On the 4th October, 2020, World Inspiring Network held its second virtual meeting. Hosted by the founder of the organisation Maxwell Odonkor and co-founder Willow Faulkner, the meeting was attended by a number of people from around the world. As someone who only began working with World Inspiring Network earlier this year, it provided a perfect opportunity to meet other volunteers, most of who I had only interacted with via message. I was amazed to discover just how diverse World Inspiring Network’s volunteer base is. Even in this relatively small group, a great variety of ethnicities and nationalities were represented, with people hailing from Ghana, Tanzania, Chicago, New York, the United Kingdom and Indonesia.
After each volunteer had introduced themselves to the group, the first presentation, given by co-founder Willow, began. This provided an excellent, in depth look at Ghana’s education system, contextualising the organisation’s “Send a Child to School” initiative, with which World Inspiring Network plans to send 120 disadvantaged children to school. Willow explained this project in detail, sharing a projected budget with the group. We learned more about why the initiative was so important, and how it would contribute to ensuring the eradication of poverty in four different rural communities.
Maxwell’s presentation followed, during which he addressed the current challenges in Ghana’s rural communities and explained how World Inspiring Network intended to solve them. For volunteers from abroad, like me, Maxwell’s presentation was incredibly eye-opening, transporting us to the communities that the organisation is working to support through videos and images. A video filmed in the community of Osunu Dompe was particularly poignant. In this video a volunteer surrounded by children from the village described the lack of learning resources available. This really highlighted the importance of the book drives World Inspiring Network is currently organising, in which hundreds of children’s books will be donated to the communities of Osunu Dompe, Ahomahomasu, Osunu Dompe, Besebuom and Tafi Mador.
To conclude the meeting, Willow read a recent blog post, written by Rebecca, one of World Inspiring Network’s volunteers. Rebecca’s post explored the detrimental affect the Coronavirus outbreak has had on education in Ghana, and included first hand accounts from those directly impacted. Again, this provided crucial context to World Inspiring Network’s projects, particularly our upcoming coronavirus sanitation workshops. These workshops will be attended by people in our four target communities and will explain how to recognise symptoms of the virus, how it spreads, and how it can be controlled. We are also raising money to distribute masks.
READ ALSO: Sustained Development In Ghana – The launch Of The Education Response Fund
It was apt, perhaps, that Rebeca’s blog post reflected on the use of technology to facilitate human connection in a rapidly changing world. Virtual meetings such as these allow us to connect as a group of diverse individuals with a common goal: to make a difference to those most in need. By coming together virtually, we can learn from others and share knowledge and ideas, wherever we are in the world.
