YouMeWe Ghana

REPORT ON GLOBAL GIVING
The GlobalGiving project for YOUMEWE GHANA (35805) has not received the maximum attention to support the project in Ghana.

The fund has not even received half of the said amount required upon all the advertisements that has been put into the campaign of this project.

We do appreciate the little that we received but this little cannot make the project to be successful, we pray and encourage more donors to come to our aid to make the project in Ghana very successful.

The project is to connect students in the rural area of Ghana to the rest of the world through online programs and the sale of internet in Ghana is very expensive and we need more donors to come to our aid to put smiles on the faces of these children by connecting them with their peers through online collaboration and learning. Thank you.

Links:

• Teacher Victor and students in Ghana online

At the moment we have almost 150,000 words written by the students from the computer lab in Ghana that we support, the students are having 2 weekly calls with a member from YouMeWe (Victor Takesaki) who has been teaching them English through reading exercises.

The students are also going to participate in a new project in which their stories will be published by an online magazine called "The Qualia Review" launched by international high school students.

 In an effort to connect children to the internet, we are working with the infamous teacher Owura Kwadwo, originally from Kumasi, Ghana, teaching ICT in a rural farming community, which lacks basic equipment and resources for the task. "Every teacher has a way of presenting his subject to his students. This is my way,"

YouMeWe’s mission has always been to educate kids in technology that have not had the access to learn in this type of digital medium, specifically those in residential homes in Japan. As you may know, we have been extending this to the school of Betenase M/A JHS in Ghana as many children in the home are multicultural.  This will be in the same style as our conference call last year, but we aim to have the kids connect and bond a lot more interpersonally.

An important qualification in this rapidly globalising world is bilingualism, and the NightZooKeeper initiative focuses on this first and foremost, teaching young children the basics of speaking English while still allowing them to express their creativity. Many of those in the Japanese homes are part-African – we want to be able to nurture solidarity between these kids we sponsor and the children in Ghana.  We want to host an online party which will be an important first step in this interpersonal development of the kids, teaching them they are not “half”, but “double”! Once the children learn how easy it is to connect with other friends over software and the internet, they will feel less isolated; a feeling that often comes about through living in the homes.

We believe everyone should have equal access and opportunity through technology and the internet. Michael, our founder, approached the school in Ghana in order to offer them appropriate resources after seeing Richard’s drawing of Microsoft Word in an ICT class. However, we would like to be able to develop this relationship a step further and have the Ghanaian kids’ families & parents bring their expertise around the globe. If we are able to bring the culture overseas, be it through food, craftmanship, music, etc., we would be able to increase e-commerce in the country, opening the market further to the people that was not easily accessible before. Through this approach, YouMeWe can take the technology equality sentiment a step further, providing it not only for the children but for the adults as well.

Our ultimate goal is to have a satellite pointed at the country of Ghana so that they have access to WiFi for not only the access to NightZooKeeper but also general internet rights that should be given to everyone. This fundraising party would be a huge accomplishment in letting Ghanaian citizens come to us, and also convincing the UK company in charge of the satellite to point one of them in Ghana. We hope you are able to help us complete our mission whilst contributing to YouMeWe’s cause.

Links:

• YouMeWe In Ghana

We are making another round of funding requests as we were able to get the cost of the WIFI down from $500 per month to approximately $55 USD per month.

We held a conference call between the children at the school in Ghana and the children at St.Francis Orphanage in Japan so they could meet each other online. The Japanese children taught how to say Good Morning, Good Afternoon and Good Evening in Japanese and learned to say the same in the local language in Ghana.

We are wanting to continue with our efforts to connect children in different countries with Japan simply because many children living in the homes in Japan are multi cultural and we are needing to recruit youth to come and work in Japan. This will not only lead to more cultural awareness and sharing but also the teaching of the Japanese language online which could also lead to employment for both parties.