Mentors meeting postponed

It’s come to my attention that we will need to reschedule our end of programme mentors meeting as Wednesday the 31st is a holiday. It will therefore now be held on Thursday the 1st of September. The time and will remain the same (3pm at Databank).

Hope you can all make it.

Mentor with the YLMP!!!

Yes it's that time of the year again, we're accepting mentor applications for the 2011/2012 Young Leaders Mentorship Programme. We have a number of exciting things in store for you this year!

Firstly, the YLMP will be operating in two schools this year; both Kinbu Secondary Technical School and Accra High School. Secondly, for the first time we're looking at opening up our mentoring opportunities to university students outside Ghana!

We're really looking forward to seeing where this will take us. However, we'll only run the e-mentor scheme if we have enough potential e-mentors for every group to have at least one. That's where we're going to need your input. If you're interested leave a comment here, on our Facebook page or tweet us @infoYLMP with the hashtag #YLMPementor.

We're really excited about this project and would love to launch it this year along with our regular mentoring programme. We'd also love to hear any suggestions you might have.

For more information about our programme and what we do, have a look at our About Us page. You can also scoot around this blog for details of our past activities and events. You'll be able to find more titbits on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Teachers strike at Kinbu

Unfortunately due to a strike at Kinbu today, our Mini Seminar will have to be postponed to a later date. We are unaware as of yet how long the strike will last but we're hopeful out mentor-mentee session next week will still go ahead.

I'll keep you posted, please check back for updates.

Mentor-mentee sessions start this term!

2011 is fast approaching and with it comes term two of our second Mentorship Programme - exciting stuff! Not much will be changing; we'll still be meeting once every couple of weeks as a group for our Mini Seminars, and (we hope!) you'll still be arranging your own meetings within your groups to go over your Cheat Sheets, The Cross Drums and anything else that might come up.

In the spirit of newness the new year will bring though, we will be adding another aspect to the Programme. For the first time ever, we will run special 'mentor-mentee' sessions in between our Mini Seminars. These will provide all mentor groups with a few structured (and I use that term loosely) sessions in a month where you can meet up. The content covered during these sessions is optional; you are free to decide what exactly you use these sessions for. We do recommend however, that you spend at least some of these sessions to start - or continue if you've done that already - discussing and filling out your Appraisal Forms.

Our Appraisal Forms are an essential part of the Programme as they provide the backbone we use to evaluate your mentoring relationships. In other words, they're what we use to find out how well the Programme is working. Enough about that for now though - we'll have plenty of time to discuss this further during the term. If however you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an email or just leave a comment below.

So that's it for a while, but be sure to check back soon. Happy new year in advance!!!

Sneak peek: YLMP Newsletter!!!

10 days till Christmas and it's looking like we're finally close to printing the YLMP Newsletter!! It's taken us a loong while to get here, and I'd like to thank all our contributors and those of you who've been silently (or not so silently) cheerleading all the way. I'm going to be a bit naughty and reward our blog readers with a sneak peek of the front cover! Admittedly it's not all that much - just the cover - but I hope it gets you excited about reading it nonetheless. Here it is (click on the image for a closer look):


It's packed full of great stuff including mentor and mentee's articles, poems, inspirational quotes and the chance to win Silverbird movie tickets! We're looking to get it to TYPE by the end of this week, meaning it should be ready for you towards the end of January. I'll keep you posted!

Great news for all mentees!

During our Leadership Conference last month, Albert Ocran asked us about three things we think would come to people's mind when they thought about us. When he asked us if there was anyone who would share these things with us all, Albert Adjei obliged. Mr Ocran was so moved by the frankness and honesty by which Albert answered that he decided to present him with a free copy of his latest book. Unfortunately (or fortunately as the case may be), he did not have a copy with him at the time.

Elinam has been speaking to Mr Ocran and he has very kindly informed us that he has decided to give a free autographed copy of his Career Starter Pack to all mentees! Yes, all of you! Albert Adjei will also be receiving a copy of The More You Know The Better It Gets. We'll be giving them out on Friday during our Mini Seminar. Thanks and God bless you so much for your generosity Mr Ocran!

I'm also pleased to let you know that Sub-Saharan Publishers now have copies of The Cross Drums in stock. We will also be handing these out to you on Friday. Make sure you come along!

Ghana leads the way on MGD 1!!!

Here's a fantastic post from the Gates Foundation blog by Melinda Gates. You might have already heard - news of this development made the front page of today's Daily Graphic. Hope you enjoy the read nonetheless:

"In the fight to reduce hunger and poverty around the world — part of the ambitious set of development targets known as the Millennium Development Goals — one country that really stands out for me is the West African nation of Ghana.

Ghana’s progress has been remarkable. Between 1990 and 2004, Ghana outperformed all countries globally in reducing hunger by 75 percent. It’s also making great strides to reduce the number of people living in poverty. In fact, Ghana is on track to become the first country in Africa to achieve the MDG goal for halving poverty and hunger from 1990 levels by 2015. That’s remarkable, especially when you consider the devastating drought, dwindling harvests and rising poverty that Ghana experienced in the mid-1980s.

How did they do it? In Ghana, as in many parts of the developing world, the poorest people get their income by farming small plots of land. So finding ways to help these farmers produce more food and get it to market is a critical element in reducing poverty and hunger. That’s also the goal of the foundation’s agricultural development initiative, which we launched in 2006.

And that’s just what Ghana has done. During the past 25 years, Ghana’s increased government investments in agriculture have led to some amazing results. Ghana commits nearly 10 percent of its budget to improving agriculture, putting it among the top investors in the sector in Africa. It’s experienced steady growth in agricultural productivity, almost 5 percent a year since 1985, making it one of the world’s top performers in agricultural growth. A dramatic increase in cocoa production has helped to increase exports. And child malnutrition in Ghana has almost been cut in half since the end of the 1980s.

There is still work to be done in Ghana – only half of the land suitable for agriculture is currently under cultivation and there are still complaints from farmers that the market for some crops is underdeveloped. But there is no disputing the fact that Ghana is on the right path: just two decades ago, Ghana was a country that struggled to feed its own people; now it has ambitions to become the breadbasket for West Africa.

I invite you to take a look at this photo gallery — featuring the story of Ghanaian cocoa farmer Peter Owoahene Acheampong — on Ghana’s progress."

This is fantastic news; hopefully progress in the seven remaining goals will follow soon!

Do YOU want to be a mentor?

Morning everyone! It's a great day -- the sun is shining, birds are singing, and we are now accepting applications for YLMP mentors 10/11! All the information you'll need is on our Become a Mentor page, so if you're interested, head on over there and get cracking! As you will probably already know, the 09/10 Programme ended on Saturday with our Awards Day -- there'll be an update on that coming soon, so stay tuned!

A few announcements - Updated

Sorry for the long silence folks! Been a busy past couple of days, but no excuses so I'll just press right on. I have a few announcements that I'll be emailing you about later on once everything is confirmed; this is for all you bloggers out there.

First up, we have some dates for the last two Mini Seminars! These are especially important because they are the last ones, and there are a couple of things we need you to know. The first will be on the 2nd of July - Mr Nyantekyi will be continuing his talk on the Power of Positive Thinking. It is really really important that you come along to this one as this is the date your journals are due. We'll be needing them as part of the Programme's assessment. The second will be a week later, on the 9th of July, when Albert Ankrah will be talking to mentees about Career Development. We'd like to see everyone here for this too as it's the last session before the Awards Day (yes, we're having an awards ceremony!) Please note though, that these dates are not yet confirmed. It is possible that we will be having one of the two on the 9th of July instead. As usual, I'll update you as soon as they have been confirmed, but until then please keep your diaries free!

The second thing I'd like to talk to you about is to remind you to fundraise!!! I haven't received a call/text/email from anyone letting me know that they'll be going somewhere, so I'm guessing no one has started yet. Please please can we start as soon as possible - we've only got until the end of July to raise over GH¢30,000! We really have to pull together to manage this. And please don't forget to let me know after you've been to someone with the sponsorship letter - we'd like to keep records so we don't have too many people going to the same place. You can call, text, send me an email or even just drop a comment... anything that'll get the message through.

Third thing: the Appraisal Forms. These were due last Friday, so it's really important that I get them as soon as possible. Elinam wants you to know that if you've been having trouble meeting up with your mentees, you can fill in the form among yourselves (i.e. junior and/or senior mentors in a group). If you've met them before and have a fair idea of what they're like, you can go ahead and put some objectives down and we'll work with those. The deadline is now this Friday (18th June). You may or may not be pleased to know that we are scrapping section 3 (Interim Performance Tracking). We will be working on sections 4 and 5 (End of Programme Conversation and Review, final comments) during the last Mini Seminars, which is another important reason we'd like to see you all there.

Lastly, junior mentors in the Library and Support Team have a meeting next Friday (25th June 2010). We need to put together a concrete plan of action as to how the Library Club at Kinbu is going to run. We also need to make some headway into choosing a patron, etc. This time we're taking a slightly different approach -- come to the meeting to find out more!

I think that's all for now. Keep checking back and I'll inform you of any changes to the dates of the Mini Seminars.

Go Black Stars!!

Mini Seminar cancelled

Unfortunately, due to a number of unforeseen circumstances, we have had to cancel today's Mini Seminar for now. Harry McNinson (our scheduled speaker) has been called impromptu to Koforidua on official business. There has also been an uprising in the Kinbu area as a result of the AMA reclaiming land. While we are unsure of the exact details around the issue, safety is our main priority and we do not want to do anything that could potentially put anyone at risk.

God willing, the seminar will be rescheduled for next Friday. I will let you know as soon as this has been confirmed. You can still come along to Databank to submit your Appraisal Forms however.

Developing a culture of reading (Part 2)

Last night, various junior and senior mentors met to decide on which programme we are going to implement at Kinbu. As mentioned earlier, we wanted to pick the most effective and sustainable idea that would benefit the largest number of students.

To start with, everyone present shared their ideas on which idea they thought was the best to implement and why. From this, we came down to about five ideas. In the end, we decided that it made most sense to go with the Library Club idea. A point was raised that it would be unrealistic to target the whole school to begin with. If we're able to implement the club successfully and make it attractive enough, eventually a large number of students would benefit. Better start small with high levels of success than to start too ambitiously and end up with little progress.

Another point was that providing incentives to the students would work well, and this could work quite well with a Library Club. One of the most attractive features of the Library Club is that it is flexible. Several ideas can be integrated together for the Library Club to organise. Out of the ideas we came up last week, these include:

• Termly quizzes/competitions based on set books. Internal (within Kinbu) and external (involving other schools) reading competitions
• Members get exclusive benefits, i.e. watch movies (e.g. The Book Club, The Debaters), go on trips etc based on attendance to meetings
• Have speakers periodically come and talk to students about the importance of reading (e.g. Ama Ata Aidoo).
• Arrange books in order of difficulty. A ‘reading marathon’ could then be introduced. Students must finish one book before advancing to the next. Can create positive competitiveness
• The club could organise writing and debating events
• The library could be emphasised at orientation – new students could be given a tour of library and encouraged to join the library club

Instead of completely scrapping the idea of having students make drama productions from books, we decided that if there was an 'outside' production happening, students could read the book and then go see the play as one of the Library Club trips. This would be at the discretion of staff at Kinbu.

The issue of students only joining the library Club for benefits (i.e. to hear speakers, to go on trips, etc) was brought up. We decided that events such as speakers talking about the importance of reading should be open to both members and non-members of the club as withholding this would be counter-productive. However, there will be a 'discounts' based system for events such as trips. The more club meetings students attend, the cheaper the trip will be for them.

Feel free to drop a comment if you've got any additional suggestions.

Sponsorship letters

As you might know, sponsorship letters were handed out to the junior mentors who attended yesterdays meeting. During the meeting, we discussed the procedure for handing out the letters. The guidelines are:

• Junior and senior mentors should only hand out letters to people they know personally
• Mentors should let Foundation staff know where they are taking the letter to before they do so
• Once a letter has been delivered, mentors should please let Foundation staff know so that no one else goes back to the same place
• If more letters are required, mentors can contact the Foundation for another one. This will be given provided that the person they are going to ask has not been given one before

If you were not present at the meeting, you can drop a comment, call or send an email and we will work on getting one to you.

News for mentors

This is a quick post to remind mentors that we're having a meeting this Monday. The meeting is for all junior and senior mentors, so please make it a point to be there. We're going to be deciding on the initiative we will implement to help encourage and motivate Kinbu students to read more. Please come ready to share your thoughts on which idea you think will be most effective and why. If you've not had a look at the ideas we came up with in our previous meeting, click here or refer to the minutes that were emailed to you on on Tuesday.

We will also be handing out sponsorship letters during this meeting so that we can kick-start the fundraising process. We have to raise over GH¢ 30,000 by the end of June at the latest - so we need to get the ball rolling as soon as possible.

Finally, due to the fact that most of you are busy with exams at this time, the deadline for submitting the Appraisal Forms has been extended until Friday 4th June**. Please ensure that you have completed them by then as the deadline cannot be extended past this date. If you have already completed some (or all) of the Forms, you can still bring them along to the meeting on Monday.

See you all then!


** Because this deadline has shifted, you'll need to arrange to discuss them with a member of the Foundation staff from the week beginning on the 7th of June. If, however, you have already completed the Appraisal Forms for all your mentees, you can arrange for a meeting prior to this date.

Library Campaign: Budget update

We've received the amended budget, and although it has been whittled down considerably, it still stands rather high at GH¢32,000. It's quite a lot, but we hope we'll be able to meet (or at least come close to) the target. We have till the end of June to raise everything we can, so we'll just have to work as hard as we can until then.

With the budget now confirmed, the sponsorship letter is complete and will be given to all junior and senior mentors. If you have a particular person or organisation you'd like to approach and need a sponsorship letter, you can shoot me an email at either infoYLMP@gmail.com or odoley90@hotmail.com and I'll get one to you. Alternatively if you are a member of this blog, you can simply comment on this post. Please note that if you are not affiliated with the YLMP or Databank, your request will have to be reviewed and approved by the Programme Manager before a letter can be sent.

We're also trying to get the mentees involved in raising funds so they feel like they are a part of the project. 'Support cards' have been created and will be distributed to them this Friday at the mini seminar. They contain a few details about the Programme and what it is we're hoping to get done. Although we're not expecting to raise a significant amount from this, we hope that the mentees will be able to get involved and feel a sense of pride in playing an integral role and making a practical contribution towards project.

In the meantime, we also have to think about projects we can start in order to create a culture of reading among Kinbu students. It's all very well and good refurbishing the library, but if students are not in the habit of reading our efforts will have been in vain. Once again if you have any ideas, just let me know and I'll pass the information on.

YLMP says goodbye to Alieu Senghore

One of our senior mentors, Alieu Senghore, will be leaving us today. He will be going back to The Gambia next week. All at Databank Foundation and the YLMP would like to wish him the very best. Thank you so much for all your hard work Alieu!

Coming soon: YLMP Newsletter

Plans are up and running for the release of the first edition of the YLMP Newsletter! Some members of the YLMP magazine team met up last night to discuss the content, layout, etc. I won't give too much away and spoil it for you, but it promises to be a great publication with contributions from mentors, mentees, and staff at Kinbu.

We're looking at having a first draft of everything by the end of May. The final copy should be finished and printed just before the summer holidays. Watch this space!

Databank Foundation and YLMP on allAfrica.com!

Databank Foundation and the YLMP (as well as other Foundation initiatives) have featured in an article on allAfrica.com! You can read excerpts of the article below, or you can read it in full here.

Databank... is poised to address the leadership problem that has plagued the continent, through the... Databank Foundation, by training leaders for the continent's development.

So far, 200 people have been trained through the initiative and challenged to bring success to their fields of endeavour.

Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, Executive Chairman of Databank Group, said the Foundation was an initiative to address the leadership crisis which has plagued the continent, in order to develop Africa and to help solve the problems in the identified areas.

Meanwhile, another programme labelled as the Young Leaders Mentorship Programme targets the youth to become part of the solution and not the problem to the challenges facing Ghana.

A pilot project of the mentorship programme is currently being run at the Kinbu Secondary School, which when successful, would be extended to other communities.

Unfortunately, some of the information on the original article was incorrect, but we have sent a comment pointing this out, and hopefully it should be rectified soon.

Update: Clean Up Campaign

A proposal requesting for a donation of bins has been sent to Zoomlion. The initial response was very positive, however we have not received any indication as to how many bins will be provided (and how much, if anything, they will cost). We are expecting to find out within the next week or so. As usual, the plan is to keep you posted, so keep checking back.

It is looking likely that the responsibility for recycling plastic sachets will remain with the canteen lady at Kinbu (she has been doing this for quite a while, and it would be unfair for us to 'take over'). She receives a certain amount of money from a recycling company each time they collect plastic waste from her. At present, she only recycles the plastic she collects from the canteen, so what we want to do is to is to make it easy for her to recycle plastic waste from the whole school compound. We'd arrange for her to receive slightly more than she does for the waste she recycles at present.

SPPC do not provide money in exchange for collecting paper, but instead give free toilet roll. We are still investigating other options for paper recycling. Due to the fact that the volume of recyclable waste Kinbu produces may not yield a significant amount of money (should we find a company that agrees to give money in return for paper), Databank will add their waste paper to the collection.

All revenue from the recycling will go towards a funding an extra Zoomlion collection day. Should there be any left over after this, those funds will go towards a 'Kinbu Fund', which will form a base fund for the SIG to use for their projects.

Update: Library campaign

-- Breaking news -- The budget is in people! At the moment it stands at a hefty sum of GH¢50,567. (!!!)

So. We're going to have to up our fund raising game by several notches. The figure isn't fixed as of yet - there will be a meeting with Mr Tetteh this Friday to verify a few items. We should be able to significantly reduce the final amount by receiving in-kind donations (furniture, tiles etc). Either way though, there is a lot of money to be raised.

The sponsorship letter is now good to go, and has been emailed to all members of the Support Group (formerly the Fundraising Campaign). Should you feel you would like to approach companies or individuals you know personally, you can let me know and I'll send you a copy of the sponsorship letter. Alternatively, you can leave a comment with the name of the company, and this will be communicated to a member of the Support Group.

--Update-->
After having consulted with Mr Tetteh's company, we have agreed on a revised sum of GH¢32,010. It's a bit more manageable, but we're still going to have to pull out all the stops in terms of fundraising!