boredom.

üThe beautification of the environment will also be duly enhanced.

üTrees that bear edible fruits will provide delicacy to many people.

üAlso, trees that will be planted along roads will help to prevent accident.

With all the above benefits and other added values of trees, I deem it very necessary to start projects like this in many parts of the world.                                                                                   

                                FEASIBILITY

I do not hesitate to say that the success of the project is very much assured.

        LIKELY SOURCES OF PLANTING MATERIALS

üThe Ministry of Pots and Gardens.

üRenowned agricultural establishments.

üCertified seed growers

üThe Ministry of Food and Agricultur

            THE TENTATIVE PROJECT SCHEDULE

 The seedlings, upon successful establishment at the nursery, are expected to spend about six to eight months before transplanting in which case they will continue to demand intensive care. Post-planting activities will also have to done until the trees are capable of independent existence.

ESTIMATED BUDGET FOR THE TREES PLANTING PROJECT

May I sincerely add that this amount proposed is subject to biases and the actual amount needed may be more than the estimated  amount. Also the remuneration for workers for the proceeding months has not been added. In addition, other costs may be incurred outside these projected expenses. In view of this, I propose GH¢60000 to be given for a smooth start and running of the project.

Kindly count on my cooperation, openness and diligence, even us we prepare to start the carbon dioxide sequestration process.

Thank you.

 Att:

Added to this proposal is the CV of the proposer. Kindly find it below

CURRICULUM VITAE OF PRINCE KWESI OTABIL, A STUDENT OF KWAME NKRUMAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, KUMASI

C/o Mr. Dominic Adofo Mensah Ampofo

                                                                        Twifo Praso Senior High School

                                                                       Post Office Box 82

                                                                          Twifo Praso

Mobile: 0246868586

                                                                                        E-mail: prprpkotabil@yahoo.com

Date of birth: 20^th July, 1986                                       Place of birth: Bukuruso

District: Twifo Hemang Lower Denkyira District      Region: Central Region

Nationality   : Ghanaian               Current Residence: Twifo Hemang-Bukuruso

Home Town: Gomoa Afransi              District: Gomoa East District  

Region: Central Region  

Name of  father:     Kojo Mohammed Otabil (Deceased)

Occupation:            Farming

Name of mother: Efua Harrigyah

Occupation:          Farming

Address:                P. O. Box 15, Hemang-Bukuruso, Central Region 

Objective:  To transmit any impulse of thought into wealth creation in any                            dynamic environment that embraces innovation, through consultative decision making and to improve efficiency as more experience is being gained.

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

1 Institution:                    Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

   Programme of Study: Bsc.Agriculture               Year: 2006-Date

2 Institution:                  Twifo Praso Secondary School

    Programme of Study: Agricultural Science              Year: 2002-2005

WORK EXPERIENCE

Institution:  Obiri International school

Task:              Mathematics and Science Teacher

Address:       P.O. Box 19, Hemang- Bukuruso

Mobile:        0244451848

Hobbies:  Reading and Writing ( currently have eighty-five (85) pieces of poems                                                                    pending publication

Computer literacy: Word, Excel, Internet, Power point

AWARDS/ CERTIFICATES

1.     Most prolific writer, GAAS KNUST (2008/2009 academic year)

2.     The most active local SRC President (Central Regional SRC 2005)

3.     Best candidate of Twifo Praso Secondary School (SSSCE 2005)

4.     Best candidate of Bukuruso D/C J.S.S (BECE 2002)

5.     Second position (Science, Technology and Mathematics Education quiz 2003- Twifo Praso District)

POSITIONS HELD

1.     Editorial and Literature Committee member (currently), PENSA- KNUST.

2.     Project Committee member, GAAS-KNUST. (2006-2007)

3.     Editorial Committee member, GAAS-KNUST.

4.     Group Secretary, PENSA-KNUST Village Crusade 2008 (Sumdadeaso centre)

5.     Head Prefect of Twifo Praso Secondary School (2004/2005 academic year)

6.     SRC President of Twifo Praso Secondary School (2004/2005 academic year)

7.     Pioneer member and Chairman of NCCE Club (TWIPASS branch)

8.     Assistant Organizer of the Pentecost Students and Associates, TWIPASS branch (2004-2005)

9.     A pioneer member of the Creative Writers and Drama Club (Twifo Praso Secondary School)

10.                         A member of the district stakeholders who drew the District’s Strategic Plan for HIV- Twifo Hemang Lower Denkyira District (2005)

11.                         Dinning Hall Overseer (Science, Technology and Mathematics Education 2003- Twifo Praso District)

12.                         Assistant School Prefect of Bukuruso D/C J.S.S (2001/2002 academic year)

13.                         Senior School Prefect of Bukuruso D/C Primary (1998/1999 academic year)

OTHER SKILLS

1.     Foresight and ability to take the initiative to accomplish necessary tasks.

2.     Good interpersonal relationship and ability to interact with highly ranked officials when necessary.

3.      A reconciliatory vessel with good leadership skills

4.      Ability to adapt to quickly changing direction and priorities.

5.      Results oriented with ability to complete tasks in a timely manner.

6.     Well developed analytical problem solving skills.

7.     Ability to work efficiently with less or no supervision.

8.     Ability to think creatively.

9.     A team player and ability to work under pressure.

10.                        Outstanding communication skills.

REFEREES

1.     Mr. Ebenezer Baah Boateng

Assistant Registrar

Faculty of Agriculture, KNUST

Mobil: 0243310589

2.     Mr. Herbert Kwesi Kruffe Graham

Headmaster of Adisadel College

 Cape Coast

Mobile: 0243425098 or 0208158302

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.       STATEMENT OF PROBLEM…………………………………………………………………………………………..2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.      STATEMENT OF PROBLEM………………………………………………………………………………….1A

UGUSTINA DEDE AGOR tinbideee@yahoo.co.uk

2.       CAPABILITY STATEMENT………………………………………………………………………………………….2, 3

3.       LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………………………………………………………………………………4, 5

4.       GOALS AND OBJECTIVES………………………………………………………………………………………………5, 6

5.       PREOCESSES/METHODOLOGY………………………………………………………………………………………6, 7

6.       ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE………………………………………………………………………………………...7

7.       STAFFING……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………7, 8

8.       EVALUATION AND DOCUMENTATION……………………………………………………………………………..8

9.       SUSTAINABILITY…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………9

10.  BUDGET…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………9, 10

11.   BIOGRAPHY/ REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………………………………..10

12.  APPENDIX……………………………………………………………………………………………………………11, 12

AN ICT AND RESEARCH CENTRE FOR NSAWAM COMMUNITY

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The rapid influx of technology into our daily lives and the internationalization of the economic market place have raised the demand for a literate citizenry to the highest levels ever. Information technology has become a necessity and the economy is more of knowledge driven. Education, research and economic development in most developed countries like US, Germany, Japan are promoted through Information Technology. In Africa particularly Ghana, the case is different despite all the efforts made by the government, institutions, NGO’s and telecommunication agencies, we are far behind.

Contemporarily, IT is a social practice, a social currency and as such a key to social mobility; the operative force that causes certain groups to be marginalized in society, to be regarded as inferior, and to experience unequal and limited access to resources. Media and technology which is now the conduit of communication between cultures would bring youth together. Access to information technology would empower the youth across all cultures to unite to improve upon their lives through email, chats, researching, messaging and so on. Racial discrimination is on the upsurge and would also be minimized with the involvement of all youth across the world.

The youth lack necessary information to bridge the gap between the lecture theater and the Job market.  They would therefore undergo incubation, online training and mentorship programs to become good entrepreneurs who would contribute their quota to economic development.

Today’s workplace requires practical skills in the latest Information and communication Technologies (ICT). The digital divide of Ghana can be improved through this project. The centre would provide training and certificates to staff of various organizations and other individuals. 

CAPABILITY STATEMENT                                              

I share similar dreams with Young Leaders Network and World Trust Foundation, I have undertaken projects: all geared towards empowering the youth with tools in leadership and development. This is manifested in my role as Assistant Project Manager for the implementation of a College portal, internet service (wireless and MAN) and a research Centre for the Ho Polytechnic Community in Ghana. I contributed colossally in all the phases of the project from conception, installation and networking of Thin Clients to implementation of the portal. During the project, I contributed to empowering the students in most areas of IT and empowered the students to love internet and research. Through the college portal, the centre was able to bring the polytechnic community together. The polytechnic further could collaborate with youth all over the world through the internet.

I saw the advert about Young Leaders network video and essay contest on the internet. With support from the country director, I was able to publicize the competition to the majority of the students. I assisted the interested students to register online at the Centre, getting them the essay instructions and providing counseling services when the need arises. My readiness to support them all the way through the competition caused a lot to sign up for the contest. Now, about eight out of every ten students know of the World Trust Foundation, Young Leaders Network and the College Portal.

My capabilities are also manifested in my role as an executive/shareholder of DevineChain Inc, Young Critics of Society (YCS), Foundation for Future Leaders International (FFLI), ICL Computer Services, Gforce Microsystems and a coordinator for entrepreneurial presentations at KNUST. As a computer Scientist, I undertook a Project in e-commerce and contrived a DBMS Software for Junior and Senior secondary schools in Ghana.

Most of my time is used to empower the youth to realize their dreams, to have a voice to talk, share ideas and give constructive criticisms about our society; what affect our future both directly and indirectly. I hope to promote humanity and be Africa’s Women Education and Culture Relations’ Activist with my excellent networking skills, able to coordinate, execute, and support core values of corporate goals and objectives in any administrative, finance, or operations function. I would like to further the course of humanity and youth empowerment by establishing an ICT Centre for the Nsawam Community whose population is about (3) three thousand. I have lived at Nsawam for long, and very familiar with the people who will need the centre. I also grew up in three of its nearby villages; Kyekyewere, Teachermante and Okanta. The challenges and experiences I faced growing up from these villages have empowered me to dare to show love for humanity by supporting them with the little knowledge I have. These villages lack electricity, pipe born water and have poor educational infrastructure. As such, one could imagine these communities’ level of illiteracy and poverty. If the Centre becomes a success these villages near Nsawam would benefit tremendously from it.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Over the years several initiatives have been made by the government of Ghana and other agencies to develop the ICT- infrastructure so as to build the digital divide between Ghana and the developed world. Prominent among these is the development of the national fiber optic network (VOLTACOM) by nation’s electricity providers. There have been internet service providers (ISP’s) and Telecommunication companies, such as the Ghana Telecom, MTN, Kasapa, Tigo and Mobotel, whose activities cover the whole country. In addition the government of Ghana and other agencies including the Abdus

 Salam International Centre for theoretical Physics (ICTP) has trained over a thousand professionals in ICT and related activities in the country. Despite these massive investments in ICT infrastructure and ICT-capacity building, Ghana still to a large extent is digitally isolated from the Global village because it lacks socio-economic development. A motivational remark by one of the illustrious sons of Africa summarizes the need for ICT as a facilitator for socio-economic development and a bridge to the digital divide.

Educational Institutions including University of Cape coast, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), University of Ghana (Legon) and University of Development Studies (UDS) have benefited from broadband internet service. Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT runs courses which include programming, web design, Linux administration and DBMS.

Winneba Open Digital Village (WODIV) launched the establishment of a Telecentre, Wireless Network and Web Portal as part of The One Village Foundation project, in Ghana.

Quite recently, SW Global contracted with government to provide infrastructure and IT services for the Polytechnic institutions in Ghana to promote electronic education. For example, the Ho Polytechnic Project included the provision of wireless and a municipal area network (MAN), a college portal, a research centre, and other Infrastructure services. Money is generated from the user communities to pay for the services.

Upon interrogating with the people of Nsawam about the dreams they had for the future, how they might create a shared vision of the future with others, and what they might need to move from their shared vision to the future they desired. Many inputted on networked computers with internet within the first forty five (45) minutes.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

1.      Collaboration among the youth all over the world :

a.      Through platforms such as Young Leaders Network, Earth Heroes and World Trust Foundation.

b.      Emailing, chatting, voice mail, teleconferencing.

2.      Empower the youth and organizations on ICT through courses such as:

a.       Programming, Project management, DBMS and networking.

b.      Management information systems and Hard ware.

c.       Promoting Research

3.      Schools to have various learning resources such as:

a.      Online library

b.      Use of search engines

c.       College portal

d.      Microsoft office suit.

e.      Online Public access catalogue(OPAC)

f.        Journals and online news letters.

4.      Tool  for Youth to have access to employment:

a.      Online training and Mentorship Programs

b.      Certification, Diploma and Degrees

c.       Distance learning programs

d.      And Leadership Programs.

5.      Bridge the digital divide between Ghana and the developed countries:

a.      Provide staff training programs

b.      Provide IT and infrastructure services

c.       Provide a wireless and LAN services to the Nsawam community

d.      IT Consultancy services

e.      Train Senior high school leavers based on industry requirements.

6.      Generating funds for development

a.      Obtain funds through the use of ICT centre.

b.      User Communities pay fees for the various training programs.

c.       Funds could be generated from the wireless usage.

7.        Providing humanity services to deprived villages:

a.      Providing food, water, electricity and schools infrastructure.

b.      Supporting farmers with capital.

PROCESSES/ METHODOLOGY

The following will be performed within the first seven months:

1.      Register the business and make the necessary legal processes

2.      Set up interest groups, stake holders and team of employees

3.      Seek accreditation for certification, diploma and professional programs in IT

4.      Lease a structure at Nsawam.

5.      Contract with a developer for networking, hardware and internet services.

6.      Host a community portal software on the internet

7.      Contract with schools to render IT training to students

8.      Contract with businesses for on the job training for staff

9.      Introduce Scholarship programs to help poor and needy students

10.  Start per second billing on internet usage.

11.  Link students to various industries for mentorship and jobs.

12.  Conducting of regular / annual formative evaluation

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

MANAGEMENT: CEO, General Manager, HR, Accountant, Operations Manager,            Systems administrator.

    MIDDLE LEVEL MANAGENT: Project managers, Network Administrators, web manager.

    LOWER LEVEL MANAGEMENT: Support Staff, Cleaners and Security.

STAFFING:

The team will comprise of a web boss, two (2) project managers, five (5) assistant project      managers, two (2) network administrators, two (2) support staff, two security men and two (2) cleaners who will be based at the centre.

    ACCOUNTANT:

·         Monitor financial issues pertaining to staff, customers and the whole organization.

·         Prepare annual financial statements of the organization.

   HUMAN RESOURCE:

·         See to the welfare needs of staff and the entire organization.

   GENERAL MANAGER:

·         Manage the entire project.

    SYSTEMS ADMINISRATOR:

·         Monitor the entire system.

     OPERATIONS MANAGER:

·         Coordination between the operations department and management.

WEB MASTER:

·         Keep the community portal updated from time to time.

   PROJECT MANAGERS/ASSISTANT PROJECT MANAGERS:

·         Manage community portal

·         Data entry and validation on the portal

·         Train staffs of various organizations

·         Teach diploma and certificate courses

·          Manage the day -to -day activities of the research centre.

   NETWORK ADMINISTRATORS

·         Monitor and ensure continuous supply of internet service to the centre and other areas specified.

·         Manage the research Centre

·         Teach some diploma and certificate courses.

·         Handle hardware problems pertaining to the research centre.

SUPPORT STAFF

·         Create Internet and portal accounts to clients.

·         Check customers ID cards before entry into the centre.

·         Monitor per second billing on internet usage in/out of the centre.

·         Provide printing, photocopying and scanning services to customers.

EVALUATION AND DOCUMENTATION

The performance of the project would depend on the following factors:

·         The usability of the community portal

·         The number of accounts created for the portal and internet usage

·         Performance of staff  who receive on the job training

·         Examination results of trainees and students

·         Profits made from our services

·         A questionnaire assessment of the system.

SUSTAINABILITY

·         Part of the funds generated from the internet usage and training programs would be used to sustain the project.

·         Funds generated for humanity services would be used to for reinvestment, particularly, in farming.

·         Part would also be used to buy shares.

BUDGET

a.       WORK SPACE:

Dimension of the ICT centre would be 20 feet* 20 feet with five office spaces.

COST OF RENT- $100 per a month. A year advance: $1200

b.      A hundred set of customized Thin Clients computers from Wyse. Website: www.wyse.com.

With centralized thin client management that is scalable and flexible, Installed operating systems and software programs- 

 MODEL:                Wyse 510 thin Client.      PRICE PER UNIT - £225.38.

SHIPPING COST:  £500 DURATION- TWO MONTHS. 

c.       A hundred power unit cables:

COST- $100

d.      A hundred Computer desks and chairs from Omanmark Company Ltd. at Nsawam in eastern region of Ghana.

 Price per unit desk (tables and chairs) - $15.00 DURATION- one month

e.       Five Air Conditions:MODEL: LG 220 * 220 13k. Per unit Price- $500

DURATION- One month,        INSTALLATION OF AIR-CONDITIONS- $ 50 per unit.

f.       INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER: SAT Consult would be contracted for a dedicated one megabyte transmission, Installation and positioning of the satellite dish to receive and transmit signals.

PRICE: $500 every month.

NETWORK MATERIALS FOR THE CENTRE

a.       TRUNKS

b.      SWITCH

c.       SERVER COMPUTER

d.      RADIO DEVICE

e.       RG-45 JACKS

f.       3 AND 5 METRE CABLES

g.      TOOLS SET

h.      POWER SOCKETS

i.        MAIN POWER SWITCH

j.        MODEM

k.      EXTENSION BOARDS

TOTAL COSTS: $500

DESIGN AND HOSTING OF COMMUNITY PORTAL

DESIGN COST: $1000

HOSTING:         $150 PER PAGE

DURATION:     ONE MONTH

COST OF ACCREDITATION

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology- $8000.00

OFFICE FURNITURE

a.       10 OFFICE TABLES AND CHAIRS- $500 PER SET.

b.      FIVE DESK TOP COMPUTERS- $200 PER UNIT PRICE

TOTAL SALARY PER MONTH:  $3000

TOTAL INITIAL BUDJET:           $300,000

FUND EXPECTED:                        

It would be appreciated a lot if an amount of $200,000 would be funded to support the first phase of the project.

BIOGRAPHY/ REFERENCES:

a.      India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence books, www.aiti-kace.com.gh

b.      Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology books

c.       www.swglobal.com, www.satconsult, www.wyse.com

APPENDIX                  RESUME OF THE DIRECTOR

AUGUSTINA DEDE AGOR EMAIL: tinbideee@yahoo.co.uk,   TEL: +233 0243458701

CAREER OBJECTIVE:

A dynamic team player who yearns to developing human capacity, promoting socio-cultural integration worldwide, made possible by challenging and opportunistic projects for economic development.

EDUCATION:

2004- 2008 Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana.

§  Bsc. Computer Science (Second Class upper division).

2001- 2003 Krobo Girls’ Secondary School, Ghana.

§  Senior Secondary Certificate Examination-General Science (grade 11).

PERSONAL AND CORPORATE COMPETENCIES:

§  Excellent communication and outdoing skills: a true epitome of a first rate team player.

§  Disciplined, initiative, and a reasonable core risk taker who is consistently self motivated.

§  Outstanding learner; detailed oriented, multicultural, time and workload management.

§  High sense of direction and flexibility that makes me proactive and adaptive to change.

§  Competent in database design, hardware, website design, and computer programming.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS:

§  Introduced over a hundred students of Ho polytechnic to sign up for the Young Leaders Network contest.

§  Board member of DevineChain INC. of which I corroborated colossally to the over 700 participants of the KNUST, EXIT STRATEGY SUMMIT 2008.

§  An associate organizer: the transport team for Foundation for Future Leaders Int. (FFLI).

§  Result- oriented FFLI summit coordinator: EAGLETS CAMP, on Entrepreneurship.

§  Best Organizer Award Winner: GHANA@50 SECRETARIAT- International conference.

§  Spearheaded an accolade deserving presentation on LEADERSHIP VRS. MANAGEMENT.

§  Miss Intellectual KNUST 2005; portrayed utmost African culture through drumming.

§  Project core who engineered impressive DBMS software for junior senior level schools.

§  Member of Krobo Girls’ Math’s Quiz team who championed in competitions.

WORK EXPERIENCE

2008- 2009    SW GLOBAL GH. LTD. (ASSISTANT PROJECT MANAGER)

§  Contributed tremendously in the implementation of a college portal, internet and an ICT Centre project for Ho Polytechnic.

§  Contributed to empowering the youth to have a voice and collaborate among themselves.

2008             DELVIEW INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES

§  Adopted an aggressive strategy for which enrollment increased by 20%.

§  Recruited competent team to sell products accredited by London Centre of Marketing.

2007           INSTITUTE OF STATISTICAL SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC RESEARCH- ISSER

§  Assistant to data entry personnel.

§  Data entry and validation before dispatching to appropriate units for statistical analysis.

2006           GHANA@50 SECRETARAIT (COORDINATORS PERSONAL ASSISTANT)

§  Protocol services: international conference-registration, calling for papers and publicity.

§  Management of conference website, properties and a coordinator for secretariat.

2006    DEAN OF STUDENTS OFFICE (ATTACHMENT, KNUST COUNSELING UNIT)

§  Assistant to the counselor for career, academic, psychology and relationship issues.

HOBBIES:

§  Organizing constructive discussions as a leader of Young Critics of Society (YCS) and leading aerobics for physical and mental fitness.

REFERENCES:

EMAIL:               tinbideee@yahoo.co.uk

NUMBER:          (+233) 0243458701

BIRTH DATE: 12^TH AUGUST, 1986.

ADDRESS:         BOX 2021, ACCRA.

COUNTRY:       GHANA

TOPIC:               LITERACY      

                                     LET’S EXALT AN ABSOLUTE LITERACY!!

hought you were literate enough? How skillful are you in Finance, Health, Media and Visual Literacy? Imagine you are brought up in the 21^st century, at a village that cannot boast of any form of electric power generation, portable water, educational infrastructure and/or teachers who would shape the minds of our future generation. How can literacy be attained, when a child walks 2 miles to fetch water in the mornings, 3 miles to school and feed once daily? Well, my upbringing in a deprived village called Teachermante in the Eastern Region of Ghana has equipped me with adequate knowledge, experience and love for humanity to discuss these sensitive questions.

There are however, a couple of issues for thought processing. Has the promise of literacy been fulfilled? Does one’s literacy level determine one’s earning power? The new concept of global village, the speed of information dissemination and current dynamics of human development has, seemingly, introduced a new frontier towards Literacy. This has promised a new mentality, social definition, and new economic capacities. At the collective level, literacy has promised modernization of institutions, democratization of political systems, and cultural renewal of societies.

Consider this scenario; at school, a student performs poorly in an examination, and he/she is sentenced to perform a free service of hard labor on a large tract of farm land for intellectual constipation. The pupil in his formative age is taught to believe that farming, perhaps, must belong to intellectually weak souls. Thus, from the onset, students learn to hate farming because; it’s for the weak in mind, it’s assigned as punishment to those with shady characters, it’s for the undesirables because it’s difficult to accomplish the fete, especially, without appropriate tools for the task. It is against this background that young people develop such strong negative perception toward farming. How then would a new paradigm shift be able to reverse the trend of literacy toward a safe and prosperous society?

The conventional or traditional definition of literacy is the ability to use language to express our thoughts and emotions through reading, writing, listening, speaking and the use of numerals, to handle information toward problem solving, expression of ideas, opinions and decision making processes.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) drafted the following definition: ‘Literacy’ is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Forms of literacy include basic print literacy (ability to read, write, and understand written language that is familiar and for which one has the requisite amount of background knowledge) and text /reading literacy (related to characteristics of the text being read such as complexity and format).Computers, internet and other media has become empirical to promoting literacy.

Is literacy same as education? The process of policy formulation, policy analysis and policy assessments are essentially social requirements and thus a search for ‘proof’ of the effects of literacy could be misleading and naïve, to say the least. Instead, what we need is a reasonable position on literacy promotion that is compelling for action. While the skeptics continue to draw different conclusions from the same research experiences, a consensus is emerging that the question of ‘why literacy?’ should now be laid to rest. The question to ask now should be: ‘How literacy?’ With regards to the question of ‘how literacy?’ there are two (2) basic positions: should literacy be taught within a specific small-frame of the selective and intensive approach, with the provision of basic needs? Or, should literacy be taught within a large frame of literacy as a ‘potential’ added, on a mass-scale and with political orientation?

If Illiteracy could be solved through education, then our educational system must be in line with our socio-economic agenda, taking into consideration our peculiar needs. Research shows that literacy rates play a crucial measure of a country’s human capital. The human capital of Ghana is wasting, the future generation is lazy. For example, senior level graduates could be employed to produce crops on large scale while they await results. Literacy in the right direction is central to helping people obtain and retain employment, which is the key to moving from dependency toward greater self-sufficiency. Ghana imports several millions of dollars of rice, poultry and fish from abroad while the youth remain unemployed. But, is it sufficient to suggest that some of the unemployed are simply unemployable due to insufficient training? Literacy is a social practice and currency and as such a key to mobility; the operative force that causes certain groups of people to be marginalized in society, to be regarded as inferior, and to experience unequal and limited access to resources.

“The room for Improvement is never full” Says Paddy Brew. Is everyone able to read their medication labels? Are the taxi drivers literate enough to avoid road accidents? The population must be educated on social responsibilities. In finance, 80% of Asians are concerned about their finances and over half ‘don’t know much’ about money management. The naiveté and inexperience of many customers heightens their vulnerability to scams, overspending, and mismanagement of debt.

In conclusion, Hosea 4:6(NIV); “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge” education is expensive, more so when you settle for quality education. If you think education is costly, try ignorance and you will not need anyone to tell you which is cheaper. If the purpose of literacy education is to eliminate poverty, then literacy programs and practices must be redesigned to fit various conceptions of poverty and its causes.  With a little bit of humanity and love for mankind, donating and contributing to the less deprived communities, literacy promotion will yield to success. Problem is solution and our universe operates according to the law of opposites. Nothing can stop you and me from turning illiteracy to literacy and impossibility to possibility. An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

TELEPHONE:                   024 4811904 / 026 7807081

EMAIL:                              flexykel@yahoo.com

CONTACT ADDRESS:    ANWANSAH PALACE, POST OFFICE BOX            

                                             OT30, OLD TAFO-AKIM, EASTERN REGION,

                                             GHANA, W/A.                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

DATE OF BIRTH:            27^th OCTOBER 1986.

Literacy, as defined by Encarta (Microsoft® edition 2008) is the ability to read and write at a designated level of proficiency. From this definition, one can infer that at a specific level, an individual, based on the demands of that level can be considered as a literate. For example, in a community where a child by age six is expected to be able to recite the alphabets, any child of six years who is able to do this is a literate. That is his or her level of proficiency.

Wikipedia, the free Encyclopaedia adds the ability to use language to read, write, listen and speak. According to the National Adult Literacy Survey, literacy is the ability to use printed and written information to function in society. From the perspective of modern contexts, literacy is about reading and writing at a level that enables one to understand and communicate ideas in a society, so as to take part in that society.

As literacy is explained in several contexts, it becomes necessary for one to try to understand literacy from more than one perspective. The definition of The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) cannot be overlooked. It defines literacy as the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. In my view, literacy is not just about reading, writing, or arithmetic. Rather, it is more about been able to decipher and use whatever information you have at hand correctly. When one cannot apply what he or she reads, that is not literacy.

Literacy as ability is not inborn. When individuals are able to read or are so intelligent, others begin to conclude that it is inherent in their personality. However, although intelligence could be traced to the family lineage, literacy is learned. In addition, people get confused with the notion that one can only learn to read and write in the classroom. Although literacy and educational level are closely related, an individual who has never been to school but stayed at home, learnt to read and write from a helper and can understand what is written and apply that, passes as a literate. It must be noted however, that literacy is ideological, and it exists in a context in conjunction with the values associated with that context.

From the above definitions and explanations, it can be realized that literacy cuts across many fields. However, literacy can be classified under two main categories; basic literacy and functional literacy. Basic literacy encompasses the traditional definition of literacy, which is having the skill of reading and writing. Developed countries are advantaged to have higher levels of basic literacy as compared to developing countries. In the United Stated of America for instance, approximately 98% of adults can read and write on at least a minimal level, with nearly all persons beyond age seventeen having basic literacy (“Literacy”, Microsoft® student 2008).

Functional literacy, on the other hand, is the ability to read, write, and calculate figures and carry out functions considered in society as those needed to function properly in that society. An example is reading of newspapers. In some Ghanaian communities, like Tontro, a village in the Eastern part of Ghana, an individual who can read the newspapers and listen to news in English is a literate. This is what functional literacy is about. Other types of functional literacy include financial literacy, computer literacy and many more. All these type of literacy are based on been able to learn certain skills related to the particular field. For instance, an individual who can balance the check book, and perform other financial functions passes for a financial literate.

Literacy offers society several benefits, hence the need to invest in it. Economically, literacy rates are considered as a crucial measure of a country’s human capital. This is because literates can be trained less expensively than illiterates. Aside that, literates have a higher socio economic status, and enjoy better health and employment prospects. From Wikipedia, female and child mortality rates declined drastically in the1960’s, in Kerala, India when girls who were schooled according to the education reforms after 1948, began to raise families. Literacy also increases job opportunities. Majority of those unemployed are illiterates.

Despite these benefits that literacy offer, most countries in the world wallow in illiteracy. According to UNESCO, in 1995 literacy rates increased from about 60%of the world population /basic reading and writing skills.

In Sub- Saharan Africa, and Middle East, literacy rates are very low. In 1995, UNESCO established that literacy rates averaged below 60%. Since conditions like poverty and underdevelopment are accompanied by illiteracy, regions with these conditions experience lower literacy rates. In Angola, once a war prone zone, 41.7% of the total population was literate in 1990 as against those of developed areas like Lithuania (2005), 99.6%, United Kingdom (1995), 99% and the United States (1995), 99.6%.

In Ghana, 84.3% of males as against 69.8% of females were literates in 2005. Out of the total population, 76.9%were literates. In Ghana, between 2002 and 2003, 79%of primary school-aged children were in school. At the secondary level, the attendance was 29% and it decreased to 3% at the university level. The adult literacy rate was 76.9%.

These low literacy rates in developing countries need serious attention. If this situation is not revised, these countries will continue to wallow in abject poverty with death rates increasing and might be faced out from world recognition.

In conclusion, I advise countries with very low literacy rates to emulate Ghana’s policy of Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education to ensure at least basic literacy for all. In addition, I appeal to developed countries to help such regions by embarking on educational campaigns and projects like building libraries in these regions. With this, the world would be a healthy and better place for all with new discoveries every now and then.

PROPOSAL

PROPOSAL FOR THE BUILDING OF A LIBRARY FOR AKIM-TAFO COMMUNITY

PROJECT OVERVIEW:

A community based library will be built in Old Tafo-Akim, a town in the Eastern Region of Ghana. The library will focus on providing reading materials for the children and community as a whole. In addition, the library will be a source of information for the community. For the computer illiterates, the library will be a learning centre to learn basic computer skills like booting the computer and using application programs like Word. It will also seek to equip at least all pupils at the basic level with basic computer knowledge.

The library will utilize volunteers who are students in the community to help the little ones to read. Mostly, when the pupils complete their basic education, they become idle for at least 4 months. Those who complete their secondary school education idle around for a whole year before entering the next stage of their education. The library will be open to voluntary service from these grandaunts. Certificates will be awarded to those who offer their service, as a form of encouragement. This will motivate the youth to offer voluntary services as a way of contributing their quota to the development of their community.

The library will however operate with a full librarian and a technical assistant.

a)      Periodic evaluations will be conducted to assess the value of the library on:

b)      Helping the townsfolk become literates.

c)      Increasing the literacy level of the community.

d)     Reducing menaces on the part of the youth as a result of the youth idling around.

e)      Development level in Akim-Tafo.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Statistics have proven that literacy rates in sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and Southern Asia are very low (“literacy” Encarta, Microsoft® student edition 2008). In 2005, UNESCO statistics revealed that 76.9% of the total population of Ghanaians is literate. Out of this, 84.3% were males and 69.8% were females. From the same source, 79% of primary school-aged children were in school between 2002 and 2003. At the secondary level, attendance was 29% with a drastic decrease to 3% at the university level between the same periods.

A more serious problem exists in the villages and towns of Ghana. Children of school going age are left at home or left wandering. The few children contacted, gave the excuse of lack of books or reading materials at home. Some said they had not done their assignments because there was no one to assist them and as such were afraid to be punished at school.

Even with the introduction of Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE), the problem of many children of school going age staying at home still exists. The few who attend school idle around after school hours, because the house is not conducive to study. This weakens the brains of the children. As Richard Steele (1672-1729), an Irish born English essayist, playwright and politician puts it, reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. So, just as one’s body becomes weak when one fails to exercise, in the same way, one’s mind becomes dull when one fails to read.

In 2005, the share urban distribution of Ghana was estimated at 46% with that of rural being 54% (Encarta, Microsoft® student edition 2008). From this, it can be realized that majority of the citizenry are in the rural community. Hence, to eradicate illiteracy, much concentration should be centred on the rural communities.

From my study of the townsfolk and investigations, it was realized that majority of the children cannot read fluently because after school, they cannot practice what they learnt in school since they help their parents either on the farm or in their trades. And since practice makes man perfect, lack of practice makes their reading ability poor. The parents also gave the excuse of not wanting to leave their wards at home to idle around. In some circumstances, the children skip school to accompany their parents because they (the children) would be left alone in the house after school.

Although the schools have libraries, the libraries are not updated to meet modern standards. Some are not fully stocked and computers are rare. In addition, the libraries in the schools are not accessible after school hours. Even in school, library hours are restricted.

Aside these devastating issues, community service is low because the youth don’t find anything worthwhile. Although the concept of voluntary service is taught in schools, it is not practiced. At the tertiary level, national service is made compulsory for all graduates but many reject their postings to rural communities and small towns.

PROJECT DETAIL

Goals and Objectives:

There are two major goals for the “literacy for all library project” and specific objectives within each of the goals.

 Goal #1:- To increase the literacy level among the youth especially.

Objective #1.1: To provide children in Akim-Tafo with reading materials to supplement those at school.

Objective #1.2: To teach the children basic skills in computer to enable them fit into the community and this computer age

 Goal #2:- To inculcate voluntary service in the youth for the development of the                                                                                  community and the nation as a whole.

Objective #2.1: To motivate the youth and the townsfolk to offer their quota to their community.

Objective #2.2: To reduce menaces that result from idleness and bad time management.

Objective #2.3: To promote development and reduce poverty level and unemployment in the community as these accompany illiteracy.

Clientele:

There are two different clientele groups for this project.

The first clientele are the pupils or children of school going age in Akim-Tafo. This clientele group is represented in the project objectives for Goal #1.

The second clientele group is the graduates and townsfolk as a whole. This group is represented in the project objectives for Goal #2.

Both clientele groups are important and form the core of the community. As it stands, the youth form the bedrock of every nation. It is expected that significant learning will take place for both clientele groups.

Methods:

The primary methods for achieving the goals and objectives of the project will be:

·         Building and stocking a modern library in the town. That will become a learning centre and a source of information to the community.

·         Selection and training program for volunteers.

In addition, literacy campaigns will be organized to launch the project and create literacy awareness. Moreover, a library committee will be set up to monitor the operation of the project and ensure its success. Records will also be kept by the staff.

Staff/Administration:

The project will employ 4 full time and 2 part time personnel.

·         Project director (full time): responsible for overseeing project development and operation, establishing the library, maintaining links with the ministry of education and community leaders, as well as the whole community and scheduling of library hours.

·         Volunteer coordinator (part time): responsible for recruiting graduates and other volunteers, establishing and maintaining a working linkage with the schools and student leaders, developing and offering training programs for volunteers, scheduling volunteers for service in the library. The volunteer coordinator will be from the town and will be a person with at least a first degree from the university or any degree equivalent with at least a second class.

·         Technical assistant (full time): will be in charge of the computer section of the library. The technical assistant will also assist the clientele with the computer and handle anything about information technology.

·         Librarian (full time): will be in charge of the library. The librarian will keep records of books, arrange books neatly on the shelves maintain order and discipline in the library, and keep records of attendants. The librarian will report to the governing board.

·         Cleaner (full time): will be responsible for keeping the library and its surroundings tidy every morning before the library is opened, during working hours and in the evening before the library closes.

·         Project evaluator (part time): responsible for conducting periodic assessment of the literacy rate, the menace level and the level of patriotism in relation to voluntary service. The evaluator will match the goals and objectives against the performance of the library. Also, the evaluator will be responsible for developing and implementing a system for the evaluation of the work of the volunteers and work with the volunteers’ coordinator to design a certificate for the volunteers.

·         Governing board: made up of one librarian from the 3 secondary schools, 3 representatives of the basic schools, the chief, two appointees of the chief of Akim-Tafo and the Member of Parliament. Will be responsible for sanctioning the operation of the library and providing feedback to the project director on the operation of the library. Will be in charge of the other staff.

AVAILABLE RESOURCES:

·         Land: one plot of land of size (100ft*100ft) will be provided by the chief of Akim-Tafo, Osabarima Adusei- Peasah IV.

·         Novels: quite a number of novels will be provided by a group of black Americans from Philadelphia, led by Molefi Kete Asante who visit the town annually to participate in the Ohum Festival (festival of the Akyem).

·         Computers: one computer and a printer will be made available by the project director.

NEEDED RESOURCES:

4 full time staff at 100%salary and two part time staff at salary per service.

FACILITIES: Materials for the building of a modern community library well stocked with books with two offices in it.

EQUIPMENT: 3 computers + a printer.

                         Chairs and tables for the library and offices.

             A white board fixed on the wall.

BUDGET:

EVALUATION PLAN:

Project evaluation will be the responsibility of the Project Evaluator. A standard operative evaluation plan consisting of two different evaluative strategies- formative and summative will be drawn up by the evaluator and assessed by the board for every evaluation.

APPENIX A: OTHER SOURCES OF FUNDS

Literacy awareness campaigns dubbed “literacy for all” will be organized periodically to create awareness on literacy and raise funds for the upkeep and maintenance of the library. The library will also be open to donations from society for its upkeep. On national holidays, educational seminars and forums will be organised by the library staff and board to raise additional funds.

APPENDIX B: PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE

Ever since I graduated from basic school and received the presidential award for best Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in Eastern Region (2002),

I have always had a strong concern for the education and literacy level of the children, youth and the townsfolk in general. I was born and raised in Akim-Tafo and well abreast with situations there. This is an agricultural community where the major concern is not education for the young ones but how to till the land for a bumper harvest.

Through my investigations and interaction with the children, I have come to realize that their major concern is a learning centre or resource centre for them. There were times I had to lend my books out to some of these children to read and at other times, I made them come home for reading assistance.

Moreover, after school hours, these children are seen wandering in town and engaging in all sort of unhealthy acts. Peer pressure at this stage is very high and if these young ones are not well guided, they will be prone to negative peer pressure. As it is already known, these children are the bedrock of our nation. They are our future leaders and need the maximum support and attention.

Africa, as a continent is suffering because of its low literacy rates. Many of the dictators in this world are illiterates. As Stanislaw Lec (1909-1996) a polish writer puts it, illiterates have to dictate. And as per George W. Bush, the immediate past U.S. Governor and President, as you teach a child to read, he or she will pass a literacy test.

Finally, the library will help the youth choose the right reading materials and stay away from pornographic materials. For, “education... has produced a vast population able to read and write but unable to distinguish what is worth reading (G.M. Trevelyan, 1876-1962, British historian)

In conclusion, the project, a laudable one, will really be of immense benefit to the people of Akim-Tafo, Ghana and the world as a whole.

DATE OF BIRTH: 20^TH MARCH, 1986

 ADDRESS: CHRIST ASSEMBLIE’S OF GOD

P.O. BOX 252, KWAMO/EJISU-AHANTI  

GHANA-WEST AFRICA.

E-MAIL: pafkekule@yahoo.com                  

                                           TOPIC: ENVIRONMENT

        Day to day, people observations show that the nature of living things becomes affected by where they inhabit. These effects are relative depending on where and how living organisms respond to a habitat known as ‘’environment’’.

The environment constitutes the total surrounding of any given entity and all therein, including physical, social and economic aspects. In terms of space, the environment is infinite. In humane nature, the environment can be expressed by human actions; fear, love, war, peace and many other emotional expressions. The environment is dominated by living and non-living things. The constituents of an environment create many different environments within it. For instance, non-living things act as an environment for living things and living things serving as an environment for each other. Analytical study of human reproduction reveal that the first environment man comes into contact with is the womb. This denotes that the concept ‘’environment’’ is explained from the basis of life processes to death. The environment is dimensioned as natural and artificial objects. The first and second diagrams below show an illustration of a natural and artificial environment respectively. These two environments category supply all detrimental and vital elements that provide unsafe and comfortable habitation for plants and animals.

        Naturally, the environment is concerned with all elements in nature that are not made by man.  This appears in the form of solid, liquid and gases which are classified as; 

Terrestrial; land, rock, vegetation etc.

Aquatic; ocean and other water bodies etc.

Arboreal; atmosphere etc.

The natural environment contributes to about 90% in the provision of air, food, and water for survival by living things within it. In the humane sense the natural environment supply all the materials needed for physical and economic growth. Despite these advantages, there are hazards it causes affecting the adaptation of living things. Among the natural hazards are; earthquakes, landslides, ground subsidence, coastal and soil erosion, volcanic eruptions, flooding, tsunamis, thunderstorms, tornadoes and many others. Records show that there is mass destruction caused by any one of these. For instance, the volcanic eruption that occurred in Indonesia in 1963 recorded 1500 deaths and mass damage resulting in $ 1.2billion.

 The process giving rise to these hazards are natural and are below the prevention by man. However, mitigation strategies can be adopted to minimize effects. Risky areas shown by studies may have to be abandoned for development. Also people living near the boundaries of these hazardous elements must be relocated.

      The artificial environment deals with the exploitation of the natural environment by the activities of man to satisfy human needs. The artificial environment can be visualized from settlements, airfields, railways, highways, dams and other handworks of man. These are obtained from activities by man. Prominent among them are mining, engineering works, farming and industrial works, all of which positively and negatively affect the natural environment and the life of human beings. For instance, agriculture, significant as it place to the nation, is causing the loss of the world’s tropical forest, resulting in extinction of native plant and animal specie giving a net increase in greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change, increased soil erosion, drought and flooding. There are a lot of benefits derived as a result of man activities.  These activities create employment, generate funds and help in the development of a nation as a whole                                                               

 On the contrary, these anthropogenic activities posses a lot of threat to the natural environment either contaminating or polluting it, which directly or indirectly affect the mode of life of living things. The results of human interaction with the environment ends in hazards such as global warming caused by the destruction of the ozone layer, diseases; as a result of polluting the environment, acid rain which is consequent to the discharging of harmful substances into the atmosphere, fire outbreak as a result of excessive bush burning and many others that place a lot of demerits to human health.                                                                             

Control measures must be ensured to create a balance between the good and hazardous use of the artificial environment in order to live in a comfortable planet. The environment means a lot for human existence and other living bodies. It marks the genesis of life history and when devastated can cause extinction and endanger life.

Therefore realizing the necessity of the environment at all times, let us place it as a treasure of great concern.

 TOPIC:  A PROPOSAL FOR ENSURING SAFE ENVIRONMENTAL HABITATION IN MY COMMUNITY   

                 CONTEXT AND JUSTIFICATION

Most areas in my community become flooded after heavy rainfall consequent to the loss of life and damage of building structures. Our preliminary knowledge in the affected areas supported by scientific inputs shows that the causes of this hazard is mainly due to non-vegetated lands and insufficient drainage facilities.

Efforts have been made to avert this situation but because of lack o f funds, our vision of dealing with all the prone areas have not been achieved, hence this proposal is essential.

                   OBJECTIVES

·         To look out for all areas susceptible to flooding and implementing control measures to address incoming effects.

·         To mount a study on areas on waterways and to advice the inhabitants on flood -proof methods they can adopt to develop these areas without major constraints.

·         To provide questionnaires to asses the risks caused by flooding in my area and to use it as a guide to alert all towns and districts in my country having this same problem.

                     PLAN OF ACTION

1.        Mapping of all areas possible to flooding.

2.       Planning of how and where drains should be constructed.

3.       Construction of drains.

4.       Provision of vegetative cover to other less prone areas.

5.       Distribution of questionnaires and advising people to desist from practices that can cause flooding.

                               BUDGETING AND COSTING

                              CONCLUSION

Realizing the consequences flood can cause to human life, do accept this proposal for prompt consideration.

DATE OF BIRTH: 29^TH JULY, 1983

ADDRESS:    P. O. Box TS 84                                                         

                        TSITO-AWUDOME. V/R

                        GHANA. WEST AFRICA.

TELEPHONE: (+233) 246 617797

EMAIL: holidicta@yahoo.com

INTERNATIONAL ESSAY COMPETITION

TOPIC: HOW DO YOU SEE SOCIETY AND HOW WOULD YOU CHANGE IT.

The term society in itself is defined as an organized group of individuals who share the same or common interest, aim and or profession.  The word web dictionary goes on to define society as “an extended social group having a distinctive cultural and economic organization”.

From a perspective however, society is seen as an interaction of people organized together, of which every individual is naturally enshrined with certain responsibilities and roles. The believe is that every individual as a person in the community which is bounded up as a society has a responsibility assigned him or her. Just like the functionalists put it, society could be compared to an organism, better still, the human body which is composed of many different body parts and every part of the body, being it the arm, hand, eyes, ears, among others, performs a vital role which can be done without by the body. In as much as the body is a system being compared to society, society is also seen as a system with many parts which have different roles to perform. The parts referred to in society are the persons in the society. Their observation of society is that, every person although sometimes not extrinsically stated has certain roles to perform and failure to perform these roles as assigned by nature results in dysfunctional society.

On the contrary, these roles and responsibilities as subscribed by the functionalists have proven inadequate in this modern world where equality has become the main focus of everyday organizations. It has however been revealed that these social responsibilities and roles were all assigned to individuals by society itself. One may ask such a question; is it truly natures-assigned role that the woman, especially women of African families, is made for the kitchen? Who on earth came to discover these roles? How can one tell if these roles were assigned by nature? The answers I think lies within society. Society has made so much constructs within which our beliefs, customs, traditions, and our ways of life are found. If society is composed of an organized group of individuals, thus individual persons, then these roles are created and assigned by these persons of the society.

Conclusively, I see society to be made up of organized group of individuals but being dominated by men (males) who made all the constructs in their interest but making it look as these constructs were created by a natural force. These construct has however been passed on from one generation to the other and getting to the current generation. That is to say, these constructs have been well established since time memorial and has become very difficult to break. For example, a mother of a set of twins (male and female), when the children go out to play and come back home with the boy crying but the girl not crying will take a good look at the boy and comment “aren’t you a boy, and you are crying like this. Even your sister is not crying”. What am trying to point out  here is that, the mother right from childhood treats the boy in a way, either by verbal or non-verbal expressions, which builds his confidence and makes him realize that as a boy who will become a man in future he is not to be found crying because ‘men don’t cry’. The mother on the other hand treats the girl child with the drive that ‘girls are meant for the home’, thus kitchen.

As to what I can do to change the world, I then come to the perspective that, every individual has a role to play, although these roles are not naturally assigned. As an aspiring gender advocate, I know my role is to intensify the advocacy already in the pipeline.

My unique approach will be to go up to the level of our families, educate our parents as to the terms and expressions they use in their homes and how this influences the later behavior of the child. Gender advocacy should not be viewed from a bureaucratic level as we have always observed. We should look at the major causal factors and address them affectionately.

I will also like to appreciate what gender advocates all over the world are doing but will like to alarm them to the necessity of bringing men on board although the case in question concerns women. I know that since the male sex is more responsible for these constructs, they will be in a better position to reconstruct them.

I can bravely say that this will go a long way to change society as it has been seen over these years.

I need a cash of a thousand Ghana cedis (GH¢ 1,000.00). As a student, I need this money to be able to purchase my books, hand-outs, and also to have access to the internet in order for me to be able to do more researches into my fields of interest. I also need a personal computer for my project. The financial status of my home is not anything good to write home about; we are just trying and enduring to survive. I hope this amount of money will be at least able to help me accomplish these set objectives. Thank you. The good Lord be with you and bless you.

24^th February, 1986

C/O School of Medical Science

Department of Sport and Exercise science

KNUST- KUMASI

GHANA

0242275138

Jonhnartey2004@yahoo.com

Creative

As a young Sport and Exercise Scientist it is my vision to promote education, keep fit, discipline, good health and build responsibility in teenagers through sports in rural communities and orphanages throughout my country and beyond.

Since illiteracy rate in our rural communities is very high, there is no effective education about basic life issues. Examples are the importances of sports to good health, responsibility on behave of both teenagers and their parents to take education very serious. It is a fact that most schools and churches in these areas have not at all or no well equipped recreational centers. I want to send sports equipment to local churches and schools and the orphanages. I believe this will create the platform to talk to the people about some basic things that will promote their lifestyle.

Problems like teenage pregnancy, child labour, school dropout and more can be addressed. I will plead with statesmen and remodels being in academia, famous sports personalities, students etc whose visit and interactions with these rural inhabitants can impact them positively.

Children  in  these  communities will  keep fit which is good  for  their  health, cognitive development, self-esteem, self-discipline and also boost their confidence level. It will also be a platform to educate people about hypokinetic diseases which come as a result of lack of exercise and how to avoid them.

In all I want to use sports to promote good health, education both formal, motivation etc. this project I believe if implanted can positive affect lives.

DATE OF BIRTH: 28^TH MARCH, 1984

E-MAIL: kapintcha@yahoo.com

ADDRESS: HO POLYTECHNIC

P.O BOX 217 HO

VOLTAREGION – GHANA

WEST AFRICA

ENVIRONMENT

IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON THE HO MUNICIPALITY

Ho Municipality is located at the centre of the Volta Region. Its environment is mostly mountainous with rich tall trees interspersed with a lot of grasses. The environment is generally vegetative which makes the occupation of the people farming and crafts.

Some of the food crops cultivated include yam, maize, plantain, cocoyam, potatoes etc. Vegetables such as spinach, tomatoes, okra, lettuce, cabbage, onions, garden eggs etc are also grown. They also engage in fruit production- fruits such as mangoes, bananas, pineapples, oranges etc. crafts that people undertake includes basket weaving, cane weaving, kente weaving etc.  Few people are government workers, hair dressers, seamstresses and tailors etc.

Ghana for that matter, Ho is a very sensitive and vulnerable zone where the impacts of climate change are high. Ho is a farming area and this means the farmers depend largely on the weather conditions to make ends meet. The Harmattan is very severe, temperature too high and very irregular rainfall patterns which adversely results in drought, desertification and famine.

Some small communities which depend on rivers and lakes also complained of the water bodies getting dried up especially during the dry season. They said the previous year’s Harmattan was milder and they were not prepared for this year’s.

Climate change can result in shortage of food and because of this, prices of food can shoot up so much that only few people who have the means can afford them thereby increasing the poverty rate of the people. This will go a long way to put stress on the National Health Insurance Scheme as a lot of people will get sick from malnutrition and eating of unhealthy foods.

As the population is increasing, more lands are cultivated since there are more mouths to feed. This makes Ho more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The homes of plants and animals are destroyed in the process. In the urban areas, there is the need to build more amenities and infrastructures like Hospitals, schools etc to accommodate the growing population.

Due to urbanization, people are using modernized equipment and machinery to carry out their day to day activities. These activities may include construction activities, transportation, domestic cooking, bush burning etc which sometimes result in air pollution where the air is contaminated with undesirable gases, dust, smoke, fumes or odour in harmful amounts. Air pollution can cause people to suffer from irritation of the eye, nose and throat as well as wheezing, coughing and breathing difficulties and increased risk of heart attack and in especially sensitive people, results in premature death.

The following are suggested solutions to reduce if not eliminate some of the impacts of climate change. The community has to be educated on climate change and its impacts. The solution to the effects of climate change first and foremost is educating the general public about the impacts of climate change by organizing talks and symposia regularly to keep the people abreast with the changes in the environment.

Encourage planting of more trees, moving from the use of coal to more modern and renewable methods of producing and using energy i.e. the use of solar, wind etc to generate energy. There should be enforcement of the law and regulations as well. Non governmental organizations should be empowered to take up the challenges of educating the public.

The meteorological Department should make their findings known to the general public in advance so that they can be well prepared for what the weather has for them.

Rain water should be stored and used for irrigation purposes during the dry season. Proper waste management is also needed to curb some of the air pollution problems. Community health nurses should put in more effort to educate the public on eating healthy foods.

The right authorities should set aside some amount of land to be used as forest reserves so that some plants and animals do not go into extinction. The government should enforce a law that reduces the rate at which the population is increasing by providing packages for parents who have at most two children. The oil refineries should produce lead-free and carbon-free petrol and diesel to help reduce the green house gases.

If these measures are taken, I believe people in Ho will be able to reduce their vulnerability to climate change and would not be taken by surprise. This will eventually result in a balanced environment for healthy lives in the society.

 The part of the solution that I would like to tackle first is the education of the public on climate change and its impacts. I will therefore need approximately nine thousand dollars ($9,000). This amount will be used for logistics. The logistics needed include Lap top, Projector, Public Address System, Transportation to the hinter lands and villages, educational materials in the form of booklets for distribution to the audience. 

    Every year, thousands of students graduate from the various tertiary institutions in Africa. Sadly, the problems and difficulties that plague the continent have not been adequately addressed. The methods of instruction and learning are not tailored to solve problems in Africa.  Africa is deeply entrenched in the rote and grammar types of education. Africa’s problem cannot be solved by words and more talk.

    After a careful analysis of the problems of corruption, leadership and mediocrity amongst most Africans, the panacea that I propose are paradigm shifting and solution-oriented education. After my national service, I will bring pupils and students in my community together during the weekend.  They will be taught how to work smartly and achieve excellence, integrity, patriotism, self discipline, and organize more career and education fairs to broaden their horizon on career and tertiary institutions in Ghana and other countries.

    I will use software, three dimensional modules to explain scientific and mathematical theories. This will give them the breadth and depth necessary to apply scientific principles to everyday life issues. The theories learnt will used to analyze or solve a particular problem in the society. The students will be put in groups based on the various grades in school. Students will discuss a particular topic and will be guided to solve open-ended problems.

    Students who will get this opportunity will be thinking outside the box and finding solutions to the problems in Africa, this will serve as a catalyst to national development.

Budget

Name: Martin Appiah-Danquah

 Address: Department of Mechanical Engineering

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

 Kumasi

 Ghana

 Date of birth: 21^st November 1985.

                                                            Age: 23

                                                           Cell phone: (233) 24 107 882

                                                          E-mail address: chikidoodoo@yahoo.ca

The Wiwi- River is river that flows through the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi-Ghana. It passes through the Botanical gardens, then along the Paa-Joe stadium, down to the south of campus.

Nevertheless, upon a recent study of the condition of the river, it was found out that, the river is drying up at a faster rate. It is also been polluted by sewage from some of the Hall of Residence and other activities. Moreover, along the stretched of Paa-Joe stadium, most of the trees and shrubs along the river is been cut down. This increases transpiration of the river. The turbidity of the river is also increased causing a colour change of the river.

The main aim for this project is to see the Existing Wiwi- River converted into a modified recreational environment designated to maintain the utilization of the river and modify its adjacent land for recreation uses: Also maintenance of the flora and fauna habitats through the corridor of the river and the water quality is of important which will add aesthetics and scenic beauty to the environment.

To achieve these, a number of conservation methods including; planting of trees and shrubs along the banks of the river to reduce transpiration and erosion.

The project to be undertaken is an Architectural design of the area into a recreational park, consisting of garden benches made from bamboo and other local materials, summer huts and many more. The approximate cost of design and implementation is GH¢ 210,400.00.

PHILIP NASANBECHE

9^TH JANUARY, 1985

1. C/O MR. WILLIAM AMPOFO, P.O.BOX SD 272, STADIUM-ACCRA.GHANA

2. DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE, KNUST-KUMASI, GHANA

TEL NO., 233-0249448670/0277663310

E-MAIL: PROFSNOWBALL@HOTMAIL.COM , PNASANBECHE@YAHOO.COM

NAME: TETTEH MATTANIAH ELEAZAR

DATE OF BIRTH: 24^TH NOVEMBER 1987

ADDRESS: Post Office Box ku 103, OR Department of Electrical\ Electronics Engineering, KNUST.

TELEPHONE: 0242924700/0244236118

E-MAIL: mattaniaht@yahoo.ca

 The Environment: Recycling Of Waste

      Waste disposal especially plastics is degrading our environment, spoiling the aesthetic of our places of settlement and causing health problems; breeding places for mosquitoes. In an effort to do away with these problems there have been several measures such as using Zoomlion Limited to collect and dispose or burn these waste. But, least do we forget that these waste are raw product which can be used to produce new things.

     My project is to help the environment by recycling our waste very well, and do our best to reduce the level of pollution during the recycling. For example, the degradable wastes can be used as manure, to enhance commercial production of food products. Plastics are to be recycled and be used for other plastics items. Metal scraps to be recycled back to metals for use.

‘Insu’ or ‘Pure water’ plastic holders or rubber are becoming nuisance in the environment. I believe that burning them will not only cause air pollution but waste of energy. These plastics need to be recycled, and I have a project which will not only recycle plastic but also do away with another major waste, sawdust and in the process convert the heat energy into electricity.

     ITEMS NEEDED [APPARATUS]

A multimeter – GH¢ 100

Lead – Acid Accumulator [Car Battery] –GH¢20

Two meter long of Copper sheet – GH¢ 250

Copper Wires – GH¢ 5

Thermometer-GH¢ 10

Total Cost – GH¢ 385.00

 Though I am now concentrating on the recycling of plastics, later I would appreciate it if funded to recycle all waste including faeces to useful products.

The current state of the world or society, massive deviance from societal norms, values and ethics and the destruction of the established system of social order are indeed a test of how we can change society in view of its massive woes.

Social change according to the Babylon’s free dictionary is a general term which refers to a change in the nature, the social institutions, the social relations or the social behavior of a society, community of people or other social structures.

In view of this ,it  indeed saddens me as a young leader to see society move in such a negative trend .some of the negative trends in society that needs change are highlighted below;

First and foremost, it has become clear that civil wars or world conflicts have increased in enormous proportions with its attendant consequences been loss of life and property. This certainly cannot be said to be a positive trend of our current society, as it has rendered most countries economically disadvantaged; a critical case in point is Darfur, Sudan.

In may 2005, the centre for research and Epidemiology of disasters [CRED] of the universite catholique de louvain in Brussels Belgium published an analysis of mortality in Darfur ,their estimate stated that from September 2003 to January,2005,between 98,000 and 18,000 persons had died in Darfur,including from 63,000 146,000 excess death .Then again ,a 21^st September,200 article by the united nations news service stated that 400,000 people have lost their lives and some 2 million more have being driven from their homes .However,the U N disclosed on the 22^nd April,2008 that it might have underestimated the Darfur death toll by nearly 50%.

This unfortunate development of this part of our society is unacceptable and therefore needs a positive approach to change it.

 Secondly,another negative canker-worm that is currently eluding and destroying the fabrics of our women folk is female genital mutilation(F.G.M) .According to the world health organization(W.H.O),female genital mutilation includes procedures that intentionally alter or injure female genital organs for non-medical reasons .Interestingly,an estimated 100 to 140 million girls and women worldwide are currently living with the consequences of female genital mutilation .This indeed is a violation of the fundamental human rights of girls and women and therefore reflects the deep-rooted inequality between the sexes,and thus constitutes an extreme form of discrimination against women.This indeed does speak positively of our current society.

Also,it is a bear fact that child trafficking or labor is on the increase ,as so many children of school going age are being trafficked across borders to work as mine laborers and prostitution among others. This unfortunately affects the future educational potentials and to a larger extent affects the proper growth.

 Lastly, it is vivid that another negative trend of our society is the growing incidence of violence against women and children.

The United Nations defines violence against women and children as an act of gender based violence that results in, or is likely to result in physical, sexual, mental harm or suffering to women and children, including threats such as coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty whether occurring in public or private life.

 Judging from above, it is crystal clear that there is a paradigm shift or deviation from the established social system, norms, values and ethics and thus, there is a need for a consistent, cohesive and positive change attitude to push the agenda forward.

As a young leader in a country called Ghana, it has always been my passion to see a free and just society with total equity and fairness in all matters and as such when given the opportunity as young leader, i will launch a worldwide effective, efficient and and positive minded campaign for world peace.This will only succeed when the root causes of the conflicts are identified and sub-campaign groupings are formed to disseminate information on the negative effects of wars.

More so, there is no justification to subject a group of people to inhuman treatment in the form of female genital mutilation .Whiles condemning the act, it cannot be disputed that the root cause is lack of education and as such when given the chance as a young leader i will use the public lecture system of education and the door to door campaign coupled with intensive broadcast of its demerits, this i have no doubt will contribute positively to changing the world.

 Additionally, it is on record that one of the key reasons for people engaging in child trafficking and labor is the high levels of poverty. This in my opinion can be stopped by giving micro loans to parents of these victims to operate small scale businesses; this in no doubt will give them some income in other to stop this act.

Interestingly, issues relating to violence against women and children can be effectively dealt  with the vigorous enforcement of laws on violence and the consistent education of the general populace on the need to stop this negative act.

From the above, it clear that the direction and speed of social change is negative and thus it is my hope as a young leader to see the society of the 21^st century been free from such problems.

NAME-Salifu y.s.k Stephen

AGE-   20yrs

COUNTRY-Ghana.           

ROGER WILLS DOKU

 18^TH FEBRUARY 1987

ST. PETERS METHODIST CHURCH

P.O.BOX 14, ASHAIMAN

00233244074608

rogerdoku@yahoo.com

TOPIC: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

                   In recent times, the economist and the world in general had made an effective effort to pinpoint on the measures that will help increase develop the world though economics. Economics being a science and its relation to development is the process where by there is a structural change in the technological institution, structure of the economy as well as an increase in the per capital income of the country to sustain over a long period of time, economic development deals with the development of an economic wealth of a country or region for the well being of their people. It also involves the improvement of a nation’s economic, political and social well being of its people. People limit economic development to its definition alone, but with this opportunity granted, I will judiciously highlight on the tools which will let the world accelerate in its development economically. For an economic development to take place, the world at large must provide a conducive economic environment .The conducive environment can be created by the policies and measures set by the ruling body. In its broadest sense policies of economic development should encompass the government undertaken to meet broad economic objectives such as price stability, high level of employment and sustainable growth. This effort should include monetary and fiscal policies, regulation of financial institution, trade and tax policies.                                                                    The policies should also give room to programmes that will provide infrastructure and services such as highway, parks, affordable housing, crime prevention and education and training. The policies should again enhance job creation and retention through specific effort in business finance, marketing, neighborhood development, small business development, business retention and expansion, technological transfer, and real estate development.

                    Firstly education and training is the bed rock of economic development, for an economy to under go development the government  should provide better education system and establish more technical and vocational training institutions to train more local tradesmen, mass literacy programmes are also essential to make the labour force literate and get them equipped  with the necessary skills. The government should also run technical exchange programmes, this will enhance the importation of foreign knowledge (ideas) and will be applied in the areas we lack them; this will contribute towards economic development because mass number of the population will be skillfully trained. Industrialization on the other hand has contributed effectively to economic development. The basic feature of West African countries is low level of industrialization. For a rapid economic development to take place in the sub- region, the government must ensure rapid industrialization. With industrialization, diversification will set in and given much wider base to the economy. The West African countries abound in natural resources which could be developed so that they derive much more benefits from its natural resources than if exported in an unprocessed state. The establishment of the industry will also create a high level of employment and that will reduce the unemployment rate and encourages the country to produce goods which it have its comparative advantage.

                     Agriculture mechanization and modernization is also essential to increase productivity, financing research into the varieties of both industrial and food crops through specified institution such as council for scientific and industrial research (CSIR), the cocoa research instituted in Ghana. This research develops high yielding varieties of seeds and fertilizers to be introduced. The research can also be used to introduce into the development of cheap and simple tools and small motor-powered animal drawn implements. Corruption should be checked, the government should make couscous efforts to eliminate corruption, economic sabotage and other related socio-economic vices. Skilled and qualified persons should be appointed to do a job, the work done will be efficient as well as remuneration of labour should be adequate. The government should also provide economic infrastructure like roads, railways, seaways and airports. All this are necessary for rapid economic development.

                       Population control measures should also be tackled by the government to control population growth, the government can institute family planning to enable information on birth control measures to be widely disseminated to the people, this measure will prevent over population and reduce pressure on social amenities, the government should also initiate indigenization policy to ensure that the control of business is to a large extent in the hands of its own citizens. These policies will limit foreign participation or control in some selected industries taken into consideration the Ghanaian business promotion act of 1970s was designed to give Ghanaians a greater degree or control of the economy.

                         In all sense, for a country to under go economic development it must have a stable political system; the government should provide a conducive environment for industrial development scarces foreign capital investment. Political stability, consistency and continually in policies are therefore essential to ensure the rapid economic development. The government should also develop policies that will aim at cutting down on present consumption to increase saving and investment, the importation of goods which are locally produced must be stopped to enable import  substitute industries develop, with all this in mind the government should also give room to financial institutions and make sure they provide safe and convenient savings and loans opportunities for poor and low income household and businesses in rural areas in the economy, the financial institutions should move beyond traditional approaches to micro financing by introducing micro banks which provide a greater range of services for villages and create a stronger financial infrastructure that will only exist for middle class citizens through establishment of banks. The government with this perspective will help develop the economy all because the financial institutions will help facilitate credit access as a means to build wealth and formation of asset. In a nutshell if economy developers will not limit the development of the economy by mere definition but adhere to the above points highlighted, the economy will develop at faster acceleration.

COLLEGEOF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE

FACULTY OF LAW (FIRST YEAR)

KWAME NKRUMAHUNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY GHANA

WOLRD-TRUST   

"LITERACY"

One of my fathers favourite portion of the scripture was the first portion of Hosea 4:6 which said "For lack of knowledge my people perish. 'Lack of knowledge' referring to ignorance.

Illiteracy is a form of ignorance and millions of people perish as a result. The Macmillan English Dictionary defines an'illiterate' not only as someone who cannot read and write but as someone lacking knowledge in particular subject. What is the cause of illiteracy? Simply, people putting less premium on literacy.

But then why should people put premium on literacy anyway? People should because most laws governing the world, information and contracts are written. For example how can illiterates read instructions and terms on the products they buy? Illiteracy must be stopped and fast before more people perish.

Illiteracy could only be solved by enabling people to see the importance of literacy by forming literacy clubs at all places.

COUNTRY: GHANA

AGE: 26

CATEGORY: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Yesterday, I read of another carnage on the road boldly written at the front page of the newspaper, “street hawkers run over by a truck".

These are some of the news we keep on hearing from the streets of Ghana on the West Coast of Africa. Ghana is a peaceful and well endowed country with rich mineral and forest resources.

With ten regions, each is blessed with one or more of these resources which serve as the backbone of the economy of the country, among these resources are the fertile land which stretches from north to south, east to west.

Even though there are many occupations in Ghana, the major backbone of the economy of Ghana is agriculture. Agriculture is basically the science and act of the production of crops and the rearing of animals. This is practiced in most parts of the country especially in the villages.

Agriculture which is the main source of income to the country and the citizens as a whole has been faced with many challenges since time immemorial.

As most people in the towns and cities seek employment in the offices. When you go to the villages across the country, the passion for farming is at its highest peak. They farm to feed their family, country and even export some to many parts of the world.

In the olden days, our parents gave birth to a lot of children to help them in farming and the number of children they had was the evidence of their status in the community .This means that the more children you had the larger your farm and the wealthier you were.

With the introduction of education, this notion is fading, bringing to light the importance of education and the need to practice family planning to reduce the number of children for a healthy family.

There are many challenges facing the children of the world; especially the African child, it is in this view that I want to bring it to light for the world to know the out come of child labour in this part of the world and my dream of solving this problem in the quest to make a better living for them.

Most of the children we find on the streets are from the villages due to poverty and other social factors. The majority of these factors emanate from the inability of the parents to provide for their wards the basic necessities of life.

In the villages where farming is the major occupation of the inhabitants, they rely heavily on the rainfall pattern which is seasonal before sowing, this therefore has great impact on the produce.

 When the rain delay for sometime, crops begin to fail and make the farmer frustrated .Sometimes, they go for loans from friends and relatives only to be heavily disappointed. In some cases, the perishable produce such as vegetables gets rotten in the farm due to lack of storage facilities and trucks to cart them to the town. The agony of these farmers is sometime severe that they are left with virtually nothing to rely on and how to pay the debt incurred becomes a problem. Some of the farmers go to the extent of committing suicide because of the loss made.

If this happen the only option is to send their wards to the city and towns. With a lot of mouth to feed, they then envisage that if the village life did not do any good to them, they opt for the city.

They then send their children to the cities to stay with relatives to attend school and sometimes to friends to work with. Some of them go to the extent of selling their children.

City life is full of fun. This is where you will get access to good education, have fun in the clubs, have a wide range of opportunities of succeeding in life, and have access to a lot of amenities such as good drinking water, electricity and good roads. It is therefore everyone’s heart desire to be in the city but as the saying goes, “all fingers are not equal” which means; we are all not on the same financial status. “no matter what happens, it shall be well with us”, that’s their thought.

Hoping that city life would favour their children, some as young as five years arriving at their destination are then pushed into child labour after a few days of their arrival their young dreams and excitement of at least having a bright future in life get thwarted.

Some of these innocent children go through a hell of time. Early in the morning whiles their colleagues are going to school, hawking becomes their daily chores and they are the last to sleep. They work for the whole day on the streets without any commission and woe be tides you if you do not account for the money, you dare go home. I once saw a young girl about twelve years crying uncontrollably beside the road and I asked of her problem, she told me she had misplaced the money got from her sales and thus was afraid to go home because of what will happen to her. This was true because I could read the fright from her eyes I therefore gave her some money to go home. This is one of such instance.

Innocent children are rapped, killed and maimed day by day in their quest to survive on the streets. The sooner we do something about this the better. These children are our future leaders and they need to live a better life. The street is not their home we can help bring to an end this problem.

To help solve this menace, I propose that this issue should be tackled from the root. When you go to the villages, the main plight of the farmers is rainfall at the northern part of Ghana, they have a serious problem which is rainfall. This prevents them from farming all year round and this is the place where we have massive urban drift because if there is no rain, they can not farm and therefore the need to move to the cities to work.

If I had the opportunity to do something to help the people of this part of the country by changing their livelihood, my heart desire for these people is to build irrigation systems for them to enable them farm all year round and to build storage facilities to avoid post harvest loss.

This would improve their livelihood and the community by embarking on developmental projects to reduce drastically rural urban migration which poses great threat to the lives of our youth and the children.

I know that street hawking and child labour is not a problem in only Ghana but in Africa and the world as a whole.

The earlier we stand up for the rights of the children in their quest to have better living conditions the better. We have to be the voice of these voiceless children who are suffering on the streets through no fault of theirs.

We all can do something to eradicate this situation ,a decision today as parents and friends to treat these children as our own would propel this world to a better place to live and grow to become responsible people in the society. The children are the strength of the world so let us make this place a better one for them.   

IBRAHIM UMUHERAT JAWOL                                                                                      

14^TH JULY, 1987

KWAME NKRUMAHUNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS                                                                             

 KUMASI – GHANA

024 – 026 – 4330

hera200655@yahoo.com.

INTERNATIONAL ESSAY CONTEST

TOPIC: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Economic development implies change which has a positive impact on the welfare of citizen of a country. Economic development is not just a field of intellectual interest for abstract discussions. It is a very important and practical yardstick of sustainable improvements in income levels and living standards.

Human beings play a dual role in the development process; on one hand they are its ultimate beneficiaries and on the other they provide the most important input into the process of production growth and transformation acquired through education.

Education specifically is a process of all forms of human learning that occurs in specialized institutions called schools and it is indisputably the most important form of human resource-inputs for economic development. Education is not just about the number or quantity of students enrolled but also the quality of education given them. Labour quality is enhanced by education of either adults or children. Education is described as investment in human capital. Education in addition to improved health and nutrition are the main vehicles through which productivity can be improved.

Education strongly correlates positively with economic development. Thus, education leads to a better job and a higher income. That is why education remains tremendously important for development.

Having recognized the importance of education to the development of Ghana, past and present governments have embarked on several educational reforms to enhance the quality of education in Ghana. This is reason enough why a substantial fraction of the national is spent on education; approximately GH¢1,693,735,829 is spent on education from the budget of the year 2008.   

However, there are series of problems associated with education in Ghana. Every development success brings new problems in its wake. The government of Ghana is struggling to cope with the rising tide of primary school graduates who want to go on to high schools and eventually universities but are not able to since parents cannot afford to send them that far.

Also, there is the problem of disparity of educational setup mostly between urban and rural societies as well as between Southern and Northern regions. There is widespread of educational facilities in urban areas.  Children who live in major cities are much more likely to receive high-quality schooling than children from the countryside. For instance, a school such as Sakai primary school in the Upper West Region can only boast of less than one fourth (1/4) the facilities in Morning Star Academy in the Greater Accra Region. This disparity runs through from the primary level to the secondary high schools.

In furtherance, an unbelievable truth of Njaya, a village in the Afram plains part of the Ashanti Region of Ghana is that, you find children sitting on stones under trees for lessons using charcoal as chalk or writing on the ground. Some parents do not even allow their wards to take part in such lessons because they see no need for education that do not provide employment. Those who start drop out before long for one reason or the other. Most parents prefer engaging their wards in the farms since it is their source of living. In large measure, these problems result from poverty. The cost of keeping a child in school becomes too heavy an imposition on the poor household after a while.

Consequently, the above problems only tend to exacerbate social problems, such as crimes, drug abuse and gangs. Almost half or more of the labour force is made up of farmers and agricultural labourers who received little or no education. About 38% of labour force in Ghana is employed in the agricultural sector as at 2009.

Some policies have been implement to ensure quality education and keeping children in school and as much as possible to bridge the gap between urban and rural education, Southern and Northern; necessary for inter-generational equity. Some of these policies are outlined in the paragraphs below.

The government in the past years has built schools in all parts of the country almost equally distributed. One finds a school such as TutcoDemonstrationPrimary School that can be at par with one such as Morning Star Academy in the Upper West and Greater Accra Regions respectively. The computer placement of students from Junior High Schools to Senior High Schools is another policy aimed at giving equal opportunities to students from rural primary schools to attend Senior High Schools of their choice as long as the fall within the grade without discrimination. Schools do not accept or reject students depending on their own perspective.

The school feeding programme at the primary schools is yet another measure to keep pupils in school not forgetting the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE). Credit is given to some Non-governmental organizations such as plan international Ghana and Action Aid Ghana as these organizations has funded in one way or the other for educational advancement of children in the rural areas especially.

The government of Ghana has found her budget overstrained by the attempt to expand all levels of schooling simultaneously. Demand seems unquenchable; expansion of capacity at one level of schooling on increases the demand for places at the next higher level. There is still a vacuum to be covered in the educational sector to enhance the economic development of Ghana.

Many of the world's young leaders do not have access to video equipment. Nevertheless, they do make choices and have voices that we need to hear.

If you would like to submit an essay, please email it to us.  Make sure you include all your information as well as the category of interest.  We will post it in the appropriate portal for all the world to see.

Essays should be writen by you and contain 1,000 words of what your passion is to change the world. Also, please add the one category of which you feel most passionate about in your header (Social Change, Enivoronment, Literacy, Economic Development, Creative Expression). 

E-Mail your essay to tess@worldtrust.org.

Click here to view the Video.
Or click here to download a smaller one.

If you cannot view either of the above, watch the YouTube version below. 

There will be millions of youth taking part of the Young Leaders Network and our virtual  classroom and docu-series, that gives them the ability to travel on our project missions to make global impact in the areas of: Economic Development, Literacy, Social Change, Environment and Creative Expression.

Conference: 09.09.09- 09.11.09 The Young Leaders Global Summit is where the members of the Young Leaders Council finally meet face to face (with each other and their mentors) and will get down to the bottom of the planning stages on how they will make a shift in the world with their programs that are chosen to be featured in the Live Concert Series and set for funding.

This 3 day intensive conference allows for the youth to get hands on training for what they intend to do with their lives as members of the Young Leaders Council.

Concert: A 2 hour live broadcast is in the planning stages,  where we enlighten and entertain the global audience (who are tuning in to donate to the programs that will change the world, created by the youth) and give them the opportunity to connect with each other live during the broadcast. A global, cross cultural LIVE DRUMMING event will be driving the music through various countries, and streamed live through our technology partners.

Tess Cacciatore, Founder and Visionary of the World Trust Foundation, is presently conducting the "YOUR VOICE- YOUR CHOICE" global video contest,  and the "FOLLOW THE LEADERS" online curriculum, conference and concert series. www.youngleadersnetwork.org

The World Trust Foundation is a nonprofit organization in existence since 1994, with a mission to mentor the future leaders and have the youth of the world have their voices heard. World Trust does this through journalism, activism and mentorship programming, using media and technology as a conduit of communication between all nations.    www.worldtrust.org

The target market is socially active youth who are between the ages of 18-26, and who passionate about leading the way for the sake of their future.  

"To us, we feel that it is imperative to have a generation of youth who are guided, passionate and clear on what steps they need to take in order to take their rightful place in the world of leadership, as well as becoming a leader in their own lives. At every turn, this will be a great opportunity for your company to brand with the World Trust in order for us to collectively reach to inspire the future leaders of the world."         Tess Cacciatore

CHECK OUT MY VISUAL CV. www.visualcv.com/user/cacciatore

Here is a letter that Tess received from a young man from Ghana, after hearing about the contest on local metro TV in Ghana.

"I appreciate the vision under taken by you and your team to empowering by mentoring we the youth to realize what  is hidden in us. Upon going through your Visual CV and other works of yours, I see you as a God chosen servant to point a sense of direction to we the youth. I hope to excel through the competition to attend the first annual summit.

  Here are the sites to visit:

www.worldtrust.org - main site with history since 1994

www.youngleadersnetwork.org - young leaders contest and social action network

www.youtube.com/user/worldtrust You Tube channel for the contest

www.worldtrustwire.org for young journalists worldwide.

We are conducting a global search for Young Leaders and a video contest from DC on Inauguration Day to support our mission to mentor the future leaders of the world. www.youngleadersnetwork.org

The YOUNG LEADERS - YOUR VOICE - YOUR CHOICE contest concludes on March 31st and then the winners are announced at the NAB (Nat'l Assoc of Broadcasters) April 20th - 23th.

WINNERS RECEIVE a coveted position on the Young Leaders Council, where they get to participate in private online courses with global leading thinkers as mentors. They also have the opportunity to win a scholarship that includes travel and expenses to the Young Leaders Global Summit in Los Angeles CA 09.09.09 - 09.11.09.

During the summer months, through the virtual classroom, the Young Leaders Council decides what projects that get to be highlighted in each of the categories. (Libraries for Literacy, Medical Supplies to Developing Countries, Homeless and Feeding Shelters in Metro Cities, Micro-financing for small businesses to bring commerce to villages, Water Wells and Green Technologies into cities and villages). The conclusion is the announcement for the grand projects to represent the 5 categories: Economic Development, Literacy, Environment, Social Change, Creative Expression)... these 5 projects will be premiered on the Concert for a New World (2 hour televised special) where the public are invited to donate money to fund the projects, created by the Young Leaders Council.

Winners participating in the Young Leaders Global Summit will receive a World Trust Lotus Pendant, (pictured here) as a keepsake. Other awards and prizes will be revealed as the programs roll out.

LOTUS PENDANT

Created by: Jerry Cope

Planet Cool

 

The year long rollout is a 4 prong series: Contest, Curriculum, Conference, Concert. The year concludes with a 2-hour televised special (Concert for a New World) that will highlight the winners of the contest who make up the Young Leaders Council.

The Concert for a New World invites the public and your peers to donate money to fund the projects YOU have chosen, to improve the planet, in the areas of: Economic Development, Environment, Literacy, Social Change and Creative Expression.

Click here to READ THE RULES : It's important to read the rules. Once you upload your 2 minute video you are now participating in a global contest. It's YOUR TIME to tell us what project you want to get funded and how it will make an impact in the world!

It is our responsibility as parents, teachers and leaders to fix the mess that we’ve left your generation with regard to the environment, gender and racial injustices, war and more.

After the video contest winners are announced on April 22nd 2009 we will enter into a 4-month online classroom curriculum where you will have the chance to get to know one another through the online community as well as be mentored by some of the most forward-thinking experts on the planet in the 5 AREAS OF INTEREST: Economic Development, Environment, Literacy, Social Change, and Creative Expression. 

At the beginning of each month, we will have a general session with a world leader that will be open to the young leaders council and the young leaders network. This in  an opportunity for you engage at a global level on these critical issues.

Each video conference for every week thereafter will include curriculum given to the Young Leaders in the specific 5 categories. For example, Sebastain Copeland (expert photographer/environmental activist) will speak directly to the young leaders in the category of Environment.

The four month sessions will end just prior to the Young Leaders Global Summit.

1) Must be YOU in the video and have permission for any other content in your submission

2) Must be the age between 18-26 before January 20th, 2009 and no older than 26 by end of 2009.

3) Video must be no longer than 2 minutes and submitted in AVI or Quicktime format

4) Video must contain your name, country, age, and be uploaded to the specific category that you want to be a member of and considered - there are 5 categories to consider: Economic Development, Literacy, Environment, Social Change, Creative Expression YOUR VOICE - YOUR CHOICE!

5) Video must contain the plan that you have to change the world. More specific the better. For instance, if you are passionate about literacy, do you want to have a library in your town? Or, are you great at Economic Planning, do you want to provide micro loans to young business leaders in your village? BE CREATIVE - THINK BIG!! This is your chance to shine!

6) All videos must be uploaded no later than midnight on March 31st, 2009 with profile complete

7) All videos must be AVI or Quicktime format and uploaded to this community site - which automatically uploads this to the You Tube Community for Young Leaders.

8) All videos must be respectful of culture and human conditions - you will be disqualified if you use profanity, nudity, racial slurs and more. Be mindful that your entry not only represents YOU but your country, community and family.

Community Guidelines

We want to hear your passion, but don't abuse the site.

Every member to the World Trust community involves a certain level of trust. We trust you to be responsible, and millions of users respect that trust. Please be one of them.

Don't Cross the Line

Here are some common-sense rules that will help you steer clear of trouble, and therefore having you be disqualified from the contest and community:

• All videos uploaded must be no longer than 2 minutes in length and will be uploaded to ONLY ONE of the 5 categories: Economic Development, Literacy, Environment,  Social Change and Creative Expression
• Young Leaders is not for pornography or sexually explicit content. If this describes your video, even if it's a video of yourself, don't post it here. Also, be advised that we work closely with law enforcement and we report child exploitation. 
• Don't post videos showing bad stuff like animal abuse, drug abuse, under-age drinking and smoking, or bomb making.
• Graphic or gratuitous violence is not allowed. If your video shows someone being physically hurt, attacked, or humiliated, don't post it.
• Young Leaders is not a shock site. Don't post gross-out videos of accidents, dead bodies or similar things intended to shock or disgust.
• We respect the right of having your voice be heard on an international scale, but please respect the laws of your country.
• Respect copyright. Only upload videos that you made that state your name, age, where you come from and what you intend to do the make a difference in the world. The videos you upload MUST BE OF YOU ON CAMERA SPEAKING OUT ON YOUR PASSIONS WITHIN THE CATEGORY OF YOUR AREA OF INTEREST. This means don't upload videos you didn't make, or use content in your videos that someone else owns the copyright to, such as music tracks, snippets of copyrighted programs, or videos made by other users, without necessary authorizations. Read our Copyright Tips for more information.
• We encourage free speech and defend everyone's right to express unpopular points of view. But we don't permit hate speech (speech which attacks or demeans a group based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, and sexual orientation/gender identity).
• Things like predatory behavior, stalking, threats, harassment, intimidation, invading privacy, revealing other people’s personal information, and inciting others to commit violent acts or to violate the Terms of Use are taken very seriously. Anyone caught doing these things may be permanently banned from Young Leaders community and in some cases will be turned over to proper authorities.
• Everyone hates spam. Don’t create misleading descriptions, tags, titles or thumbnails in order to increase views. It's not okay to post large amounts of untargeted, unwanted or repetitive content, including comments and private messages.

Please take these rules seriously and take them to heart. Don't try to look for loopholes or try to lawyer your way around the guidelines—just understand them and try to respect the spirit in which they were created. If you'd like more details, check out our Community Guideline Tips. below

We Enforce These Guidelines

Okay, this one is more about us than you. Young Leaders and the partner community on YouTube staff review flagged videos 24 hours a day, seven days a week to determine whether they violate Community Guidelines. When they do, we remove them. Sometimes a video doesn’t violate our Community Guidelines, but may not be appropriate for everyone. These videos may be age-restricted. Accounts are penalized for Community Guidelines violations and serious or repeated violations can lead to account termination. If your account is terminated, you won’t be allowed to create any new accounts and you will be disqualified for any other future opportunities with World Trust Foundation and Young Leaders.

Young Leaders is for the Community

Remember that this is your community! Each and every member makes the site what it is, so don't be afraid to dig in and get involved!

• Have fun with the site. There's a lot to see here, and lots of folks making amazing stuff—one of them might be you! Equipment's getting cheaper and easier to use all the time, so dive in and enjoy.
• Let folks know what you think. Feedback's part of the experience, and when done with respect, can be a great way to make friends, share stories, and make your time on Young Leaders and YouTube richer. So leave comments, rate videos, make your own responses to videos that affect you, enter contests of interest—there's a lot going on and a lot of ways to participate.
• You may not like everything you see. Some of the content here may offend you—if you find that it violates our Terms of Use, then click the button that says "Flag" under the video you're watching to submit it for review by YouTube staff. If it doesn't, then consider just clicking on something else—why waste time watching videos you don't like?

That's it! Thanks for reading!

— The YouTube Team & World Trust Foundation