I’ve received a number of requests from friends and readers who followed my blogs (https://nanaboakyeyiadom.wordpress.com/) while I was on the YALI programme in the US; that I should blog about my experiences in the UK too. I’ll try to keep up, but before I attempt it, let me start from how I eventually ended up here in Wales.

The trigger

I’m not exactly sure what we were talking about in my office but one of my colleagues commented, “But Boakye, as for you don’t complain, your life is perfect… Do you have any problem in this life?” The person retorted and was supported by the others in the conversation.

Another quickly started listing the perceived successes in my work, family and my life in general; “You are a director in this office, you fly around to different parts of the world regularly and doing well with your iJourno Africa project”. Charley don’t even bring yourself”, he jokingly threatened.

Those comments rather struck me differently and I recoiled to think about it a little bit more. Indeed I have shared some success stories in my career and projects I have championed outside my regular job. In 2014 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, I picked up the first place award in the African Story Challenge competition for African journalists. There were over 200 journalists across the continent that competed and I came up tops.

Later, that story – ‘Phone Farming’, earned me the Best Online Story award for 2013 at the Ghana Journalists Awards. The prize for that award was for me to choose any international media organization on the planet to work with for a month – it wasn’t a difficult decision – The BBC. So I was in London for a month, all expense paid.

In 2015, I started iJourno Africa, a pan-African data journalism training not-for-profit organization to teach student journalists for free. It’s currently in Ghana, Kenya and South Africa is ‘warming up’.

In 2016, I got selected for President Barack Obama’s leadership initiative for young Africans called the Mandela Washington Fellowship, under the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). As part of the programme, I was camped at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and subsequently met Mr. Obama in Washington with the other cohorts.

This year, I’ve been selected for the prestigious UK government-sponsored Chevening Scholarship for my master’s degree in the UK and I am studying at Cardiff University.

So ‘Charley’ I won’t fault my colleagues, real and virtual friends who follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram who also see this as a perfect life. Fair!

How about the failures I didn’t post on Facebook, etc?

True, the above-listed sound really good especially on a CV. But I believe strongly it’s the favour of God upon my life, what I usually hashtag #UnmeritedFavour. You may or may not fully understand it, but that’s another discussion. Apart from my wife, very few people know about the several “We are sorry” emails I have received after applying for scores of international training programmes or fellowships or scholarships when I was looking for support to further my education.

At the 2nd of the two send of parties my colleagues and management of Citi FM organized for me before I left, our MD, Samuel Attah-Mensah, popularly known as Sammens, told my colleagues of how to the best of his knowledge, I had attempted and failed on three occasions to secure scholarships with Chevening and Tullow Oil over the last years. “I know Boakye did the first and second world war and failed. We thank God on his third attempt, he finally got it,” he said.

Yes, he only knew about the three main ones. And in fact, on this occasion, he wrote one of the two important and powerful referrals to back my Chevening application.

I chased various scholarships for my master’s degree for five years. Yes, five! I applied to numerous scholarship programmes; about 15 different times over the period. I wrote a countless number of essays usually between 500 – 2,000 words for each of these scholarships without success. Each application usually demands a minimum of three essays; so do the math on how many words and essays I wrote in all these essays over five years.

Tullow scholarship – When the Tullow Oil scholarship started I tried to secure that scholarship as well, sometime in 2014. That was my first attempt and I made it to the semi-final stage. By this time, I was almost always on the Cardiff University website. Watching videos about my course and the school. Looking at the beautiful greenery, flowers, ancient buildings and testimonials from past students saying amazing things about the school. I would go to bed still thinking about them and dream that I was on campus, only for reality to hit in the morning lol. But at this point, I was almost certain that I was going to be in Cardiff soon. There was no way I won’t pass this interview.

When the final list came out a few weeks later, I was eliminated.

I was crushed!

Nothing made sense to me. I was angry, disappointed, deeply hurt to the extent that tears even failed me.

But I had to get over it. I prayed and said to God to take over and that I won’t ask Him any questions about how he allowed this to happen to me. He should just take control.

I got over it and made a second attempt the following year. Guess what? I wasn’t even shortlisted for an interview. The same scholarship programme I went all the way to the semi-final. It didn’t make sense to me but again, “I let go and let God”. I tried my hands on other ones; Commonwealth Scholarship, World Bank Scholarship, Mastercard scholarship for Africans, Japanese, South Africa, China and many others that didn’t even look credible. I think I was getting desperate at this point. All those returned with “We are sorry you were not selected because, this year, the number of applications… Blah blah blah.”

Charley ‘Man Taya’! (Man is tired!)

YALI

But I decided to do other things, if (In my mind), God didn’t want me to pursue my master’s degree anytime soon. So I applied for Barack Obama’s initiative called the Mandala Washington Fellowship, under the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). Let me also disclose to you that getting onto the YALI programme last year wasn’t on my first attempt. Yup! I had tried in 2014. Again, an email came, patronized me and finally delivered the uppercut. “You were not selected for the interview stage!” Again, I re-grouped and applied in 2015, the results came out in 2016 and BINGO!

Chevening Scholarship

My family and friends are really excited about my selection for the Chevening Scholarship. But guess what? This is not the first time I’ve applied for this scholarship, I tried it first in 2012 but I couldn’t even make the cut for an interview session. You can imagine all the rhetorical questions I asked myself. Again, “I let go and let God”. I applied again in 2016, the results came out this year and BINGO!

The trick though

I am an optimist, but there were many times I nearly gave up. There were many times I said to myself that perhaps I was not meant to pursue a masters degree abroad so I should just look for the funds and study right here in Ghana, even though I had told myself several times that I’d pursue my second degree in a good university outside because of certain advantages I believe it comes with – (Doesn’t mean schooling in Ghana is bad). But when the frustrations set in, you’re most likely to doubt yourself, God and blame everything else and anybody around you, including the witches in your house.

How did I finally get results?

Truth is, the reason somehow I managed to claw back and finally got the opportunities in YALI and Chevening is that I kept doing the things I needed to do at Citi FM and took on leadership roles I was offered and tried to execute them as best as I could.

Outside Citi FM, I tried to learn new things, take on new challenges – and that’s how iJourno Africa was born. And I can confidently say the new challenges I took on and the new things I learned during the “fallow period,” finally got me what I wanted, and of course the #UnmeritedFavour.

When I got the opportunity for interviews on YALI and Chevening, I put in so much effort; I researched, spoke to past beneficiaries and even did mock interviews with some of them. Before I went for the YALI interview, I did a mock interview with Ethel Cofie (Founder of Women in Tech Africa) and Tonyi Senayah (Horseman Shoes). Before I went for my Chevening interview, I also had mock interviews with Sammy Bartels (A former Chevener who now works with Vodafone) and my boss Bernard Avle (Host of the Citi Breakfast Show). I just did not want to take chances and in the end, it paid off.

Consider these while in distress
1.Maybe it’s not time yet.
2.But keep your eye on the ball.
3.And while at it, do other things to improve yourself. Don’t mark time.
4.Keep believing God will do it eventually.

Don’t give up. Keep pushing. And finally, when you get what you want, write a blog like this. Who knows, it might encourage someone in a similar situation.

I’ll share my experiences in the first month in Cardiff soon.

I’m out…

–

By: Nana Boakye-Yiadom

The post Nana Boakye-Yiadom writes: Rejections and disappointments I never shared appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Philip was selected as an Ignite Speaker to represent the University of San Diego, California. After six weeks of academic institute, leadership training and networking in 38 Universities across the US, all 1000 fellows converged in Washington DC for the 3-day summit.

Philip, who is concerned about the African continent’s biggest challenge of a growing population with fewer jobs, has commenced an initiative in Ghana’s Western Region, where he’s nurturing entrepreneurs, some of whom have commenced their start-ups.

“In my country Ghana, 48% of the youth (15-34 year olds) have no jobs. This is largely because the Ghanaian system builds job seekers and not job creators. So we have over 300,000 youth leaving our various tertiary institutions chasing for non-existent jobs” Osei Bonsu lamented.

“It is my humble opinion that of all the challenges we need to solve as a continent, the most important one is job creation for our youth. This is the safest and most prudent thing to do in order not to undermine the continent’s relative political and social stability. Unemployed youth are likely breeding grounds for criminals, insurgency and terrorism” Osei Bonsu emphasized.

Making reference to an article he read in 2016 on the website of Financial Times titled “Africa’s population boom is both danger and opportunity”, the writer, David Pilling, amongst other things stated that; one of the great structural changes of the coming decades will be the huge relative shift of the global population to Africa.

Philip, who was intrigued by this assertion, researched further to establish that; more than one billion people live in Africa, and roughly the same as in each of Europe and the Americas, although those continents have stopped growing.

He mentioned that, Africa’s population, by contrast, will double to Two billion by 2050, whereas Asia will also add one billion to reach Five billion — and then stop. Africa he said will keep going and by 2100, its population could easily have doubled again, stating that at least four billion of the world’s Eleven Billion people by 2100, will be Africans, as against the current one billion figure.

“It gets really interesting when you consider the growth in the continent’s youthful population; Africa’s population is the youngest at the moment, with a median age of just 20. That compares with 43 in Europe, and by 2035, more than half of all new jobseekers will be Africans. Africa will thus have the largest workforce in the world by 2035— larger than China and India’s. As a result, 1.1 billion people will need jobs on the continent.”

But the question that bothers Osei Bonsu the most; is how the continent can create 1.1bn jobs for these people in just Eighteen (18) years.

He is however of the firm belief that, this challenge can only be surmounted when the continent focuses on raising entrepreneurs – “creating job creators and not job seekers.”

Osei Bonsu elaborated further on what he had done as a communication’s professional, to raise a generation of entrepreneurs among Ghana’s youth population.

“Ghana’s biggest challenge can thus be summed up in one phrase – Jobs for the Youth. Now, as somebody who fundamentally believes in a world where every youth who is able and willing to work must have a job, I had to ACT. So I put together a team of young and enthusiastic men and women, and for unemployed youth between 15-35 years in Ghana’s Western Region, we provide a platform for skills training, information sharing and networking that enables them to start their own businesses. Our aim is to demystify entrepreneurship and make it attractive to the youth.”

“This is absolutely important because to be able to create jobs for the 48% unemployed youth in Ghana, we need to rapidly develop young entrepreneurs who can create their own jobs – and jobs for other young people.”

In 2016, Osei and his team got 253 youths to attend their maiden entrepreneurship summit, and many others listened and watched on Radio and TV. With the help of our partners, they secured 25 internship opportunities for the first 25 people to arrive at the venue.

So far, 12 participants have launched their start-ups, majority of them in Agribusiness, and Osei hopes to make this an annual event.

In concluding his presentation, Osei Bonsu rallied his Mandela Washington Fellows, some of whom are equally solving the canker of unemployment through various start-ups in their respective countries, to keep at it, and make the continent a better place.

“I share this story with you knowing that this is not just my story, it is OUR story. It is the African Story. A story of how we can change our continent if we decide to take action. I have never been this hopeful about the future of Africa than I am today. Your individual stories make me hopeful. I am certain that 50 years from now, it will be said that our generation changed Africa for good. Fellows, if we individually do what we have to do, if we make the decisions we have to make, then I am confident that just as Senator Barack Obama told a weary America in 2004, ‘out of a long political darkness, a brighter day shall come.”

About the YALI program

Osei Bonsu was among the forty (40) fellows who participated in the United States of America’s (USA) 2017 Mandela Washington Fellowship of the Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI).

YALI was launched in 2010 by US president Barack Obama to invest in the next generation of African leaders and nurture them as they spur growth and prosperity, strengthen democratic governance, and enhance peace and security across Africa.

The Mandela Washington Fellowship takes young African leaders to the United States for 6 weeks of leadership training and mentoring at twenty U.S. universities and colleges in three areas: business and entrepreneurship, civic engagement and public administration.

About Ignite Talk Series

The Ignite Talk series is an exciting feature of the 2017 Mandela Washington Fellowship Summit. The 3-5 minute, TED Talk-style presentations were a call to action from 40 Mandela Washington Fellows, each representing one of the Institute partners of the program.

Institutes chose their representatives through various forms of competition, with some having their Fellow cohort vote on their speaker, while others had outside professionals or members of the community assist in the selection process.

Presenters were grouped by track – Civic Leadership, Public Management, and Business and Entrepreneurship – and spoke in sessions over two days of the Summit. While many different messages were conveyed, this year’s talks themed around Empowerment, Innovation, and Servant Leadership. The Ignite Talk series highlighted the passion of the Fellows to improve their communities and lead the next generation of African leaders.

Profile of Philip Osei Bonsu

Philip Osei Bonsu is a Corporate Communications Executive, Broadcast Journalist and Entrepreneur. He has over eight years’ leadership and managerial experience in the media and power sector.

Currently, Philip is the Head of Public Relations for the Electricity Company of Ghana in the Western Region, where he focuses on initiating and leading the implementation of Public Relations Strategies that improve the ECG’s corporate image in the region.

Additionally, Philip sits on the Board of Western Waste Limited, a subsidiary of Zoomlion Ghana Limited and hosts Skyy Power FM’s weekend news analysis program, ‘News Review’ on part-time basis. He is also the founder and CEO of OBPR Consult, a PR firm that specializes in Media Communications, Public Relations and Public Affairs.

Previously, Philip served as the Brand Manager of Skyy Power fm and doubled as the host of Western Region’s biggest breakfast show, the Jolly Breakfast Show on the same station. At the corporate level, he worked as the Corporate Communications Manager of Skyy Media Group.

In 2015, Philip was named with 29 other young Ghanaians as a young achiever in the ‘Newaccra Achievers Report’ (See:www.newaccra.com/rise)

Philip is a Tullow Scholar who holds an MSc in Corporate Communication and Public Affairs from the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. He is also a 2017 Mandela Washington Fellow placed in the Business & Entrepreneurship Track at the University of San Diego, California.

Philip is committed to promoting youth development and capacity building in entrepreneurship through the sharing of knowledge and strategic networking. He thus convenes the Western Regional Youth Entrepreneurship Summit to equip the youth with the right entrepreneurial skills to tap into the immense opportunities the region provides.

He hopes to train 10,000 youth in the next ten years. Philip believes entrepreneurs create jobs and boost economies. With many of them, the economic future of Ghana remains bright.

Watch a video of Philip’s presentation

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By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Ghana’s Osei Bonsu shares experience on nurturing ‘job creators’ at YALI’s Ignite Talks appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Volunteers drawn from the 10 regions of Ghana, converged on the New Media Hub in Accra on Saturday and were equipped with data journalism and multimedia storytelling skills, to enable them track government’s performance in those four areas.

Their findings will be published in the media and also on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

The project is being spear-headed by six members of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) in Ghana, hoping to get citizens more involved in governance and hold their leaders accountable.

The six; Nana Boakye-Yiadom, Gideon Sarpong, Philip Banini, Omar Seidu, Henry Kyeremeh and Justice Kumordzi, co-founded the iWatch Africa project.

Speaking at the launch of the project, the Programme Officer of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Jacob Tetteh Ahuno said citizens now trust the media to expose and fight corruption than the state mandated institutions.

He commended the creators of iWatch project for taking the initiative to promoting accountability and transparency.

Mr. Ahuno entreated the volunteers to discharge their duties diligently, devoid of party politics and biases. He advised them to focus on the relevance of government interventions to the citizenry and general expenditure of government projects, since it’s essential in fighting corruption.

“Don’t let the focus be on what they said they’d do alone. Even if they said they’d build one school, the fact is how much is going into that one school? We’ve realized that, 17% of our GDP is actually spent on procurement issues and that is where the irregularities come in. Focus on who wins the contract, how much the building is supposed to cost, how much they say it actually costs, that comparison should be done” he added.

The programmes Officer of the GII also urged volunteers to collaborate with local citizen groups in their various districts to augment their work in advocating and educating the citizenry.

“What you’re going to do is very relevant at this time, given that citizens believe in the media in fighting corruption than the state mandated institutions. I would want you to also know the reporting mechanisms and avenues in Ghana so that incase people start reporting corrupt cases to you, you know which channel to direct them to and do follow up,” he added.

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Source: iWatch Africa

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The public can follow the discussion on Twitter via the hashtag #YALIGhana.

The maiden edition of Mobile Web Ghana’s Yali Twitter chats will take place from 11am to 6pm on the proposed days and will present prospective applicants, the opportunity to directly engage with the 2016 batch of fellows.

This initiative from Mobile Web Ghana aims to encourage Ghanaians to take keen interest in the annual Fellowship.

“The Mandela Washington Fellowship is a merit–based competition, everyone has an equal opportunity to be selected and the experience is priceless,” said Florence Toffa, Director of Mobile Web Ghana, who was also a participant in this year’s Fellowship. Florence recounted her experience and gave the rationale behind Mobile Web Ghana’s live Yali Twitter chat.

“Our aim for the live Twitter chat is to inspire young Ghanaians to apply for future Fellowships due to the knowledge they gain from the personal experiences of the 2016 Mandela fellows,” Florence added.

Mobile Web’s live Twitter chat will also give the recent fellows an opportunity to share the skills they acquired during their stay in the US. Thousands of Ghanaians are expected to engage the fellows during the four-day Twitter chat sessions. This is also an opportunity to ask 2016 fellows your questions.

The Mandela Washington Fellowship is open to young African leaders who meet the following criteria: are between the ages of 25 and 35 at the time of application submission (although exceptional applicants younger than 25 will be considered), are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents of the U.S, are eligible to receive a United States J-1 visa and are proficient in reading, writing, and speaking English.

Apply to the followship here: https://yali.state.gov/washington-fellowship/

–

Source: Mobile Web Ghana

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According to the Embassy, the application period which begins today, Wednesday, September 21, 2016 will close at 4 p.m. GMT on Wednesday, October 26, 2016.

Persons wishing to apply could visit visit https://yali.state.gov/washington-fellowship/apply/ for more information.

Citi FM’s Nana Boakye-Yiadom was part of those selected from Ghana in 2016 where he together with others spent six weeks in the U.S.

A statement from the U.S Embassy said it would offer about 1,000 young leaders from Sub-Saharan Africa the opportunity to hone their skills at a U.S higher education institution in the 2017 Mandela Washington Fellowship.

About YALI 2017

Each Mandela Washington Fellow takes part in a six-week academic and leadership Institute at a U.S. university or college in one of three tracks: Business and Entrepreneurship, Civic Leadership, or Public Management.

Institutes will start in mid-June 2017. It is anticipated that one Public Management Institute will focus on Energy Policy (in collaboration with Power Africa).

Following the academic component of the Fellowship, participants visit Washington, D.C., for a high-level summit. During the three-day event, Fellows take part in networking and panel discussions with U.S. leaders from the public, private, and non-profit sectors.

Upon returning to Ghana, Fellows will continue to build the skills they have developed during their time in the United States through support from the U.S. Embassy, the YALI Regional Leadership Center in Accra, the YALI Network, and customized programming from USAID and affiliated partners.

Mandela Washington Fellows have access to ongoing professional development opportunities, mentoring, networking and training, and seed funding to support their ideas, businesses, and organizations.

Successful applicants will have:

• A proven record of leadership and accomplishment in public service, business and entrepreneurship, or civic engagement.
• A demonstrated commitment to public or community service, volunteerism, or mentorship.
• The ability to work cooperatively in diverse groups and respect the opinions of others.
• Strong social and communication skills.
• An energetic, positive attitude.
• Demonstrated knowledge, interest and professional experience in the sector/track selected.
• A commitment to return home and apply the leadership skills and training to benefit Ghana.

In previous years, young leaders associated with police forces, the military and ministries of defense were ineligible to apply for the Mandela Washington Fellowship. This restriction has been lifted in 2017, and such applicants are encouraged to apply.

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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post U.S. opens application for 2017 YALI programme  appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The front and back of the phone is constructed using 3D printing techniques and can be customised.

Other companies have designed Braille phones in the past, but OwnFone says its device is the first of its kind to go on sale.

For those who can’t read Braille, the company can print raised text on the keypad.

The phone, currently only available in the UK, retails for £60 and according to its inventor Tom Sunderland, 3D printing the front and back of the device helped to keep the costs down.

“3D printing… provides a fast and cost-effective way to create personalised Braille buttons,” he says.

The device is designed to provide an instant connection between blind users and their friends and family.

Haptic touchscreen

In 2012, OwnFone launched what was one of the world’s first partially 3D printed phones.

A year later, the company developed a special child-friendly version called 1stFone, a credit-card sized device with programmable buttons for crucial contacts.

OwnFone’s new Braille phone is based on these previous two devices, keeping its small form factor and colourful design.

“The phone can be personalised with two or four Braille buttons which are pre-programmed to call friends, family, carers or the emergency services,” Mr Sunderland told the BBC.

“This is the first phone to have a 3D printed keypad and for people that can’t read Braille, we can print texture and raised text on the phone. Our 3D phone printing process is patent pending.”

Those who wish to buy the phone can create a custom design on the company’s website.

However, at £60 it’s the most expensive of the three available options, with their previous models selling for £40 and £50.

While this may be the first Braille phone available to consumers, the idea is not an original one.

India-based start-up Kriyate built a prototype Braille-enabled smartphone in 2013, featuring a repressible Braille display and feedback controls (known as haptic touch) that beep or vibrate after receiving certain commands.

Some visually impaired users of mobile phones may not see the need for this device however, with features such as Apple’s VoiceOver becoming more sophisticated.

VoiceOver is a “screenreader” that allows users to navigate their phone using gesture-based controls.

There are also a number of apps on both the Apple Store and Google Play that allow for an easier reading experience for the visually impaired.

Source: BBC

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