Project TechConnect

e-Inclusion a Non-governmental organisation in partnership with Vodafone Ghana Foundation, is organizing a 3 Month ICT Project dubbed TechConnect.

Project TechConnect will be launched in January 2016 at Aflao.   

 Aflao is a town in Ketu South District in the Volta Region on Ghana's Togolese (eastern) border. Aflao is the twenty-eighth most populous settlement in Ghana, in terms of population, with a population of 66,546 people.  Interestingly, in the 18th century, Aflao served as one of the major markets for the slave trade.

However irrespective of the economic activities in the border town, there is still a high level of deprivation and lack of educational facilitates to aid students in their studies.

As part of Project TechConnect selection criteria, 4 Junior High Schools with a total student population of about 4000 with no access to ICT labs and facilities were nominated to participate

In view of this, Project TechConnect will be training on ICT with focus on relevance to education and overview of ICT syllabus for Junior High School pupils.

What Motivated this Project?

The role of Information Communication Technology (ICT) as a tool for development in this dynamic world cannot be overemphasized. This requires prioritization of ICT in every country. Ghana as a developing country needs to consistently upgrade its ICT to capitalize on opportunities and gain competitive advantage over others globally.

In view of such merits, successive governments and other non-governmental organisations have taken initiatives such as “ the national ICT for socio-economic development (ICTAD) policy in 2003”, “the ICT development policy in 2004” and the “one laptop per child project” to ensure ICT development amongst the youth. This has resulted in significant transformation.

Despite these merits there have been reported cases on gender inequality in ICT. United Nations (2000) reported that, there is a gender divide with women and girls enjoying less access to ICT than men and boys. They further stressed the prevalence of such instances in developing countries even though female constitute a higher population. For instance, the 2010 census conducted in Ghana revealed that women population form 51.2% and hence the need for women empowerment.

The Project Objectives

This project therefore seeks to address gender inequality and empowerment of females especially girls through ICT by working with NGOs & CBOs (Community Based Organizations) to support pupils in “deprived” communities.

In our communities, access to ICT materials/tools remains a challenge due to cost and lack of facilities. As part of the project objective, e-Inclusion will be organising ICT clinics, using ICT tools for a cluster of four (4) community based Junior High School pupils. The pupils will be introduced to basic ICT tools, how to use them, as well as their impact on education. We expect that a total of 120 pupils will benefit from the ICT clinic.

With our focus on resolving the gender inequality in the ICT industry, the project is aimed at Promoting and encouraging the use of ICT by girls at all levels of education. As part of the clinic, a special competition shall be organised amongst the girls from the CBS (Community Based Schools) as a way of motivating them into this field.

One Key target is the establishment of e-Inclusion’s Tech Clubs in participating schools to encourage girls to consider careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM).

For sustainability of the project, e-Inclusion will be donating ICT Tools/library to the CBS. The library is to serve as a reference material for both teachers and pupils

The e-Inclusion TechHub

e-Inclusion as part of this project is establishing a fully furnished ICT hub for these cluster of schools (using existing infrastructure) to be managed jointly with e-Inclusion. Vodafone Foundation is also donating 10 laptops in support of this ICT hub.

In view of this, ICT instructors will be trained on e- Library Management Tool.  This is a soft tool which can help in easy management of   the Library

In addition to this facility a High Speed Internet   will also be made available at the Hub to aid both students and Teachers in their research work. 

Expected Impact of the Project

We expect that a total of 120 pupils will fully benefit from the exciting but educative programme outline.  This covers, Personal Hygiene, Career Guidance and Counselling, Career Opportunities for e-Girls, among other engaging activities.  

Also, other Community Schools within the enclave will benefit immensely from the e-Inclusion TechHub

It is also expected that better grades in ICT will be recorded in subsequent BECE results with continuous monitoring and evaluation programme which will be instituted by e-Inclusion.

Want to donate or volunteer to be part of this impactful project?

Like our Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/eInclusionghana/

e-mail us: info@e-Inclusionghana.org

Follow us on Twitter: @Inclusion_Focus

Mobile: 0503160358/ 0554208999

Empower a Girl with Technology, Empower a multitude of Innovators -

 Veronica Da-Silva, Founder/e-Inclusion

My Mandela Washington Fellowship YALI experience (Week4)

“A new chapter of my life opens up as I enter the world of business and entrepreneurship”. Sunday marked exactly three weeks and three days since my Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders experience at the University of Notre Dame began.
So far, the University of Notre Dame is a perfect blend of unique academic sessions, professional networking, community services and cultural activities and throwing back I cannot imagine how transformative, insightful and priceless my journey has been so far.
Sunday started with an incredible lecture on Leadership through Sharing Fire by one of the world’s renowned speakers, Dr Marc Hardy –Director of Non-profit Executive Education at the University of Notre Dame. The classroom session gave me the opportunity to identity my personal leadership potential. I also discovered that I possessed  a bottom-Liner personality traits. The breakout session also made me learn more about a fellow I have had the least interactions with. After a healthy brainstorming session, Dr Marc together with his lovely Wife Marcia Hutch treated all fellows to a hot sizzling Chinese delicacy at a nearby restaurant. The dinning session created another platform for fellows to bond and exchange ideas on individual projects.
Monday’s session on NGO Leadership and Group Dynamics was extremely engaging and practical. The fellows were privileged to be given a lecture by the Author of Non-profit Governance; Thomas J. Harvey on the Challenges faced by Non-profit Start-ups.The final session of the day which covered the CAPSIM business simulations was very engaging, instructive and hands-on. My highlight of the day was the Capstone Courier headlines which featured me as the most outstanding CFO for the week’s Industry’s performance-in a simulation environment.
I started my Tuesday by attending a brief presentation on “The Executive MBA Program’s International Immersion” Opportunities for Entrepreneurs. The session gave me a unique insight into what the  EMBA program offers to students including its key objectives which also gave me the opportunity to share my business challenge. The EMBA program presentation covered areas such as Business problem Identification, Strategic solutions, Marketing Implications and Financial Impacts on emerging businesses across the globe. The presenter also talked about how the  program also gives EMBA students at the University of Notre Dame the opportunity to spend one week abroad to collaborate with entrepreneurs and organisations after which a final recommendation is presented using the capstone real-world experience business tool.


The afternoon session was led by Sam Miller – Director, Gigot Centre for Entrepreneurship at the Mendoza College of Business. During this session, the presenter spoke about Foresight and Innovation from the Entrepreneurial perspective. He also emphasized on why commercialization of our innovative products is key to maximizing profits as entrepreneurs. The presenter engaged us fully by walking us through the application of The Empathy Mapping Tool titled, “Understanding the user”  which raises three main concerns: What products are they looking for, what problems do they experience, what are their expectations?
Finishing Tuesday’s session, the presenter left us with an inspirational message and ask that as leaders, we must thrive to leave handprints and not just footprints whenever we have the opportunity to make an impact in our communities.
The long awaited site visit to enFocus finally came into reality as we made our way to the historic Studebaker Union Station Technology building in South bend on Wednesday Morning. The ND Fellows were introduced to the enFocus team by David Murphy- Associate Dean of Entrepreneurship for the Colleges of Science and Engineering, as well as faculty member and Director of the ESTEEM (Engineering, Science, Technology, and Entrepreneurship Excellence Master’s) Graduate Program at the University of Notre Dame. Fellows were also privileged to receive an interactive Presentation on Union Station Technology Centre by Shane M. Fimbel-CEO enFocus. The presenter talked about how enFocus is passionate about supporting civic entities, non-profit organizations, and for-profit companies with business development, co-creation of solutions, and skilful technology deployment. The presenter shared with us the four (4) pillars of enFocus – The Experience, Community, nCloud and Sponsors. I drew lots of inspiration from how enFocus is empowering NGOs with the nCloud initiative established to provide information technology shared services for non-profits.

Later on in the day, we were again granted the privilege to meet  the  Mayor of South bend city, Pete Puttigieg- the city’s thirty second  Mayor who was sworn into office in 2012 .Mayor Buttigieg gave an amazing speech on how he and his team are  working to strengthen the local economy by retaining and attracting businesses, partner with the local public school system, manage a cutting-edge and transparent city administration, improve neighbourhood quality of life, and use proven methods to enhance public safety.
Thursday morning started with site visit to the South bend Chocolate Company(SBCC) founded by Mark in 1991.The CEO made a brief presentation on how SBCC grew from an old kitchen to about thirteen company-owned stores in northern Indiana and 4 franchised locations throughout Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. We took a brief tour to the production department and then finally to the packaging room. The fellows including myself were given the opportunity to have a bite of our favourite chocolate flavours. It was amazing to learn about how the company got its start making chocolates under a license from the University of Notre Dame with its first three products as the Dorm, Rockne and Nuts for Notre Dame.  The rest of the day was full of mentoring activities, and I was privileged to have my one-on-one professional mentoring with Melissa Paulsen- Assistant Director at the Gigot Centre for Entrepreneurship in Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame. It was such an insightful moment for me as I was able to merge my two great business ideas into a minute elevator pitch. It couldn’t have been this better!!!!
I can’t imagine we have only fourteen days left until we leave University of Notre Dame and its friendly Staff who would always go to the extra mile with their time, sweat, blood and tears just to make us feel at home. The countdown to Washington DC has just begun and I feel we are riding in a roller coaster as our days are so packed with real life learnings, fun and adventure.
On Friday, the fellows embarked on a weekend trip to the capital of Indiana- Indianapolis early in the morning to participate at the forty fifth Indiana Black Expo Annual Summer event where I was again privileged to listen to a very inspiring speech from one of the World’s Diversity and Inclusion heroes- Linda W. Clement-Holmes. I realised how much more I have to give to my continent when she was called upon to receive “The Senator Carolyn Brown Mosby Above & Beyond Award”.
The afternoon session was packed with professional networking events during which fellows were given the opportunity to meet the
Governor of Indiana- Mike Pence, the Senator of Indiana- Joe Donnelly and other key political personalities.
As we finished Friday’s networking session, the fellows were hosted by Barnes & Thornburg LLP, one of the largest law firms in the United States. There was a presentation on how Barnes & Thornburg LLP strives to appropriately reflect the communities in which their attorneys and other legal professionals work and live. They also shared with us some pro bono opportunities available for Non-profits. The evening networking professional session was complemented by representatives from Indi Africa and Cummins. Jimmy Bettcher who represented Cummins as their Strategic Analyst and Project Manager for Corporate Responsibility gave a wonderful presentation on their commitment to Africa and how to access some of these opportunities.
We crowned the evening by unveiling the 2015 YALI Project dubbed Afribend which was presented by Raindolf Owusu-one of the fellows. Afribend is a web based platform that seeks to connect People from Africa to South bend on the basis of e-Commerce and cultural exchange.

Life as a Social Entrepreneur

My passion for technology and innovation has shaped my thirteen (13) years experience in the telecom industry within the technology industry. I began my career at Ghana Telecom in 2002 as a Customer Access Network Engineer, when mobile and data technology was evolving in Ghana.  In 2006, I assumed the challenging role to lead the Field Operations team responsible for Special projects; where the quest to fully embrace the emerging technology drove my decision to purse a Master’s Degree in Engineering and Management from Coventry University (United Kingdom) with a focus on the evolution of telecommunication in emerging markets. Currently, I am the Enterprise Business Solution Manager at Vodafone (Ghana) leading a team of engineers to deploy end-to-end telecommunication solutions for corporate/enterprise clients.

Giving back to the community is an ethical social responsibility that needs to be committed by all.  As a social entrepreneur, I am obsessed and deeply inspired in the development of young leadership talent. I founded the “e-Inclusion Initiative” with the aspiration to bridge Ghana’s gender inequality gap in ICT Education. The vision is to develop female leaders and entrepreneurs in Technology. In March, I was named a 2015 Mandela Washington fellow for Young African Leaders Initiative by the US Embassy in Ghana. I am currently in the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA for a six week intensive leadership , business and entrepreneurship training. I expect the  Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders Initiative's  Business and Entrepreneurship track will enable me gain access to global leadership tools , networks, funding opportunities and resources needed for me to build the e-Inclusion Initiative. Our objective is developing “Women in Technology” leaders in Ghana. Follow my blog for updates on my social entrepreneurship venture.

“The way to achieve your own success is to be willing to help somebody else get it first.” -- Iyanla Vanzant,