Please describe your proposed solution.
<u>Background</u>
This proposal is a follow up on the funded project called Ghana Youth Onboarding Outreach which the first workshop was held on 14th June 2022 at Accra Technical Training Centre to educate the youth to know and adopt Cardano blockchain and gain the opportunities in project catalyst. The impact was seen as 152 participants out of over 200 registered to become part of the community.
The enthusiasm shown and the questions asked showed that the the workshop was impactful. Subsequently most of these tertiary students (over 30) participated in the first Africa Catalyst School held online on 21st June 2022. Most of the participants expressed interest in taking part in Fund9 Proposal Assessment and registered on Project Catalyst Idea scale immediately after the workshop.
Yoroi wallets were opened for most of them who got interested.
The second and last workshop will be done in July 2022. Over 150 tertiary students (youth) will be attending in another Tertiary Institution, which the total target of 300 students/youth as indicated in the proposal would have been achieved.
Based on the impact above, I and the team decided to hold another two sets of workshop in Accra and in another Region of Ghana called Ashanti Region to scale up Cardano blockchain and project catalyst, by putting in another proposal, hence this 'Ghana Youth Onboarding Outreach 2' in Grow Africa Grow Cardano challenge to promote Cardano in Ghana and Africa. The first proposal was in Fund8 New Member Onboarding challenge.
This second project called 'Ghana Youth Onboarding Outreach 2' is targeting another 300 youth or students of tertiary education who will be exposed to Cardano blockchain and project catalyst opportunities and be able to start micro businesses on their own to better their lives because jobs after school in Ghana virtually do not exist especially in these difficult times.
The youth of Ghana face difficult challenges as they grow into adulthood. Technology and skills development should not be the preserve of the affluent in our society, it must be decentralized and accessible by all.
Volunteer opportunities have been a source of providing skills for the youth for brighter future since their hidden talents would be realized during project works.
In collaboration with Wada Ghana team, volunteers have come on board and are learning blockchain to understand the whole concept of blockchain technology.
This proposal will have a positive impact on the lives of 300 more youth in Ghana as listed below:
- More students and graduates are going to learn blockchain and bring out great ideas such as information technology talents which they did not even know they possessed.
- The students and youth will know about cryptocurrency, because currently, cryptocurrency knowledge is very little in the country and the continent as a whole.
- Great ideas that can turn into business and jobs after getting knowledge in Project Catalyst through the workshops.
- Anticipated youth impacted - 300 aged 16 to 25.
- Train young people in marketable skills to boost their chances of escaping poverty.
- Training will include technical and computer skills.
- Education of blockchain will reduce dependence on government for job after school education.
Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.
In addressing the challenge, The Fund9 Grow Africa, Grow Cardano is about how to scale cardano adoption into the future of Africa by seeding and growing in 2022 and beyond. This is exactly what Ghana Youth Onboarding Outreach is doing and seeking to continue. The aim of Ghana Youth Onboarding Outreach is to get more people, especially the youth who are the future of Ghana and Africa to be aware of Cardano, and adopt it and scale it up in the continent. The workshops being done by this project is educating the youth (the future of Africa), getting them to adopt it and scaling up by also spreading the news about Cardano and getting more youth. Already one workshop has been done in June, another will be done in July to complete phase 1. The phase 2 which is this Fund 9 proposal seeks to to another one in another tertiary Institution in Greater Accra Region and then the second workshop in the Ashanti Region, which is 5 hours drive from the Greater Accra Region, to also get the youth in that Region to adopt and scale Cardano. It is intended that the subsequent proposals can be seeded by Cardano to be done in the other Regions of Ghana. Ghana has a total of 16 Regions in Ghana, meaning that we have a lot of work to do to scale Cardano in Ghana and Africa.
The youth will know about cryptocurrency and it's uses.
This project has stated that the youth knowing about Cardano project catalyst are very much interested in becoming proposers, Proposal Assessors, Voters, etc. which are all spelt out clearly in the Grow Africa, Grow Cardano challenge. Yoroi wallets were opened for students who participated in the phase 1 of the project. In this phase 2, Yoroi wallets will be opened for participants, thus addressing the key metrics of the challenge.
What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?
With my experience from the first workshop, the main risk is the tertiary institutions' refusal to grant us permission to hold the workshops for the students due to the misconception around blockchain in Ghana. But with much talk and education principal of the school agreed to allow us to do the workshop. So to mitigate the risk, I and my team have been going to the schools some days before the program just to speak to the authorities about the opportunities involved in Cardano project catalyst, and that blockchain is not just about bitcoin trading, which has been the main misconception among Ghanaians. So having spoken to the authorities in the Institutions, permission is given to educate the students and youth.