good morning on April 11 20 2015 I
presented alongside many others at TEDx
a crack the theme for that day was the
next chapter today I stand here before
you add a room under the auspices of
watch the doers today I will give you a
little bit about what I do at the girls
education initiative of Ghana it seems
that these days whenever I’m asked to
speak it’s always about the girls
education and education initiative of
Nana so for those of you who have never
heard anything about GE IG let me give
you my elevator pitch what is GE AG the
girls education initiative of Ghana is a
nonprofit organization with a mission to
provide academic and financial support
for girls including applicants with
special needs so they could access
higher education and professional
opportunities but the last two years GE
IG has been supporting 12 girls from the
greater crowd and the ashanti region of
ghana two of our girls have been
diagnosed with dyslexia after GI these
interventions so usually when I’m doing
my pitch this is the point in the
conversation where people ask me what is
dyslexia and so for those of us who
don’t know what dyslexia is dyslexia is
a learning difference where a person has
the difficulty with written language and
comprehending something that’s written
when during the accompanying slide their
companies slide provides answers to the
question why should we educate the
African girl child some of the answers
usually are early or forced marriage or
teenage pregnancy and premature
employment so UNICEF in 2014 reported
that Ghana has a 25-percent
national early child marriage rate and
two years later the ministry of gender
social and children and protection has
launched a campaign to end child
marriage in ghana so i asked you if you
are 12 year old girl with dyslexia under
school why would you want to be educated
it is important to note that that as a
girl beyond growing up in ghana dyslexia
or learning disability is very much more
double for you the World Bank reports
that dyslexia or learning disabilities
are more increased four out of five
people in sub-saharan Africa have
prevalences of disability so if I’m a
girl who is 12 years old with a learning
disability in Ghana why would I want to
be educated now I will talk a little bit
more about what GID has been doing but
the past two and a half years the GI g
model works we’ve been working very hard
for the last one half years and what
exactly are we doing we’re providing
students with year-round academic
classes we offer set to the classes
sessions for those students who may not
comprehend what exactly they’ve been
learning in the crowded overcrowded
classrooms that were often pleased with
right and so for our childhood of
learning difference our individual
tutoring opportunities provides more
inclusive learning and that means that
these children are able to be more
participant participatory in what the
teachers are teaching them and therefore
they could also add asked questions 101
and have better explanations given to
them we’ve also been providing
leadership development and mentoring
programs and the evidence is soon will
be on the screen for you to see all of
our 12 girls have been paired up with
individual mentors who provide them with
advice on the regular basis we ask that
our mentors checking with all of our
girls at least once a month and our
woman who inspires leadership and
speaker series offers our girls in the
community another avenue for leadership
development and mentoring so you see the
results and impact
what GID has been doing for the last two
and a half years so I think there’s more
evidence some of the pictures of our
girls with your mentors so what’s next
price as as TEDx of Doom is asking us to
answer what is the next step price in
the next step for us that is that GID
will introduce our 3rd Corps program
which is the public service program with
dubbed GID serves end of the GI g
service program students would be able
to go into communities and the left
develop tangible and measurable
solutions to problems like sanitation
overcrowded classrooms all these issues
that are I think we would all agree are
plaguing our community community and our
country rate so as you can see the girls
have been in communities doing cleanup
exercises and recently as part of our
vacation classes we took them to the
eastern region where by the swept up um
the I believe is that shampoo amount
please excuse me if I if I butcher that
name I sheopur amount for community yeah
and as part of the object so what is
next for us as I mentioned we will be
introducing our public service program
and very very soon our girls Bowl 50 /
girls are transitioning to the senior
high school this year and by next year
all 12 girls into the first cohort who
will be senior high school students and
I think we’ve done well very well with
that to be able to keep 12 girls in
school for two whole years i think
that’s not an easy feat and so we’ve
been doing very well very soon we hope
to also recruit our next batch of
students and so we know that we can do
this just by ourselves my colleagues
Eric and I draw her here with me so I
would ask you that after this
presentation please seek out one of us
to ask us what we’ve been doing and
maybe you could volunteer and become a
part of our movement thank you very much
you [Music]