Doodle4Google in Ghana

I'm reblogging this post from the Google Africa blog. It was written by Estelle Akofio-Sowah, the head of Google Ghana and Africa Leadership Initiative fellow. I'm encouraged by the work Google does to encourage creativity among the youth and by the fact that they go the extra mile to showcase it. Most of all, I'm glad that the Ghanaian public is getting behind their youth and supporting them in projects such as these.

At Google we work hard to bring the Internet closer to our users. We also love to encourage and celebrate the creativity of young people. Doodle4Google is a great way to achieve this. This year, over 700 submissions from over 50 schools were an amazing display of the imagination of young people in Ghana about what Ghana represents to them.

We hope that today (Wednesday 15th June), when we feature the winning Doodle from the 9 - 11 year old category, and tomorrow (Thursday 16th June), featuring the winning Doodle from the 12 - 14 year old category on google.com.gh, Ghanaians will enjoy these amazing doodles that creatively capture what is special and unique about Ghana in the eyes of our youth.

On June 11th, Marvels Mini Golf course in Dzorwulu, Accra was the venue for hosting the 80 top-performing doodlers in this years Doodle4Google “My Ghana” competition. The kids arrived with a great sense of excitement and anticipation in advance of the announcement of this year’s winners. They had loads of fun with new friends, learning origami and mini golf skills with the team from the Kokrobitey Institute. Our special guest Kwaku Sintim Misa (KSM) shared inspiring words on the importance of education and dreaming big, whilst a performance from “2 Puff”, got everyone dancing with their fun dance moves.

The high quality of all the doodles submitted made choosing our winners no easy task! With a great big African drum roll, we unveiled the winning Doodles by Nil Carreras Del Peso from the French School and Nana Abena Asabea Ametepe from Golden Age School.

Nil, aged 11, named his doodle “Traditional Ghana”, a blend of Ghana’s rich culture, from our Gye Nyame symbol, coconut trees, beads, village huts and flag. Nana who is 12, named her doodle “Home Sweet Home”, a popular saying in Ghana used on shops, buses, and on what used to be a popular means of public transportation, our “tro-tros”. Her doodle is an amazing watercolour painting capturing a traditional village scene with two women carrying water pots on their heads.

The winners also received a Kindle loaded with great books including “Voice in the Forest” by Efua T. Sutherland and “The Days” by Ama Ata-Aidoo and a laptop respectively. In addition, the schools of both winners received a USD 2,000 technology grant.

For all of us at Google, this year’s competition has been an incredible insight into the creative minds of young people. We hope you enjoy their doodles as much as we have! Congratulations again to Nil and Nana Abena!

Advances in mobile health technology

This is part of a post by Meghan O'Hearn on the ONE blog. Read it in full here.

According to a new report from the UN Foundation and mHealth Alliance, there are now more than five billion wireless subscribers in the world. More than 70 percent of them reside in low- and middle- income countries. From using mobile phones to coordinating emergency health relief efforts to reminding patients to take their medicine, mHealth offers some serious potential for creative health care improvements in all corners of the world.

The report, titled New Horizons for Health through Mobile Technologies, said 83 percent of the 112 participating member states reported the presence of at least one mHealth initiative in their country. Of these, three-quarters reported four or more types of mHealth initiatives including health call centers, emergency toll-free telephone services, and mobile telemedicine.

These mHealth programs have helped some achieve impressive goals on the ground. The Ghana Medical Association, for example, launched the Mobile Doctors Network in Africa in 2008 to wirelessly connect an estimated 2,000 physicians in Ghana with free mobile-to-mobile voice and text services. The project has been tremendously successful in helping serve Ghana’s 24 million people as well as facilitate prompt emergency response communication.

And in 2007, the Bangladesh Ministry of Health began broadcasting SMS text messages to the country’s estimated 55 million mobile telephone numbers to increase awareness about health campaigns, particularly childhood vaccination initiatives. This project’s success has prompted several other health-related SMS services, including a pregnancy advice system for mothers.

Although lack of infrastructure, operating costs and knowledge about mHealth are significant barriers to implementation, particularly in rural Africa, progress is real. Only 10 percent of the African population had mobile phone coverage in 1999. By 2008, mobile phone coverage climbed to 60 percent of the population. By 2012, most villages in Africa will have coverage, with only Guinea Bissau, Ethiopia, Mali and Somalia staggering behind. Given unprecedented growth rates, the sky’s the limit with mobile technologies in the global health care arena.

Digital Africa

There's a pretty cool mini series running over at ONE at the moment titled 'Digital Africa'. They're showcasing the latest innovations in technology helping in the fight against poverty across the African continent. If you've been following this blog for a while, you'll know that this is an area I'm particularly interested in.

The series started recently and there are just a few articles on there at the moment. If you have a look now, you'll find posts about the impact of technology in Africa, providing banking solutions for rural areas and and even one about an app for tracking cows. The rate at which new technology is springing up is amazing, particularly in the mobile phone area. Mobile penetration in Africa has been making big news over the past two years or so, and the solutions that African people (and indeed people all over the world) are coming up with to address African problems are a testament to this.

In the next five or ten years, who knows where we'll be? These are exciting times.

New video game educates youth on HIV spread & prevention

More and more, the power of technology is being harnessed to address development issues around the world. Creative solutions to long-standing problems are being created all the time. Now, a video game has been created for 16 - 24 year olds educating them on HIV-related issues. More from the UNESCO website:

The HIV and AIDS pandemic continues to grow, particularly affecting young people around the world. Young people often want to talk to their parents about HIV-related issues, but may find it difficult to do so.

Children may worry about parents’ disapproval and have fears about the risk of becoming infected with HIV. Parents are often shy, lack accurate information about HIV and AIDS, or do not have sufficient skills to speak about prevention with their children, and teachers frequently assume that parents will talk with children at home. Consequently, youth do not receive essential information on HIV and AIDS through the adults who are closest to them.

The computer game “Fast Car: Travelling Safely around the World” aims to provide young people with accurate and reliable information about HIV prevention, intending to educate and entertain as well as promoting healthy behaviour.

The project entitled “Development of interactive multimedia tools on HIV and AIDS for youth” aims to develop more accurate and youth friendly HIV-preventive information materials in interactive multimedia formats which address the needs of young people, in a culturally and gender sensitive manner in order to help young people to gain an accurate understanding and reliable information on HIV and AIDS issues and preventive practices, which may change their behaviour.

The project also aims to fill the gap in the computer games area, particularly in developing educational games, which combine education and entertainment. It is expected that the computer game will be used to promote dialogue, especially balanced-gender relations, and self-expression as well as present and share science content. It is also expected that the technology will be a cost-effective means of widening access to health education programmes.

The game is available for download (free of charge) here. Let me know what you think!

More on technology & development

You might remember an article I posted a while back about Zack Matere, a Kenyan farmer who found that being able to access the internet on his mobile phone was able to help in all sorts of ways. Now, with help from the International Finance Corporation and the Soros Economic Development Fund, Esoko will be giving this same opportunity to several other farmers in Ghana and other African nations. More from AfricaNews:

Ghanaian technology firm Esoko has received a $1.25 million equity investment from the World Bank's International Finance Corporation and the Soros Economic Development Fund.

Esoko gives farmers access to timely crop information that can be shared via text messaging, enabling them to increase their incomes. The investment in Esoko will help to give smallholder farmers and businesses in Ghana and other African countries timely crop information that can be shared via text messaging, enabling farmers to increase their incomes.

The Esoko technology takes advantage of the mobile phone and the internet to provide current agriculture and market information to interest groups within the agriculture and trade sectors.

Through its network of enumerators in 31 markets in Ghana, Esoko is able to provide market prices on various agricultural commodities directly unto the mobile phones of farmers.

Managing Director of Esoko Ghana, Bernard Otabil told Luv Fm the additional investment from the IFC and SEDF is a manifestation of growing confidence in the business.

According to him, the funding offers Esoko the opportunity to sustain support for farmers over the long term.

"Funding provides you the opportunity to actually implement your plan on paper and before anyone commits to taking up any investment in any organization, they have to be really sure that over the long term, the return on investment will be achieved.

"We know what our critical market really is; we have a plan in terms of making sure every farmer everywhere have access to the information that we provide. We are committed to improving livelihoods to help them to achieve their goals of poverty alleviation and also overall contributing to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals", Otabil stated.

The Esoko software is currently being used in nine African countries.

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Technology & Development

We are, as they say, in the age of the computer. To many, it seems strange to imagine keeping in touch without mobile phones, or looking for information without the internet. With technological advances come many different possibilities for advancement... to save time here, to make more money there. Smart phones are becoming more and more common place, bringing with them a wealth of applications that support a vast range of functions. Technologies are now able to work in a synergy with each other - phones with the internet, mp3 players with maps and satellite navigation, even watches serve as USB data storage systems these days. All these allow for an increased free-flow of information which is crucial to development.

Developing countries are often cited as being technologically backward, and (perhaps more often) lagging behind their more developed counterparts. Encouragingly however, increasing numbers of people are realising the benefits of technology and are becoming more and more innovative in its use. Even better, individuals in developing countries are adapting this technology and making it work to solve their specific problems and address their needs.

The question about technology is not whether or not it brings benefits - because for the most part, those are clear for all to see. To some, technology is simply a means by which to make life easier. To others, it has become an absolute necessity. Can we then say that technology is absolutely necessary for development? In cases such as areas of rural Zambia were the internet is allegedly more accessible than clean water, you have to wonder whether priorities have been set correctly, if at all.

This is not to say that these targets should be made at the expense of technological advancement. In some areas, mobile phone technology is being used to save lives, and to say advances in technology should be scrapped in favour of other 'more important' issues would be foolhardy. Where then, do we draw the line?

Some would say there is no need for such a line to exist. If, for example, there is a way of using one to achieve progress in another, that would optimise benefit for all concerned. An example of such a case can be found with Zack Matere, a Kenyan potato farmer - and from what it sounds - a would-be entrepreneur and philanthropist as well.

The 50 Kenyan shillings (about 66 US cents) he spends a day accessing information on the internet each day proves to be too expensive (or as some might say, frivolous) for the majority of people in his local community. Recognising the benefits and potential for advancement that can be gained by the wealth of information online, Zack plans to post useful information (on agriculture, health and education) on his local information boards.

"The internet is quite an individual pursuit. But a noticeboard is more of a group thing", he explained to the BBC. "So if I post an item on a noticeboard on potato disease, for example, the community can read it, talk together and come to a decision."

You can read more about Zack's story here. It is this kind of innovative thought that can propel development in rural and even urban areas, even if this can only initially be achieved by taking baby steps.

We've been reading...

This is a new feature inspired by ONE blog's 'What We're Reading' we're introducing so we're able to share a more diverse selection of articles. As well as our usual feature pages, we will regularly (once or twice a week) be posting four article snippets at a time for you to have a look at. Like the articles on feature pages, these articles will address issues on development (especially those covered on the six initial cheat sheets), leadership and mentoring. All our 'We've been reading...' posts can be found under the tag 'Recommended'. Simply click on the title of each snippet to read the whole article.

South Africa: Drinking the fog
NGO News Africa -- Gcinikaya Mpumza, mayor of a small municipality perched high in the Drakensberg Mountains of South Africa, was saddled with a huge problem: more than half the residents did not have access to water. It was a question of money. "We are a rural municipality with insufficient revenue, and providing water with conventional systems [piping it] in most of the areas cost a lot of money," he told IRIN. Then he chanced upon an article about harvesting water from fog by Prof Jana Olivier, a Climatologist at the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at the University of South Africa...

Kenyan farmer lauds internet as saviour of potato crop
BBC -- Kenyan farmer Zack Matere pulls his mobile out of his pocket holds it up and takes a couple of photos. "It seems they have come back and are digging here again." He is referring to a group of people who have encroached on a water catchment area and are endangering the whole community's water supply. "When they came before, I took photos of what they were doing, posted them on my Facebook page and was able to get assistance. I got in touch with Forest Action Network and they came back to me quickly saying they would help me protect the catchment area"...

White House water makeover
ONE Blog -- One of the world’s most recognizable buildings was given a shocking makeover by WaterAid, an international development organization and End Water Poverty, a global campaign group. The makeover was done to highlight the first ever High Level Meeting on Sanitation and Water happening today in Washington DC. Gone are the immaculate White House lawns, replaced instead with children collecting water from a filthy, garbage-strewn water hole. But this isn’t another world. Fetching contaminated and potentially fatal water is a daily reality for 884 million people...

'Third World' concept no longer relevant
Reuters -- The old concept of "Third World" no longer applies and rich countries cannot impose their will on developing nations that are now major sources of global growth, World Bank chief Robert Zoellick said on Wednesday. In a speech setting the stage for World Bank and IMF meetings in Washington next week, where emerging economies will play a bigger role, Zoellick cautioned against falling back into patterns of self-interest. He said the economic progress in developing countries had profound implications for global cooperation, multilateralism and the work of institutions such as the World Bank.