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.

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.

BloggingGhana Organises First Ghana BlogCamp

BloggingGhana, Ghana's biggest group of bloggers and social media enthusiasts presents a day of workshops and networking dubbed BlogCamp Ghana 2012. I will encourage everyone who can to attend this event as I can testify to how social media has changed my worldview and improved my life. BlogCamp 2012 indeed gives voice to the new generation!

Exchange of ideas during January 2012 meeting

BlogCamp seeks to educate and inform attendees on the benefits of social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+ and blogs. Further, BlogCamp 2012 will demonstrate how the youth can leverage the power of social media for positive social change, good governance, accountability, technology, business and education; this will ensure that there is more online content from Africa. BlogCamp 2012 will also be used to launch Ghana’s first Social Media Awards scheme, aimed at rewarding various activists and contributors to the growth of social media in Ghana. Visit the BlogCamp Agenda page for further details.

BlogCamp 2012 has been made possible through the efforts of the BloggingGhana Community and the kind support of our partners: Vodafone, Google, United States Embassy, Nandimobile, Web4Africa, Citi 97.3 Fm, Mawuli Sikanku Photography and REDD Kat Pictures.

Enter your details into the BlogCamp 2012 registration page to be part of this wonderful programme. For more information, visit the BlogCamp Ghana website or connect with BloggingGhana through Twitter, Facebook or Google +. We will be posting with the hash tags #BlogCamp12 and #BloggingGhana. Send your inquiries and we will get back to you immediately. Be part of BlogCamp 2012, Voice of a New Generation!