More info about Savana Signatures: www.savsign.org
Interview of John Stephen Agbenyo, founder of the NGO Savana Signatures. We met him in his office in Tamale, Ghana on January 8th
Why the name : Savana Signatures ?
I’ve been asked this question a lot ! Savana is because we are in the Northern region of Ghana, which we call « Savana » in here. Signature is who you really are. We represent people from the North.
What motivated the creation of Savana Signatures?
I was a trained professional teacher in Savelugu (district close to Tamale) back in the years. I taught English and Social Sciences. In 2005 , I noticed that in the schools nobody was teaching ICT skills in the educational sector : there were simply no computer schools ! The teachers did not have the skills. I started a computer training center in Savelugu, with only four Pentium 2 computers (4 of them). I then started to create ICT clubs in schools, where pupils could benefit from computers.
Now where are you at ?
We are 15 employees, and we are currently recruiting 3 more. We currently run seven programs, in education, health, gender & social inclusion and youth empowerment.
IIE (Integration of ICT in Education) is the most mature project ; it was implemented in 15 schools, including two in the Volta region, where we have started a new branch two years ago. In every school, we train the teachers to use ICT material and develop skills to transmit them to student. In each school 11 teachers are trained. Students now have mandatory ICT classes.
We focus a lot on girls, to raise awareness on ICT and make them confident to master these tools : our program « Tech girls » enrols 100 primary school girls, and 20 high school girls, to whom we teach ICT, and they all love it. Some of them tell us that they want to become programmers, many want to create their own business and website. We also organise an annual « ICT clinic » for girls only: about 60 girls participate every year. This program is open to fresh people, who know nothing about technology. We have a partnership with Vodafone, we take them around, show them how technology works. Finally, we have a program called FTUT : Female Teachers Using Technology fellowship. We train teachers and expose them to the world of technology.
Why girls ?
Based on practical experience, boys are closer to technology than girls : they play computer games for instance. These are considered as masculine toys, and it puts girls away. In schools that are lucky to receive a few computers, you see all the boys running fast and sitting at a computer to make sure it’s theirs. Girls cannot do this kind of things and they are left aside.
When they have an ICT session, and when a boy and a girl and sitting next to each other, we noticed that the teacher is most likely to take the task away from the girl by solving the problems in her place. On the contrary, he will ask the boy to step in front of the entire class to solve the task, and encourage him by giving him small hints. We want to change that and give the same chances to girls.
Have you been confronted to any resistance or obstacles while implementing these education projects?
Officially, there is no obstacle to teaching ICT in schools. There is even a policy document by the government that includes ICT classes in the school programs. But supervisors are blocking any evolution. For example we have told the teachers how to deliver the lessons with the electronic text books, but when supervisors come, they insist on seeing the printed text books. It discourages any effort in that sense. I think that the leadership does not even know that there is a policy.
What about your other programs ?
After education, we launched programs in health and youth empowerment. We have a program called Technology for Maternal Health, with 6000 beneficiaries. It is a free subscription-based weekly SMS service in English to expecting mothers, giving them health advice and guidelines. For illiterate mothers, we provide voice calls in local language.
We reach mothers through the Ghana Health Service : they identify the hospitals with high mortal rates. The staff at the hospital presents the service to the patients, we leave it to their initiative. Sometimes it’s hard because they perceive it as extra work and expect remuneration, but they should realize that this service makes their job easier, and that we come to support them. The acceptability rate of ICT is a challenge, even though the policies are there. Actually it is better in the health sector than in education.
How do you perceive the development of ICT in Ghana ?
There is a big market for ICT, many opportunities. But we lack human resources and skills, and also capacity. I also think many are copying other initiatives, they are not creative. People should be more innovative.
How do you finance your activities ?
We rely on donor funding. We also rent our ICT lab, to conduct trainings for companies and associations, for example engineers without borders.
What are the main challenges that you face nowadays? What do you think your main challenges will be in the future ?
Our main challenge is growth. And also to manage that growth, since we have started to have regional offices. Fundraising is also a big challenge, I fundraise online daily for grants. We have gotten a lot of interest in the last year, but not enough to conduct long-term projects lasting more than 1 to 2 years. Implementing 3 to 4-year long programs would really make a huge impact.
What are your goals for the years to come?
I want to see the day where education officials will come to the schools and there will be no soft copies, and teachers using projectors without having to worry !