As many of you know, Ghana is full of Malaria – the mosquito driven infectious disease. It is incredibly debilitating to those who get infected – and unfortunately, 3/8 of our volunteers have been!

We are devastated by this news and want everyone to keep all of the volunteers in mind….send them your positive vibes and energy so that they can get better!

They have been working SO INCREDIBLY HARD with the kids and have the screening of the two short films in under two weeks. They will need all the strength they can get.

We will update you on their progress as we hear more.

God bless.

The field volunteer update for week two was a very exciting one – from being on the radio and TV to local sponsorship!

Here is a taste!

MEETING WITH MTN
Alison, Orchid, Keira and Lewis met with Franklin Sowa (customer Experience and Branding Manager Marketing Division) at the MTN headquarters. We were able to tell Franklin about the project, show him a short clip of the films from 2009 and request their support for this project and any future work that the street academy or AKOSIA may do. The meeting was a success and Franklin has since contacted us with a contact from the MTN Fellowship who would like to talk with us.

MEDIA / PR
On Monday 9th August Alison, Orchid and Mr Lartey had a radio interview at the GBC studios. We talked for 15 minutes promoting the project. We have booked a follow up interview on the 3rd September to allow us to promote the screening event. We were able to film behind the scenes footage of the interview. All the children at the street academy listened and were very excited to be mentioned on air.

On Thursday 12th Alison, Orchid, Tom and Mr Lartey visited the E TV studios. Alison and Mr Lartey were interviewed for 30 minutes on the AWAKE show. The interview was cut with B-roll footage of the children working. We are hoping to have a follow-up appearance the week of the screening event.
Media booked for the next few weeks includes:
• TV interview at GBC
• Radio interview on happy FM
• 1 hour radio show on Choice FM where we will take the children to share
what they have learnt live on air.
We have also been in contact with:
• Metro TV
• TV3
• TV Africa

Each week the field volunteers in Ghana have been sending the rest of the Akosia team a report of their activities. It has been a wonderful experience to read about what they have been up to – I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

This is just a taste from the first week:

VOLUNTEER ARRIVAL
All volunteers arrived safely and settled well at the Diamond Palace Hotel. Ahmed and Elliot met each volunteer at the airport. This was excellent and very helpful. Elliot and Ahmed were both instrumental in helping us settle in Osu. Elliot made a particular effort to give us essential information about the area and was hugely enthusiastic with the arrival of each new volunteer.
All agreed that having the time to settle and learn about Accra was essential before starting at the school. We had a 3 full days as a team before we started teaching – this amount of time (at least would be recommended for future projects.)

FIRST VISIT TO STREET ACADEMY
We visited the street academy for the first time on Friday 30th July. School had closed the day before so the children came along to meet us. It was helpful to see the space that we would be working in and meet the children.

The selection process had not yet taken place and all children were asked to return on Monday morning for the selection. This isn’t ideal because it meant that some children were turned away even though they had turned up twice to try and join the programme. Maybe selection could be considered before the arrival of volunteers so as not to put them in a difficult position on their first morning (it was requested that we run an almost ‘audition’ for the children which didn’t feel a fair way to select for such a creative and inclusive programme of work.)

It was great to meet with Mr Larty. We confirmed that the event will take place on the 3rd September in Jamestown. He also shared important information and contacts that will help throughout the project. We will be working with 8 teachers / placements from the school throughout the project (including Elliot)

VISIT TO MARKET WITH THE COOK
On arrival at the street academy Alison met with the cook who requested that we visit the market with her so that we could choose the food for the children. Alison, Keira and Duncan spent 3 hours in the markets with her – a great experience. However, we have since learnt that we can get better prices for the food elsewhere. This has been addressed with the cook. Ahmed has been instrumental in providing guidance for this.

STREET ACADEMY SESSIONS
Running the first sessions at the street academy have been an absolute joy. It has been a challenge for all of us – no matter what level of facilitation we have worked before. We meet before and after the sessions to make sure everyone is clear on what will be taking place. Alison types up the session plans daily so that they can be printed out – all the volunteers have a plan of the session that they can refer to. However, the session plans are designed to be extremely flexible which is proving to be essential! We each have our own small group of five but regularly combine into groups of 10 to work with the flip cams. The children are learning fast and the school walls are already covered in their work!

The Brazilian government has continued to expand the ‘Bolsa Familia’ (family grant) scheme since 2003 to take children out of employment and back into education. The grants are payable to the parents, providing the child attends at least 85% of classes. Although the scheme initially sounds effective, it is debatable as to whether they are successful in keeping children off the streets and in school.

Evidence shows that around one-sixth of poverty reduction in Brazil can be attributed to the scheme. However, considering that the grants amount to just $12 per child per month, the likelihood of other variables contributing to poverty reduction; for instance a rise in black market engagement

Although 12.4 million households are enrolled on the grant scheme, the fluidity of transition through school for many Brazilian children is volatile, with many frequently stopping and starting their education due to the pressure to financially assist their families through child labouring.

What is more, the reduction of people living in absolute poverty in the rural areas of Brazil is higher than that of people living in urban areas. This indicates that the scheme may be more effective in rural areas. For more details on the article – http://www.economist.com/node/16690887

SO – what’s the role of Akosia?? In the future, we would like to work to support education institutions by keeping vulnerable children engaged with their schools through facilitating our creative projects! We hope that by participating in the Akosia projects, we can empower children to realise their true potential.

As we have already announced, the Akosia World Series was a HUGE success! Yet it was not just a result of the amazing softball players, we also kindly received two ‘SWAG bags’ from SIRIUS Satellite Radio Canada , which were given to the two lucky players with the most home runs!

They received a satellite radio, 6 months free subscription to SIRIUS Satellite Radio, a T-shirt and a hat! SIRIUS Satellite Radio has 120 channels of music, talk and sports. Get your free trial today. www.sirius.ca

Akosia would like to thank SIRIUS Satellite Radio for their kind support, and we look forward to involving you in the next Akosia World Series in Toronto 2011!

Thank you!

The second annual Akosia World Series took place in Toronto on Saturday 24th July at Riverdale West Park, and indeed as ever, (despite the rain…) it was a BLAST!

Six teams competed for the championship trophy, and it was a competitive set of games.

The teams- ‘Old Skool’, ‘Balls A Mits’ (defending champions, formally called ‘Purple Haze’), ‘Pippa Salt’, ‘Rookie Blue’, ‘Grascan’, and ‘Electric Avenue’ each played 4 games in a Round Robin style tournament.

The Championship game was played between ‘Old Skool’ and ‘Balls A Mits’ the defending champions of 2009. It was a fierce game, and in the end, ‘Old Skool’ were announced winners of the the Akosia World Series in Toronto 2010!

Congratulations to our new softball champions! Let’s see whether you can retain your title in 2011!

The day was bags of fun, and most importantly, we raised $2500CAD for Akosia which is FANTASTIC!! It also brings us nearer to expanding our work in 2011 to Nepal/India as well as continuing the annual project in Ghana.

Thank you to everyone for your support! The Akosia team are forever grateful.

Check out some pictures of the day below!

Last night, the wonderful Akosia Ghana 2010 Team came to pick up all the film equipment, Akosia t-shirts (donated kindly by Roots) and were given a chance to ask any last minute questions. It warmed our hearts to be in a room with such passionate people who will be in Ghana running the project completely on their own.

We believe in them. We trust them. We are SO excited for them.

Good luck Ghana 2010 Team – see you on the other side!

On Sunday the 18th July I ran in the Wycombe 10k race in Buckinghamshire for Akosia! I was a bit nervous on the day because I had only run that far once before (the previous week!) , and I really wanted to complete it in under an hour.

The first 5km were quite tough because it was all uphill, and at the 6km mark i felt really sick and considered stopping. Thankfully, at that point a fellow runner said “come on you can do it!” and those small words of encouragement along with thinking of Akosia helped me carry on and complete the 10km in 50 minutes, a new personal best!

I’ve got people to donate through the Akosia website and and hopefully now I’ve sent out the pictures more people will do the same! It was a challenge, but definitely worth doing it for such a great charity. It was also really fun and I’m so glad I did it.

20^th July 2010- Year 5, St. Eugene De Mazenod Roman Catholic Primary School

 Today, Akosia visited a local school to work with the Year 5 class of St. Eugene De Mazenod Roman Catholic Primary School.

The morning session began with an introduction to Akosia, given by Maria Schonfeld. Maria told the children about the work of Akosia, and drew upon differences in school life; some of which the children were shocked to hear.

Maria then proceeded to show the class ‘Making the Show’; one of the films from last year’s project by the children of Street Academy. Following the film screening, the children were asked their opinions on the film, and various other questions designed to inspire thought and creativity for the afternoon’s activity, such as:

What genres of film are there? What is your favourite film? What does being creative mean to you? What words of advice and support would you like to give to the children in Ghana?

The children were incredibly positive and responsive. Their ideas were innovative, and gave us at Akosia loads to think about in terms of linking St. Eugene De Mazenod Roman Catholic Primary School and Street Academy in our future endeavours.

The afternoon session, following the end of Akosia’s presentation, will no doubt see some wonderful art work that will brighten up the classrooms of Street Academy-

The Year 5 class were very keen to draw their perceptions of film and write positive and uplifting messages for the children in Ghana. We look forward to sharing their artwork with the children in Ghana, and will also encourage the children to draw back their messages and share their thoughts with the kids in London!

We would like to thank Greg O’Donohue, a trustee of Akosia for giving us the opportunity to work with the children and inspire some great artwork that the children of Street Academy will enjoy and respond to. Hopefully, this will be the start of a long-standing relationship between the two schools, allowing children from vastly differing backgrounds and cultures to share experiences with eachother.