Holistic ICT for EcoLiving

New Academic Year IT School (Annual Project of OVF- Ghana)

The New Academic Year IT School, an annual project of OVF was an integral part of this year’s program.

The objective of the School was to provide ICT knowledge to promote Information and Communication Technology for Sustainable Development (ICT4SD), in the Winneba region.

Pro V.C of U.E.W speaking at the Launch of the IT School, WODiV, Ghana

The school run for 2 weeks from August 10 – 21, and saw ICT knowledge being transferred from volunteers, who come from an ICT advanced region, to people who come from a region where ICT knowledge is mostly needed (Winneba).

In all there eight (8) schools from different educational levels participated in the IT school. Three students and a teacher, from each school participated.

Section of IT school participants during the training session, WODiV,Ghana.

Subjects taught ranged from hardware, software(major focus on the concept of GNU/Linux and the spirit of Open Source), to internet applications.

Participants demonstrate what they have learnt, at the IT School closing ceremony, WODiV-Ghana

Teachers who participated in the IT School were invited to a meeting to review the School, challenges and prospects.

Conclusions reached were:

• IT School 2010 will focus on teachers and students of deprived Upper Primary and Junior High Schools in the Central Region of Ghana.
• One month IT School; 2 weeks for teachers(Trainer of Trainers program) and 2 weeks for students.
• Program content for Trainer of Trainers Program for IT School ’10.
• Formation of IT School ’10 Management Committee, to include the teachers, representation from Education  Directorate and Palace
• Regular meeting and communication of committee.

There was an elaborate ceremony, well attended by participants and dignitaries, to climax the IT School. Participants also demonstrated what they had been taught at the school, over the 2 weeks.

Group Photograph of Volunteers, participants of IT School and Guests, after the closing ceremony,WODiV-Ghana

Denkyira Kingdom

A quest to use appropriate technologies to digitize the history and culture of the Denkyira Kingdom and present it to the whole world, took the team to Jukwa, the capital of the Denkyira Kingdom in the Twifo Heman Lower Denkyira District (Central Region, Ghana).

The arrival of the team coincided with the installation of the new Kyidomhene of the Denkyira state.

Volunteers were afforded the opportunity to experience the culture of the Denkyira people.

The Kyidomhene of Denkyira sits in state after swearing Allegiance to the King.

Interview with Odeefuo Boa Amponsem III

The nephew of the King E. K Nana spoke on the King’s behalf during the interview. He gave a brief history of the Denkyira state, its boundary, chieftaincy system, among other things.

He mentioned that the kingdom is in two parts, that is lower and upper Denkyira, and the two parts are separated by two non-Denkyira Akan states (Twifo and Heman).

He intimated that the current King was installed in 1955, and he is the 25^th King of the state. He is the great, great, great grand nephew of the first King of the Denkyira Kingdom. He also informed the team that in the chieftaincy system of the state, women can become kings. He also said before a King is nominated, traits like humility, love of the people, and others are looked out for. The nominee receives training in public speech, cloth wearing, communication skill training, etc and he must also be the son or daughter of the current king’s sister.He was also elected president of the National House of Chiefs, Ghana in 1999.

King of Denkyira and his Nephew in an interview session with the Ecotour '09 team

There are seven (7) clans in the Denkyira state, including the King’s clan-Agona, therefore there are six sub-chiefs in the Kingdom, claimed E.K.

One of the sub-chiefs of the King, Nana Beemuhene was also interviewed. He stated that the King has helped to modernize the Kingdom of Denkyira.

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oneVillage Development Group
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Emeka Okafor was the director for TED Global 2007 that took place in Arusha, Tanzania and is the TED Africa Director. He is known for his blog the Timbuktu Chronicles which seeks to highlight innovative approaches in Africa that include: “sustainable technologies in the developing world and paradigm breaking technologies in general”. His blog, “Timbuktu Chronicles seeks to spur dialogue in areas of entrepreneurship, technology and the scientific method as it impacts Africa.”

Most recently he has been spearheading an effort called Maker Faire Africa. The will take place at the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT in Ghana’s capital, Accra from Aug 13-15, 09.

What inspired him to create this conference was his realization at the NED Conference, that  “the ICT space has developed a head of steam in some parts of Africa,” however a ‘Maker Philosophy’ has yet to occur. Maker Faire will address this by fostering an inventive and innovative spirit in Africa.

This is partially based on the fact that Africans both at the leadership and mainstream level have not completely challenged the basic tenets of neocolonialism with a practical practice of everyday personal and community empowerment. Thus there is little encouragement and inspiration to challenge the prevailing notion of what is good for Africa as put forward by Western Aid and Development Agencies.

The key for Okafor’s approach to succeed is by developing a way of fostering leadership in people who are of a similar mindset can be trained to promote a practical philosophy of self-reliance and empowerment for African rural as well as urban communities. What we see is the importance of a Unity Center model by which people become part of a unified movement to better themselves and in that process be a model for positive change in the world.

Okafor’s work is the promotion of more of a “Made In Africa” approach. The key is that if we make the investment in human capital in people who challenge prevailing notions of development, and do so in a more systematic way, we can begin to see support networks emerging for promoting more effective development in Africa.

Another blog we have been watching from Africa is the White African blog focuses on the role of technology in promoting sustainable development in Africa and how it is impacting Africans on an everyday level. The author Erik Hersman who  grew up in Kenya and Sudan also contributes to AfriGadget where he talks about low-tech ingenuity and microentrepreneurs in Africa.

OVF’s Joy Tang was part of a team that helped arrange a meeting with the Vice President of Taiwan to discuss possible collaboration with the Taiwanese government regarding the role of culture in relation to development in Africa. This meeting was follow up on the CultureMondo Roundtable in which Dr. Okpaku was a keynote and which also included a appearance and speech by the Vice President.

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