Thank you so much everyone for your feedback. Its keeping us going!! Here is a follow-up:
We are hoping to collect over 1000 letters here in Ghana and hopefully get a few hundred letters to the White House. We will be hosting a march in Tamale (main city in the North) on July 1st. We have teamed up with the Sister City of Tamale, Louisville Kentucky, to see how they can support the campaign. In the coming week we will reach out to the New York Times and the local media to see if they can pick up the story.
So what can you do:
-watch our video on youtube and send the link to friends and family http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r72tsUC9_zQ (you could also view as many times as possible a day! we trying to get it high on the view list! lol)
- urge any American friends or even Canadians to get in touch with the White House
White House - http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/
List of Representatives and Contact Info - https://writerep.house.gov/htbin/wrep_findreptative
List of Senators and Contact Info - http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
-Advertise for the campaign / video via your Facebook or Twitter account until July 1st
If you have any ideas on how we can get our message heard by the White House please let us know!
Thank you all SO MUCH and lots of love from Ghana!
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
The Need for Inspiration to Combat Poverty
Hey everyone!! How you all doing? Hope life is treating you well, and as usual, im thinking about you all and missing you a lot........
so one HUGE thing that is happening in Ghana, is that Barack Obama is visiting on July 10th and 11th. But unfortunately he is not coming to the Northern Region and is only scheduled to stay in Accra and Cape Coast (the south). So we have made it our mission (we are calling it "Mission Obama") to get him coming to the North. This involves creating a Barack Obama Day in some communities, trying to hold a march in the city, doing huge letter writing campaigns in schools, and contacting the White House and State Department or whoever else to invite them to come!
Yeah our dream would for him to speak in the Northern Region (the reasoning is below).....but more importantly, our goal is that this mission helps inspire people to keep taking initiative and strive for goals and dreams. To know that we can come together to share knowledge, ideas, and support for one another to go for something that some may say is impossible. To reflect on what it means to be a leader and who are some of those people we admire and why.
Hopefully, this goal will be accomplished because we could never have enough of that attitude anywhere in the world!
Here's a letter/article talking a little bit about our reasoning for having Obama come to the North.
P.S - for some bros out there who remember the times during the election (one person in particular lol)....i tried spreading the idea of getting Hilary Clinton up here as well.....but nobody knows her :P
Thank you all so much for reading and all the best.
Love from Ghana
Another amazing quote from an amazing friend.....
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. -- Gandhi
ARTICLE:
This piece has been written hopefully as justification, reason and encouragement for President Barack Obama to visit the Northern Region of Ghana. His trip to Ghana is currently scheduled for the south, namely in the capital of Accra.
We are volunteers who work with local governments (District Assemblies) in the Northern Region. Firstly, to ensure that all biases are out in the open, we see President Obama as a great and inspirational leader and are doing everything we possibly to have him come here. However, as much as he means to us, it does not compare to how much he means for so many here and the potential great impact his visit could have for them and for so many more.
Very few world leaders visit the Northern Region of Ghana. The North is among the poorest where subsistence farming is the livelihood for the majority and widespread disease, malnutrition, illiteracy and corruption are harsh realities thousands face. The economic potential here is low especially when compared to the South. However, people persevere. They manage each day through tough obstacles. They work tirelessly to feed their families, put their children in school, and support those who are sick. Yes, the economic potential may be low but the human spirit is off-the-charts.
There is courage here like no other. But often people here in the North, they almost feel like they are forgotten people. If Barack Obama were to visit them, send a video-taped message, even acknowledge them, it would be a dream come true, and they would cherish this memory and pass on to for generations to come. For them, Obama is an inspiration, a hero and a savior to their daily existence. He will uplift them and give them a hope that it is possible for them and their children to dream again. He will do what he has done throughout the United States for Barack Obama is not only America’s leader, but he is a leader to them as well.
In the various solutions to poverty out there, few detail inspiration, community leadership and teamwork as answers. They are not on the grand scale of millions of dollars, large contracts, or news publicity but they can create great impacts. Small-scale farmer groups coming together to market a new crop and support each other, an informal school by village elders to teach underprivileged children in the night, volunteers in a village learning basic first aid and nursing so they can provide basic health care at no costs – these are some of the initiatives that can change the world for so many and who knows, could give a chance to a future Barack Obama. These are the projects that spring up and need to be scaled up all over. However, these all need a little faith – a little faith that stepping beyond the routine work and life activities can lead to great things.
A leader, who is able to inspire teamwork, compassion, hope and initiative, would have an impact like no other. Barack Obama is a perfect example of this type of leader – he not only speaks the words loud but he has acted on them throughout his career and life.
The Northern Region of Ghana sincerely hopes that we have the privilege and honour seeing or hearing President Barack Obama.
so one HUGE thing that is happening in Ghana, is that Barack Obama is visiting on July 10th and 11th. But unfortunately he is not coming to the Northern Region and is only scheduled to stay in Accra and Cape Coast (the south). So we have made it our mission (we are calling it "Mission Obama") to get him coming to the North. This involves creating a Barack Obama Day in some communities, trying to hold a march in the city, doing huge letter writing campaigns in schools, and contacting the White House and State Department or whoever else to invite them to come!
Yeah our dream would for him to speak in the Northern Region (the reasoning is below).....but more importantly, our goal is that this mission helps inspire people to keep taking initiative and strive for goals and dreams. To know that we can come together to share knowledge, ideas, and support for one another to go for something that some may say is impossible. To reflect on what it means to be a leader and who are some of those people we admire and why.
Hopefully, this goal will be accomplished because we could never have enough of that attitude anywhere in the world!
Here's a letter/article talking a little bit about our reasoning for having Obama come to the North.
P.S - for some bros out there who remember the times during the election (one person in particular lol)....i tried spreading the idea of getting Hilary Clinton up here as well.....but nobody knows her :P
Thank you all so much for reading and all the best.
Love from Ghana
Another amazing quote from an amazing friend.....
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. -- Gandhi
ARTICLE:
This piece has been written hopefully as justification, reason and encouragement for President Barack Obama to visit the Northern Region of Ghana. His trip to Ghana is currently scheduled for the south, namely in the capital of Accra.
We are volunteers who work with local governments (District Assemblies) in the Northern Region. Firstly, to ensure that all biases are out in the open, we see President Obama as a great and inspirational leader and are doing everything we possibly to have him come here. However, as much as he means to us, it does not compare to how much he means for so many here and the potential great impact his visit could have for them and for so many more.
Very few world leaders visit the Northern Region of Ghana. The North is among the poorest where subsistence farming is the livelihood for the majority and widespread disease, malnutrition, illiteracy and corruption are harsh realities thousands face. The economic potential here is low especially when compared to the South. However, people persevere. They manage each day through tough obstacles. They work tirelessly to feed their families, put their children in school, and support those who are sick. Yes, the economic potential may be low but the human spirit is off-the-charts.
There is courage here like no other. But often people here in the North, they almost feel like they are forgotten people. If Barack Obama were to visit them, send a video-taped message, even acknowledge them, it would be a dream come true, and they would cherish this memory and pass on to for generations to come. For them, Obama is an inspiration, a hero and a savior to their daily existence. He will uplift them and give them a hope that it is possible for them and their children to dream again. He will do what he has done throughout the United States for Barack Obama is not only America’s leader, but he is a leader to them as well.
In the various solutions to poverty out there, few detail inspiration, community leadership and teamwork as answers. They are not on the grand scale of millions of dollars, large contracts, or news publicity but they can create great impacts. Small-scale farmer groups coming together to market a new crop and support each other, an informal school by village elders to teach underprivileged children in the night, volunteers in a village learning basic first aid and nursing so they can provide basic health care at no costs – these are some of the initiatives that can change the world for so many and who knows, could give a chance to a future Barack Obama. These are the projects that spring up and need to be scaled up all over. However, these all need a little faith – a little faith that stepping beyond the routine work and life activities can lead to great things.
A leader, who is able to inspire teamwork, compassion, hope and initiative, would have an impact like no other. Barack Obama is a perfect example of this type of leader – he not only speaks the words loud but he has acted on them throughout his career and life.
The Northern Region of Ghana sincerely hopes that we have the privilege and honour seeing or hearing President Barack Obama.
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