The youth of Ghana face difficult challenges as they grow into adulthood. The power of youth must be positively utilized in all areas like health, education, technology, business, trade, agriculture, etc. and integrated with moral value education to spread peace and welfare throughout the country. The youth can contribute to national development through entrepreneurial skills training, rebranding, creating awareness of and encouraging science, and facilitating the creation of partnerships between educational institutions and Ghanaian corporations through attachments, internships and volunteer opportunities.

Technology education 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 come to light during project works.

In collaboration with Wada Ghana, volunteers have come onboard and are learning blockchain to understand the whole concept of blockchain technology.

This proposal will have a positive impact on the lives of about 300 youth in Ghana in the following ways listed below:

Bring together young people to learn blockchain and bring out great ideas such as information technology unique talents which they did not know existed.

Great ideas that can turn into business and jobs after getting knowledge in Project Catalyst through workshops.

Anticipated youth impacted - 300 aged 17-25

Train young people in marketable skills to boost their chances of escaping poverty.

To develop job skills, training will include technical and computer skill.

Education of blockchain will lead to reduction of dependence on government for job after school education.

It is expected that within two months of two sessions of workshops, the youth that will be attending will have in-depth knowledge about Cardano blockchain, project catalyst education which will include proposal writing where their unique ideas are discussed and how they can turn them into real life solutions through catalyst.

Cardano Blockchain will become a go to solution to the youth who are entering adulthood; they can become volunteers and community members sharing ideas for better lives through project catalyst funding of best ideas.

The challenges that I foresee are:

Internet instability for online participants who may be in some poor areas of the country.

Publicity of program may not reach some brilliant youth in some remote areas of the country who do not have access to internet facilities, who otherwise could have offered great ideas for proposals or volunteer work.

However, my team of educators will do our possible best to reach out through social media to get to as many youth as we can.

Generators will be on standby in case there is a power cut to ensure smoothness of the program.

<u>Deliverables</u>

1. Publicize outreach program for the youth on social media handles and tertiary institutions.

2. Educating the youth on blockchain- Cardano blockchain, other blockchains, project catalyst, opportunities involved.

3. Opening of Wallets.

4. Mentoring activities, including one-to-one relationship building and tutoring.

The expected two months of delivery will be as follows:

<u>Timeline:</u>

May 2022 - publicity of the program on social media- twitter, WhatsApp, telegram, Instagram, Facebook

June 2022 - 1st Workshop in mid June in a conference center to accommodate 150 participants face to face. Online participation will also be set up.

July 2022 - 2nd Workshop for another set of 150 participants - both face to face and online.

The total budget requested is $4000 in ADA,

The breakdown is as follows:

Hiring of Conference Center for 2 sessions: $800 per center per session- Total $1600

Resource persons- Blockchain Educators (3 )- $500 for 2 sessions - Total $1500

Equipment hiring for 2 days $150 per day -Total $300

Materials and stationery - $200

Refreshments for participants - $ 200

Transport and logistics - $200

Total budget requested $4000

Emelia Sarfo is a CA for Fund6, CA and vCA for Fund 7, CA and Voter for Fund 8, an Entrepreneur, a training consultant, Community worker, Human Resource Practitioner of over 20 years experience, Philanthropist, Marketer of over 10 years experience. Hotel Customer Service Trainer.

Afia Owusu - Educationist, Entrepreneur, Cardano Ambassador, Catalyst Swarm member, Challenge Team Member, Environmental and conservation specialist, Community Advisor, Proposer.

Awura Adwoa Owusu - Cardano blockchain student ambassador, CA, vCA, Entrepreneur, Proposer.

During the month of May 2022, this month is a preparation month to publicize the workshop the workshop through social media handles and the number of people that respond will be recorded.

In the month of June when the first session is held, the number of people that physically attend will be on record, plus the online participants will also be recorded. Those that express interest to become volunteers will also be documented for follow ups after the program.

In the month of July when the 2nd session is done, the number of participants will be documented- both physical and online participants, the number of volunteers that get onboarded will also be recorded for follow ups.

The measure of success will be as follows:

At the end of the two months' workshop:

• The number of participants will be recorded and the YouTube can be watched.
• The number of actual people that express interest to be volunteers and are willing to make contributions to the ecosystem.
• Follow ups on participants at the end of workshop to know how satisfied they were.
• Number of people who want to put great ideas into proposals for funding will be recorded and assisted through coaching and mentoring to bring ideas into reality to impact lives.
• Cardano becomes the go to open source project, and will bring in more developers who will grow and bring change in the ecosystem.

This is a new proposal

Other Proposals I wrote in Fund 7 but not funded were:

Fund 7 : Community Events: Grow Afriteen Grow Cardano.

F8 Challenge Setting- Grow NGOs Grow Cardano.

In Fund 8, I also have a proposal under:

Fund 8 : F9 Challenge Setting - NGO Outreach & Integration.