Author: Lawrencia Awuku

Learning about food or any food-related topic brings complete joy to kids. This joy is present in the 4th and 5th Get Global Sessions when we focus on SDG Goal 2 (Zero Hunger).

The Minefield Game which employs a food-theme is another Game-based activity used at Get Global sessions to train students on the SDGs. The game places emphasis on concentration, teamwork and teaches kids about different kinds of foods and their sources.

How the game is played:
Items needed

• Game cards: some cards with different foods pictures while others are blank
• A large platform or surface

Activities

• Just as is accustomed, the group is split into different teams.
• The cards containing the foods and the blank cards are then spread face-down on the floor space randomly but in rows.
• All teams are to stand behind the cards with each team delegating a student to commence and the rest take turns.
• The first team’s representative chooses from a row to turn over.
• If a team turns over a card with food, they place it face down and continue to turn till the turn over a blank card.
• Once a blank card is turned, all cards turned will be turned face down in their spots and the delegated student goes to the end of their team line for the next team to try.
• If the next team choice of card picked is a card with a picture of food, they continue the game until they turn over a blank card and go back to the starting line.
• The team to turn all cards with foods without turning over a blank card is adjudged the winner.

The minefield activity is a highly interactive and engaging game that encourages students to learn about different Ghanaian staple foods and how they are prepared. The game is incorporated to bring on a light-hearted experience for kids on the adverse impacts of hunger in the world.

The joy of being a part of such a young, energetic, enthusiastic, hardworking and intelligent Move The World team cannot be hidden anymore.

Adjectives alone cannot describe this team of amazing young men and women whom with passion and dedication, spend time and resources designing programmes to shape our future leaders to be problem solvers. They make us realise every problem in the community has its solution within the same community.

At the heart of MTW is addressing developmental issues, and these are impacted to younger ones through the Get Global Programme which makes complex and complicated issues look simple to interact with. In MTW, problem-solving is made pragmatic as possible.

MTW believe all hands have to be on deck in achieving the SDGs. With words of encouragement and the beaming smiles on the faces on these individuals, you are assured you are capable!

Life is covered with many events. While we tend to forget most of these moments, some of them stick to our memories because of their profound meaning and values to us.

One event which has helped to ignite my passion for empowering youth and generations was a few months ago when I had successfully finished facilitating Goal 4 and was to start Goal 5 – Gender Equality.

Naturally, it was time to discuss an important topic which has been trending globally over a decade. A lot of ifs bubbled on my mind as I didn’t want to jump-start the session in a way that will leave students more confused. What if this topic is misunderstood? What if girls wouldn’t understand that they have the right to equal opportunities as boys?

I needed to make these young ones understand the concept and what it entails. From previous experiences, it has always been challenging discussing and making colleagues, friends and communities understand this agenda.

I commenced the topic with scenarios and gender-based questions with the support of Patricia Acquah, my co-facilitator. I sailed through all my thoughts and ifs that left me to think the students will make the session a more difficult one.

It was an outstanding session because it raised so many questions and narratives that needed to be addressed such as “It’s a must for a woman to cook for me and do all house chores because I provide money for the family!” Said a student

Are you surprised? Oh, there were a lot more which made me realised how societal norms (though unique in its own way) are deeply rooted in these young ones and if not blessed with programmes such as MTW – Get Global, we would have a long way to go in changing these narratives.

So yes after so much, some positive affirmations during debriefing were “I am glad facilitator made me understand gender equality and that it’s not a must for woman to cook and do house chores.” “We have to be supportive of each other to achieve our goals as men, women, girls and boys”

This session was a memorable one to me mainly because it boosted my confidence level, made me happy and emotional because I felt my years of facilitation and hard work were finally being paid off!

With community development, there can be multiple forces and sources of action to implement changes and improvements. A community seeking to improve itself is not limited to what is directly within its reach. It is possible for the average citizen to be the primary participant in the community development process, but they often have help from larger groups within and outside of the community. While this can include federal organizations and government assistance, it also includes community-based organizations.

The history and importance of Community Based Organization (CBO) in areas like Medie is a long one. Move The World(MTW) have been deeply involved in activities that have impacted the livelihoods of the people in Medie. In MTW, members have the ability to influence ideas and actions of others with the purpose to plan, implement and monitor social and community development programmes as well as provide technical and financial assistance to the community. MTW has positively impacted the process of change in Medie through the improvement of self-esteem, health education, sustainable development, safe water and sanitation of the people, all these developmental interventions they initiate are helping to bring changes in the communities.

MTW as a CBO plays a significant role in community development and these roles will need to be clearly understood by gradually assisting in identifying the appropriate support needed by CBOs in order to improve on community development activities, thereby improving the standard of living in communities and also reducing rural-urban drift.

If we all believe that Community Based Organizations can generate more true engagement between community members and members of the organizations, it will be easier to find groups of people sharing common attributes, in that they both have a stake in the place they call home.

“Extreme poverty anywhere is a threat to human security everywhere.” – Kofi Annan, Seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations

Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere

The first goal of the SDG is to see a world where poverty does not exist; a world where the strings of poverty have been totally cut off. A person is said to be living in poverty when they cannot afford the basic necessities of life – food, water, cloth and shelter!

The gathering of world leaders in Rio de Janeiro, 2012 brought to light the level of impact poverty can have on a nation and its direct implications on the economies of the world. The urgency to eradicate poverty has been heightened since then.

Interesting Facts To Note

According to the United Nations, there are more than 700 million people, or 10 per cent of the world population, that are still living in extreme poverty. Another way to put this is that, 1 out of 100 people in the world is struggling to afford the expenses of staying healthy, being educated, accessing clean water and sanitation!

It has been further captured that the majority of people impoverished by poverty live in sub-Saharan Africa make less than $1.90 a day. Worldwide, the poverty rate in rural areas is 17.2 percent — more than three times higher than in urban areas.

Progress Made So Far

Globally, the number of people living in extreme poverty declined from 36 per cent in 1990 to 10 per cent in 2015. Data from 2015 – 2019 is yet to be released but on a personal note, I believe, on a personal observation, there would further be a decline as a number of radical steps undertaken by both the private and public sector have been taken to help curb this situation.

MTW’s Involvement In Achieving Goal 1

As a trained Facilitator on the Get Global Initiative, MTW is investing in the next generation of global leaders the requisite knowledge needed to better the global world, skills to build and ways to adopt to help stay out of poverty.

As a unique social intervention initiative, MTW is helping the younger generation understand each of them play a major role in keeping the world safer and  better for everyone!

State of Goal 1 During COVID19

According to UNDP income losses are expected to exceed $220 billion in developing countries, and an estimated 55 percent of the global population has no access to social protection. These losses will reverberate across societies; impacting education, human rights and, in the most severe cases, basic food security and nutrition.

What You Can Do To Help Achieve Goal 1

Support institutions like MTW that are implementing social intervention initiatives addressing poverty and its related issues at the grass-root level with your skills and expertise.

Arm yourself with the appropriate knowledge on eradicating poverty and help create awareness through your social media.

You can with the help of friends, family and other stakeholders in the community organize events, forums and initiatives that could help sensitize and address poverty at the community level.

In conclusion

To help eradicate poverty, the collective effort from the government, entrepreneurs, businesses, non – profit institutions, regulatory bodies, community stakeholders and individuals would have to be intensified to help curb this situation.

Reference links:

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/poverty

At the core of Get Global are Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1 to 6. All activities and projects are centred on educating these students on what these goals are about and how they can contribute to ensuring that ‘no one is left behind’.
The SDG Memory Game is done at the introductory sessions of the Get Global Programme to introduce all 17 SDGs to students in a fun and a more practical way.

How the game is played:
Items needed

• SDG cards: a pair of cards for each of the seventeen goals. One card bearing the name of the goal and the other bearing the logo of the goal
• A platform, or flat surface

Activities

• Just as is done in most Get Global games, the group is split into different teams
• The cards containing the SDGs and their logos are then spread face-down on the platform randomly.
• Each team is supposed to pick two corresponding cards (i.e a logo and its corresponding goal)
• If a team mismatch a pair, they put the cards back in the same spot they picked them from.
• When a team picks up a corresponding pair, they are allowed to keep the matched cards to themselves and go another round.
• If the team on their next round, have a mismatched pair, they place the mismatched cards face down and the other team gets the chance to pick.
• This goes on until all the 17 SDG pairs have been picked from the platform. The team with the most SDGs at the end wins.

The SDGs Memory Game is a fun interactive way through which students easily get acquainted with all the 17 goals and what they entail. It also emphasises important virtues of teamwork, paying attention to details, concentration and strategy.

Being one of my favourite Get Global activities, Lines of Communication is an activity used in training kids on the essence of teamwork, effective communication and attention to detail.

How the game is played:

Items needed

A drawing board and drawing pen

A diagram of an SDG

A time keeper

Activities

• Lines of communication is played using two or more teams depending on the size of the class.
• For each team, there are three communication levels: the headteacher, teacher, students (including one or two people selected to draw).
• Each team is to draw the diagram which is only shown to the headteacher (or students if we use a bottom-up communication approach).
• The headteachers of the various teams are allowed to view the diagram which is hidden in a place only accessible to them.
• They are then required to describe what they saw only to the teachers who serve as an intermediary between the headteachers and students.
• The teacher also describes what he was told to the students who are required to draw it on the drawing board.
• The teams have a set time to complete the task and a winner is adjudged.

Being a global citizen means understanding that different people from different parts of a community, a country, or the world can come together as one team to effect change in the world. Creating change requires that we channel information from bottom-up or top-down depending on which position or situation we find ourselves. The Lines of Communications thus explain these communication processes in a more practical way to students.

For me, the joy in helping facilitate a session in the Get Global Programme is not necessarily what the Lead Facilitator and I get to train the young students in but more importantly, what we get to build together – collectively!

Over a period, I’ve observed highly successful facilitation is not just embedded in knowledge but in the ability to speak to the hearts of your audience.

Before facilitators are assigned schools, MTW makes it a priority to take facilitators through series of trainings with resources delivered at their disposal to ensure proper preparation is done before, during and after Get Global sessions. Yet for a facilitator to be able to deliver a productive session, he or she must understand the art of engaging the students with his or her heart!

Facilitation is a real giving work that requires one to be real with themselves and the audience. For me, helping shape the minds and hearts of the young ones as Global Citizens rewards me with a sense of fulfillment.

That I get to hear a student quote Kofi Annan with respect to Education or see them to work together makes me feel honored!

My joy is made complete when these young ones tend to respond to our sessions by pouring themselves back into us in unimaginable ways!

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Photo: Israel celebrating a highly successful facilitation day with some of His students at United Christian Academy at Samsam in the Medie District of Ghana!

As a change agent and an advocate for the SDGs, I was struck as I attended to my chores; I realised the difference this pandemic has brought in achieving the SDGs. Whiles the joy of achieving goal 13(Climate Action) is on a good course, Goal 3(Good health and well-being) is gradually deteriorating due to the massive social and economic impact of the pandemic in the lives of families, individuals and the world as a whole. My heart is sadden because one SDG is being achieved, the other is being affected which is causing mother Earth to bleed.

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From Southeast Asia came COVID-19 to invade the world, turning sharply here and there “like a plague of locust wrecking what was once full of life.
Sweeping off mother earth’s feet like the sea sweeping the sand from her shores. She bleeds, she bleeds, mother earth bleeds as she stares helplessly at the passing of her beloved children, humans, being vandalised by an invasive Alien species “Coronavirus.”

Some might say on the other hand, this could also lead to restoring her normal climate. But her effort to redeem her children have been a strong tag of war but she is determined to triumph!

She yearns for her children to adhere to the preventive measures by washing their hands with soap under running water or the use of alcohol base sanitizer, social distancing, and wearing of face mask. Anyone who does not adhere to these faces the wrath of this virus.

Let’s stay safe for Mother Earth