francwini

The lack of electricity in my home village in northeastern Ghana is having a huge negative impact on the educational outcome of the school kids in the community. Most of them cannot study and do their homework at night, except for a few who have access to kerosene lamps and flashlights. In this technological world, you would be surprised that kids from my community have never used computers. As a community native with firsthand experience of this problem, I am collaborating with students at the University of Washington (UW) to provide solar electricity to my village. This initiative was my commitment at the 2018 Clinton Global Initiative University Annual Conference in Chicago. With my team of three students we have been able to install our first solar panel at the junior high school, thanks to the Marcy Migdal Fund for Educational Equality at the University of Washington Center for Global Studies. We were awarded a $1000.00 which we used to pay for a solar panel, a battery, and an inverter Nocheski Solar, a partner of Victron Energy. I spent $300.00 from my pocket for the transportation of the materials from Accra to my village, paid for the electricians, bought wires, sockets, etc. Now, over 200 students can learn computer practical lessons and those who live close by can come back in the night to their homework. The students, teachers, and community members are very excited about this opportunity.
I have been able to fundraise $2500.00 through GoFundMe to expand my project this year. With this money, I will buy an additional solar panel and batteries to extend the existing one to the primary school. I will buy a modem that will provide internet so that students can have access to online resources. The teachers’ quarters will also be provided with solar bulbs and internet to attract and retain teachers in the village. There will be a kiosk for the community members to charge their cell phones. To ensure sustainability, I will provide a mobile money vending machine in the kiosk where community members can send and receive money. The revenue generated will be used to pay for the internet, the person operating the machine, and some of the money will be saved in case there is a need for maintenance. I want to provide electricity to my village and other communities in northern Ghana, northern Togo, and southern Burkina Faso that will propel socio-economic growth and development. I will scale it up to other schools and communities without electricity as a long-term measure.
NASCO ICT in Spain will donate 45 computers to my village school. I intend to power the computers using solar. The computers are pre-installed with 80% Google intranet since we do not have internet access in the community. I am planning of raising money to build a computer laboratory. I will be collaborating a furniture dealer here in Seattle to send some furniture once the computer lab is built.
I have always been interested in platforms like YouthLead to engage with young changemakers about the future of our world.
The program is extremely important for me to sell my community solar project, network, and collaborate with smart minds to expand my community. The training and mentorship will prepare and equip me to harness my talents and hone my skills for effective leadership in society.