January 23, 2020
Dear Partners and Friends,
Happy new year to you all. I hope you celebrated the start of 2020 in good spirits with family and friends. Now that we’re a few days into the New Year, it’s good to look ahead and think about what this year may bring us.
First, a quick look back at 2019.
2019 was quite a year for all of us at the DreamOval Foundation. We commenced the year with the training of 60 girls drawn from the Nima/Maamobi Community to continue their STEM training in robotics and coding at the Pentecost University. This program also launched us into phase 2 of the Females in Tech Initiative for 80 girls drawn from Madina, Adenta, Ayi Menah, Agbojo, and Amrahia in STEM.
Our flagship program Africa Code Week was launched with a touch of tradition in August 2019. In all Africa Code Week 2019 saw the training of 1,484 teachers and over 124,000 youth from the Greater Accra and Ashanti regions. One significant addition to our program in 2019 was the introduction of 80 special kids from Dzorwulu Special School to special coding with the goal of enhancing their skill in digital literacy. We believe every child deserves an opportunity including all children with special needs.
The foundation was also represented at the Social Enterprise World Forum held in Addis Ababa from 23rd to 25th October 2019, to address the impact of Social Enterprise across the globe and recognize various organization making an impact in the world. The conference brought together over 1,500 delegates from across the world working in various social interventions.
2020, looks exciting already with the expansion of Females in Tech initiative to the Volta region to support 2,500 girls from underprivileged communities. These girls will have an opportunity at digital literacy with a focus on coding, robotics and entrepreneurship. The girls will be assigned to experienced female achievers as mentors over the period of the training to help shape their ideas and innovations into viable ventures.
In line with this, the team from DreamOval Foundation met the Regional Minister of the Volta Region, Hon Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, to discuss the initiative and how it’s going to transform the girls and launch them into the digital age. This meeting was held on Friday, January 10, 2020. The minister was enthused about the program coming to the Volta region and expressed profound admiration and gratitude to the Foundation for considering the region. He further reiterated the support of his office and the Regional Coordinating Council to ensure the program is a great success.
Africa Code Week promises to be exciting with the addition of the Central region to the list of regions already involved in coding. Through this initiative, we hope to introduce over 150, 000 children to coding in 2020. Similarly, the foundation is also working with the Ministry of Education to roll out a comprehensive special coding training targeting children with special needs. We are not leaving anyone behind in our quest to expand digital literacy to every youth, especially those in underprivileged communities.
The Foundation signed an MOU with Nesta UK in 2019 to launch the Ghana Science and Tech Explorer Challenge Prize in 2020. The Ghana Science and Tech Explorer Challenge Prize presents an exciting opportunity to support JHS students (11-16) and Teachers in the Ashanti and Greater Accra Regions develop practical STEM skills and products that benefit local communities. This is another exciting opportunity to explore talents at the basic level and prepare them for the digital age.
2020, will also see the launch of our programs in two African countries to launch our footprints on the continent. The foundation is currently in talks with two organizations in Liberia and Togo to achieve this purpose. This already looks exciting and hopeful as we work to support other youth outside Ghana.
The Foundation is poised and working to promote digital literacy. We require everyone’s effort to achieve this. Your contribution and support will assist in addressing challenges and unearthing talents among the youth in Africa. 2020 begins the year of action as we address the UN 17 SDG goals to make this world a better place for humanity.
Stand with us and let us work to support this social enterprise.
Thank you