name if I give you a pendant paper and I
said write your name can you write how
many of you guys can write it you can
write a name okay so it would amaze you
that the same program that the MC talked
about had about 70 students on an adult
literacy class and out of the 70
students no one could write your name
these are people with our from becasue
you’ll be amazed today that there are
adults who can even give the right
dosage of drug to the ward because they
can read a prescription you’ll be amazed
that there are adults in our country
today who don’t even know that the green
paper that we used in purchasing product
which is the ten CDs today we know that
the ten do they even know what the ten
means they’re only able to identify
money by color so when they see green
they know it’s ten cities when they see
blue they know is five CDs are you
surprised they are adults today that are
not able to make the right decisions
what they are talking in their wards
because they believe that is better for
a child to go to the farm and go to
francis is one of the beneficiaries of
our program I met Francis when I was
president of one as president of African
renascence movement during that time we
asked every single student in that class
right the your future carrier what you
wanted to be Francis said I wanted to be
a pilot
so ask Francis a quick question how do
you think you can achieve this dream and
he said if my mother would stop taking
me to the phone and take me to school I
believe I can become a pilot we are
amazed today France is actually one of
the top students in this class and that
the reason is that his mom and his dad
is actually part of the adult literacy
class and they believe now that it’s
these are decision-makers far country
these are people who decide who runs the
country these are the people who decide
whether you go to school or not these
are the people who decide whether it’s
better to use my money to buy cloth for
a funeral or to pay fees these are the
people who actually go out to vote how
many of you guys about you being out to
vote here you have educated ones you are
the ones who understand the policies you
know the ones who understand the
campaign messages you are the ones who
understand every single thing that these
leaders are talking about these are
people who this is this lady has no idea
what president how much talking about
has no idea what NPP is talking about
has no right there were PPP is talking
about all she knows is that I’m going to
vote for John Muhammad because he’s cute
am I wrong no these are decision makers
someone somewhere is one of the top
students in our class some wall join the
program was amazing when he came he
couldn’t read he couldn’t write his name
after three years running the program
some wall came up with an initiative
through our intrapreneurship program our
one-year intensive into entrepreneurship
program someone actually during the time
that Ebola crisis was very you know
speculated in our country someone
actually went online with our technology
program printed that document out went
to every single individual in the pre
Cousteau community and it boomed as a
village right next to it to educate them
on Ebola and the effects of Ebola on
their lives some owner wound up able
would would not been able to do this
without our program today summer is an
assemblyman off Kusum
not only just that just about two months
ago someone took Anani another
initiative in the community
his goal was that let’s make breakfast
with the cleanest let’s make breakfast
is the cleanest community in Accra you
he guarded everybody everyone in the
community partnering with ashes
University and they did a talk linen of
the whole town today breakfast is one of
the neatest community in Accra you’d be
amazed despite all the success stories
one thing that intrigues me was when we
wanted to elect what we all call class
perfect if you’re amazed I know that I
don’t like easy class you probably would
not expect us to have a class perfect I
wanted one I said it they said they
wanted someone to lead them we had about
70 students on the program so I went up
to the most like let’s try and get
someone to lead so we had a number of
nominations and then the lady right
there in the red she said her name is
Sandra she said I also want to become a
class rep I was like why not I think
that’s a very good idea then the man
came and a woman lead us this small girl
who is she that’s what they were saying
these are some of the comments that were
coming out we heard of the program I
told him that we are not going to do
this for now because I realized the big
problem which was the mindset these
people in as much as they’re that old
didn’t would even believe that it was
right for a woman to take a leadership
position which was wrong and this is
something that’s even in our communities
and even in our leadership positions
today I developed I worked with my team
and also some students from Princeton
University to develop what we called the
mindset leadership program in this
during this period we had people coming
in to talk about the importance of
female leadership the importance of
violence not solving problems with
violence and the problem and even the
importance of being able to have
dialogue on issues then brother you know
taking it to a different level six
months later
Sandra became the class perfect
youngmee’s right and do you know these
two called nobody’s called
18 the oldest student in my class is 60
the youngest is 18 and the 60-year old
men used to call him madam
I know right it was amazing um she did
very well we wanted to expand this
program this program was named Perry
wall we went we have a program running
in the border region we have one run in
the eastern region we’re now taking off
the one in Accra but I was like this is
gonna take time it cost me about five
thousand dollars to run one of these
projects for three years that’s very
expensive how can we make this cheaper
how can we make this innovative how can
we make this expand faster than possible
so for my final year project as a
computer science major in assess
University I develop what we called that
DNA learning – I didn’t learning to
basically as you can see
daka’s using it as an app that can teach
you how to read without a cheater
so anyone any your mom and that’s
actually a grandma she’s 56 so she can
actually take someone who’s never used
the phone and be proud to be using this
up the only pattern she knew on the
phone was the red and green button call
and call pick the call and go but she
was able to use this app for about three
weeks and afterwards now she can read
and write with this application I know
the question that I always keep getting
after this is is there on the App Store
is the only place though no not yet we
are still doing some beta testing and
basically what we’re trying to do is
make it more efficient so that even
people who are using because when I runs
on Android so people who are using even
j2me phones so that’s the young would
get access to some sort of learning –
before we launch it out because realize
that our target market which is the
adults most of them use j2me phones
there’s Symbian phones that’s yumps what
we call the yams there’s some songs and
the small ones what does the future look
like these are three students who were
seriously seized in the class trying to
land and Lord willin
II see I know it’s it’s it sounds
nothing to you but the joy that they got
after being able to just pronounce the
alphabet was amazing like you could
literally find one student who just got
up and started shouts and another is
about what 40 something started shouting
I can’t pronounce the half of it I can’t
pronounce the alphabet I know it doesn’t
mean anything to you but I meant a lot
to these to these people our future
looks what the future looks like is that
we hope to expand this project not just
in Ghana but across the continent we
believe that with the technology that we
have we are going to be able to get a
lot more people using this platform and
even people who are even and non-english
speaking countries can use this app to
learn how to speak English what do I
leave you with I know one thing that we
all want enough stops us from making
very good decisions and taking
initiatives and doing great things is
fear I had fear when I was starting this
program when I started I didn’t have
money I didn’t have any resources just
that what I had was just an idea I
walked into a town one day and I said do
you want to learn how to read they said
yes I said okay let’s go and learn I
have 50 cities and I started this
project with do not let fear determine
what decision you make let hope and
believe help you make that decision
don’t let society don’t let people don’t
let lack of capital
don’t let let let anything else hold you
look at the problems around you in your
community and see which one you can
start doing right now one person asked
me a question that how do you educate
all these adults and I tell them that I
can show you how to do it anytime you
walk from your house to the bus stop to
take a taxi or to trot or to work any
adult you see on the road just tell them
that just tell them what a word means in
so take a pen or take a book and tell
them that Kurata means book every single
day and I promise you within a year
though no more than you even know
yourself that’s the beginning the
beginning doesn’t need a huge stopped I
started very small with just about maybe
10 student it was a very difficult time
very very difficult time had a lot of
challenges one big challenge was that
they couldn’t comprehend that how can
you help someone this young teach me an
old man who I even know better than but
we found a way around it we broke them
up into groups and we did a one-on-one
session with them so we got to the point
they came to understand that was
rightful for you to have someone just
stand in front of you and teach I call
it a success I believe that we’ve done
our part and we’re still working towards
it something greater something bigger
and I know each and every one here as a
great dream or a great idea within them
was even identified a problem maybe you
might not be able to do it by yourself
maybe you can just partner with someone
maybe you can volunteer or work with
anyone in your community to achieve your
particular dream that’s my class but
that’s the class that graduated
we’ve got Richard 50 students at the end
of the program and out of the 50
students of like the speaker mentioned
the emcee mentioned sorry some of them
are assemblymen smooth in my unit man
one of the biggest success that I found
in this program was when one of our
this guy had no resources this gentleman
he had no resources no money nothing by
he got up one day found a church in the
next community and started this program
and today yes about 10 students that
he’s teaching every single day there’s
someone who could even write his name
but today is making a change we have
more than they have we have better
research we have a formal education it
doesn’t take much
all it takes is just a step I believe
transformation is possible within a
generation at that point when we decide
to make it happen I believe we are the
world I believe we are one I believe we
are united and I believe we are change
thank you
[Applause] [Music]