Throughout my professional life, I always seek to work with
people. My passion for youth activism, volunteering, teaching and working with
pupils, was first sparked while volunteering with the UK-Government-Funded
International Citizenship Service program in the Adaklu district of the Volta
Region, Ghana. I worked with a team of volunteers from the UK and Ghana to
develop an action-research program for the Adaklu Waya Livelihood Project. I
organized and facilitated training sessions with farmer's groups and engaged
with the youth and District Assembly to develop market knowledge through
research to enhance the livelihood activities of the community members.
I was later appointed as a Team Leader on the Latitude Ghana
Volunteers project, where I led a Team of eight volunteers on the Adaklu Waya
Livelihood Project. I worked with farmers in rural communities to deliver
trainings in good agricultural practices, business planning, marketing, and
branding to improve their conditions. I also led a skill training event in Tie
and Dye making, which served as an alternative source of livelihood for the
community folks. Together with my team, we successfully won a grant of GHS
2,500.00 as start-up capital for five farmers groups we've established. I also
took the initiative to raise awareness on the importance of educating the girl
child through a door to door campaign to reduce the rate of teenage pregnancy
among the girls in the community.
I recently completed a two-year Fellowship Program with
Teach for Ghana (TFG), a movement of solution-driven leaders expanding
educational opportunities to all children in Ghana. I taught English Language in
the Metsrikasa District Assembly Basic School in the Volta Region of Ghana, and
served as a mentor for Teacher Trainees. Being on the Teach for Ghana
Fellowship Program has influenced my leadership capacity and developed my
commitment to bridging the educational inequity gap in my country, Ghana. I
have built a strong bond with pupils, parents and the community I worked with.
As a teacher and leader of my pupils, I sought to deliver lessons that enhanced
pupils’ academic excellence and mind-sets and access to opportunities. I
exposed my pupils to the world through a letter exchange programme led by Yo
Ghana, a US based NGO in Ghana; they write and receive letters from their
penpals U.S. schools. I have also established a reading culture in the school
through a reading club I have established, where I engaged pupils three times a
week after normal school hours to read. I also led a school painting project,
where I painted the JHS block with my pupils and posted motivational messages
from some African and European leaders on 48 trees on the school compound. I
also led the establishment of a library and computer lab in the school.
One major challenge I faced while working on the Metsrikasa
School Library and Computer Lab Project was fundraising issues, and hence could
not meet the timeline for executing the project. It was very difficult at the
beginning trying to fundraise from friends and family members in Ghana as they
did not understand the reasons why they should support such an initiative.
However, the enthusiasm and support of the community folks and the Parents
Teachers Association (P.T.A) refueled my drive to pursue the project. The
community members through the P.T.A levies were able to construct bookshelves,
provide spaces for computers, and use their own labor to raise this structure.
My colleague Obed Nhyira Sam and I won a grant from Yo Ghana to purchase a three-in-one
printer, which has helped in duplicating learning materials for pupils and also
printing out the letters they receive from their U.S. penpals. We won a second
grant to purchase six computers for the school. Through a partnership with
‘Scholars in Our Society and Africa’ (SOSA), a nonprofit in the United States,
we have received over 500 books for the library. We raised an additional 300
books from other sources.
I derive my motivation from seeing people's lives change by
the little support I give. Giving back
to my community and country has helped me to discover my strengths, weaknesses
and skills as a Leader. Volunteering and teaching has helped me to identify my
career path and long term vision.
Although I seek to work with people, it has been very
challenging working with people with different characters and temperaments. I
learned to respect the views of others and not always base my judgements on
single stories or hearsay. I believe the best way to know people and to work
with them is to develop a personal relationship with them. This strategy helped
me in the classroom as I tried to know my pupils beyond the class. As I learned
not to please man, I became more expressive than impressive. This also helped
me to grow as a Leader and become more confident with my values.
I have served in various leadership positions which have
earned me a wide spectrum of leadership skills and achievements on my career
path. I was appointed as the Assistant
Departmental Head and Secretary for the Metsrikasa D/A Basic School. I was
voted as the District Lead for Teach For Ghana fellows in the Akatsi North
District and Project Director for Everyday People-GH, an alumni volunteering
organisation promoting active citizenship among the youth in Ghana.
I am also a social entrepreneur and Founder of DEEP Creative
Arts (DCA). DCA is a graphic design and fine art firm, engaged in business
branding, paintings, t-shirt/screen printing, and skills development of pupils
in the basic and Senior High Schools of Ghana.
My hope is to one day become an astute development
practitioner, who invests his skills and talents in the lives of others. I seek
to do this through youth empowerment, educational leadership, volunteerism and
community development.
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