Behind the Scenes of Ghana Decides- A BloGH Election 2012 Project

Ghana Decides was a year-long project by BloggingGhana aimed at fostering a well-informed electorate through online social media tools. The project is officially one year today, and here are video highlights of what went on "behind-the-scenes". The video was curated by project videographer Sharifah.

 

Reading Aloud on Independence Day with Read Ghana- #WRAD

I joined the Read Ghana team and their volunteers on 6th March ( Independence Day) for their World Read Aloud Day (#WRAD) activity at Madina Estate Primary School, Accra, on behalf of the BlogCamp team. It was easy for me to identify with this cause because I read voraciously as a child, and that opened doors.

When I got there, the children were having their faces painted. Everyone was happy to have one design or the other on their foreheads, cheeks or some other part of the body.

Who's who in face design?

Trying out some shoulder styles

Soon reading resumed. It went on until about 1:30 pm when the programme closed.

Great readers become great bloggers

We made a little video to show what happened:


The Read Ghana folks seem to have one message: Promote reading, wherever you are! 

Reading means the world to us

More pictures at BloggingGhana's Facebook and Flickr pages.

Ghana Social Media Awards Finalists List Out

The BlogCamp team recently released the list of finalists for Ghana's maiden Social Media Awards. The Social Media Awards is part of BlogCamp 2013, and is aimed at encouraging the development of more quality local content. This reinforces BloggingGhana's overarching goal of increasing the relevance of the Internet in Ghana.

After a very grueling selection process, the following blogs made the final cut for "Best Blog":

• ganyobinaa.com
• efodela.blogspot.com
• thejrshow.wordpress.com
• accradotalttours.wordpress.com
• africaphotographer.blogspot.com
• adventuresfrom.com
• mightyafrican.blogspot.com
• antirhythm.blogspot.com 

Also, nominations were made in twelve other categories, and these are  "Best Original Content", "Best Creative, Literary Short Stories, Poetry Blog", "Best Organisational Blog", "Best Technology Blog", "Best Citizen Journalism Blog", "Organisation with Best Social Media Presence", "Personality with Best Social Media Presence", "Best Business & Commerce Blog", "Best Showbiz and Entertainment Blog", "Best Lifestyle Blog", "Best Activist Blog" and "Best Photo Blog".

See the full list of nominees at blogcampghana.com. Many bloggers whose blogs made it through expressed joy and appreciation for the outcome. Some who could not make the final list were obviously disappointed.

BlogCamp 2013 will be an all-day event held on 23rd March at the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT. Registration is still ongoing for the biggest social media event of the year, with roughly 57 tickets left. The event is organised by BloggingGhana, Ghana's biggest social media association, and supported by Intel, Fiesta, US Embassy in Accra, Google and Voltic.

Report on First Junior Camp Held at Ketasco

Leti Games CEO Eyram Tawia poses with Seyram and Kennedy

One of the best ways to encourage learning among young people is to encourage them to take up initiatives. By so doing, they make mistakes, learn from their mistakes, correct them and become better. A Chinese proverb captures it pretty well: "what I hear, I forget, what I see I remember, what I do, I understand." Students of Keta Senior High School (Ketasco) demonstrated the above saying aptly when they organised the first Junior Camp Ketasco as part of this year's SRC Week celebration.

Junior Camp was put together by the Students' Representative Council (SRC) of the school in collaboration with GhanaThink Foundation. The idea for a Junior Camp was birthed when students of Ketasco participated in BarCamp Ho and BarCamp Tema last year. Realising the immense exposure and network they gained from BarCamp, Nathaniel Alpha and co. decided that the rest of their colleagues must have a taste of the pie.

Ice breaker: Ato "vimming up" Ketasco students

Before Junior Camp, also dubbed "Ketasco Goes Professional", selected students and teachers visited various basic schools in the area to educate their pupils on the opportunities and challenges of senior high school education. I was at Tettekope Global Evangelical Basic School with Yvonne and Robert who advised the students on courses available at Ketasco, admission requirements, time management and career opportunities. The duo did a brilliant job, as they shared their own experiences with the younger ones.

Junior Camp focused on skills acquisition and career development. As such students were set up into mentoring sessions with mentors from different fields. They had the opportunity to ask questions and were given tips on how they could develop their talents and succeed today's challenging global climate. Mentors were drawn from the school, GhanaThink Foundation and industry.

Eunice shares her story with students as she is flanked by future engineers

Eunice Ogbugo, award-winning CEO of Eugo Terrano, gave the keynote address in which she touched on her journey from senior high school at St Roses to her current career. She explained her initial difficulties with certain subjects in school and how her determination and perseverance helped her to overcome those challenges. Eunice also took time to answer questions form the students.She was a huge inspiration.

The following mentoring sessions were held:

• Entrepreneurship with focus on mobile communications and opportunities in the Keta area: Famous Avuletey
• Engineering and Innovation: Ato Ulzen-Appiah
• IT and Project Management Nehemiah Attigah and Seyram Ahiabor
• Journalism: Senam Oyiadjo
• Start-ups: John Armah
• Talent Development: Joel Degue
• Creative Arts and Creative Writing: Eli Aidam and Emmanuel Adonu
• Banking: Arnold Parker and Richmond Ovadio
• Public Speaking and Motivational Speaking: Courage Tetteh, Solomon Adawu and Rose Zaney
• Fashion: Yayra Tay
• IT Training and Education: Makafui Nyamadi
• Sofware Development and Games: Eyram Tawia
• Marketing: Donald Ward
• Teaching: David Kattah
• Digital Literacy: Eldad Nutakor and Gameli Adzaho

Seyram (arm raised) and Nehemiah in action during IT mentoring session

Read more accounts of Junior Camp Ketasco by Enock Nyamador and Eldad Nutakor.

Cross-section of Junior Camp mentors after the event

I believe that creating more learning opportunities outside the classroom will go a long way to buttress what is learnt in class. It will also expose students to the realities of life and motivate them to be more serious with school work. Thank you to all the mentors who took time off to spur the next generation on, and the many others who could not come, due to the unfavourable time, but were in Keta in spirit. To Nathaniel Alpha, Ato Ulzen-Appiah, Enock Nyamador, Eldad Nutakor, Mr. Norvor and everyone else who gave their support, thank you for making this happen.

BloggingGhana Chair Launches Social Media Awards

At exactly 2: 33 pm today the Chair of BloggingGhana, Ghana's biggest association of bloggers, launched BlogCamp Ghana 2013 and Ghana's first social media awards. The event, which was first announced last year will be the first time that awards will be given in Ghana to acknowledge the contributions of bloggers to society.

Chair Kajsa Hallberg Adu also mandated the BlogCamp team to find Ghana's best blogger in a tweet:

With this tweet, I mandate the #Blogcamp13 team to go find the Best Blogger in 2012! blogcampghana.com May the best win! #233moments
— Kajsa Hallberg Adu (@kajsaha) January 8, 2013

BlogCamp 2013 is themed "Content is King" celebrates the relevance of quality content in branding individuals, organisations and nations on the web. 

In 2012, BloggingGhana organised the first BlogCamp Ghana under the theme "Voice of a New Generation". According to feedback gathered on social media, the event was a huge success. BlogCamp 2013 aims to take the experience a notch higher with Social Media Awards as a key part of the event.