On Monday 26th September 2016, Mobile Web Ghana hosted a twitter chat for the 2016 Mandela Washington fellows. The chat was in two sessions: a morning and an afternoon session. It was organized to give the fellows the opportunity to share their experiences with Ghanaians online. Especially because applications have been opened for the 2017 fellowship. Hopefully, the many who followed the twitter chat would be inspired enough to apply.
The guests for the morning session were Yaganoma, Emmanuel Kofi Danso and Nicholine Azirh. It was a very enlightening session as the fellows shared their experiences with us. One interesting thing about the fellows is that they are people from all walks of life and various backgrounds. Yaganoma is what we can call a ‘Food entrepreneur’. In her own words she stated that ‘I use indigenous wild crops to create modern food products. Basically I innovate on food.’. Nicholine is a Seafarer and an assistant lecturer at the Regional Maritime University. Emmanuel, who joined us later as the chat progressed is a Mental Health nurse.
Here are some of the responses from the fellows when asked to summarize their experience at the Mandela Washington Fellowship:
It was a life changing experience. I was able to meet and share experiences with other Young Leaders from Sub- Saharan Africa #YaliGhana https://t.co/TIqBRjW0HN
— NICHOLINE AZIRH (@azirh) September 26, 2016
I met some amazing Africans and connected with 40 other intelligent Ghanaians from various industries. https://t.co/WL4BhYDdxK
— Yaganoma Baatuolkuu (@Yaganoma) September 26, 2016
#YaliGhana
Increased my confidence, communications skills, lobbying, negotiating, exposure to cultures, non violence conflict resolution https://t.co/3PAflq6AYi— emmanuel kofi Danso (@keenkofi) September 26, 2016
Though he was part of the morning session, Emmanuel continued answering questions from our online audience well into the afternoon. Here is a snippet from the conversation that ensued between Emmanuel and one of such people.
#YaliGhana so you feel/think that GH is not such a liberal and open culture? Is that changing at all as we move through the 21st century? https://t.co/nOU0pbMLRT
— Empress (@Saygyka) September 26, 2016
#YaliGhana
I believe in Ghana and know things will change soon https://t.co/h2D7qwHv2i— emmanuel kofi Danso (@keenkofi) September 26, 2016
The afternoon session was equally eye-opening. We were privileged to host Lincoln Winimi Peedah and Marco Nyarko. This session was quite engaging as the two fellows answered questions especially from the Mobile Web Ghana twitter account and also from our online audience via the hashtag #yaliGhana. The highlight of the entire chat was when Lincoln was asked whether some of the things he learnt in the U.S are replicable in Ghana. Then he stated that:
@MobileWebGhana @PaaKwaw Sure, community service is replicable! I just finished constructing a basketball court for my community! #YaliGhana
— Peedah Lincoln Winim (@Lincoln_Peedah) September 26, 2016
Also:
@MobileWebGhana@USEmbassyGhana@PaaKwaw also involving the youth to rehabilitate the community library, all out of community service!!
— Peedah Lincoln Winim (@Lincoln_Peedah) September 26, 2016
Very few things could be a better testimony to the life-changing experience that the Mandela Washington fellowship has been to the fellows than this. As already stated, applications have been opened for the 2017 fellowship, do register to be a part of this revolutionary experience. Also, to those who missed the Twitter chat Live, you can follow the hashtag #YaliGhana to have access to all what was discussed.