Continue reading »]]> The monthly Northern ICT for Development Forum is scheduled for Thursday  the 29th of March 2012 at the Northern Regional Library at 3.30pm prompt. This month’s topic for discussion will be on Biometric Registration by the  Electoral Commission of Ghana.

The general public is cordially invited!

Continue reading »]]> A one day workshop on Change Management has been organised by Savana Signatures for educational workers in the Tamale and the Savelugu District.

The workshop was targeted at teachers, head teachers, circuit supervisors, officials from the Northern Regional Education Office, Tamale Metropolitan Education Office and the Savelugu District Education Office.
In his welcome address to the participants, the Director of Savana Signatures, Mr. John Stephen Agbenyo mentioned that Savana Signatures has this year started a new project called the Integration of ICTs in Education Project (IIEP). The project, he mentioned will use ICT tools to Enhance School Administration and Teaching and Learning in 20 schools in 5 districts in Northern Ghana through capacity building and resourcing with the specific aim of improving the performance of school administrators in collecting and managing school based data as well as building the capacity of teachers to effectively use ICT tools to enhance the teaching and learning process in the classroom.

He stated that Savana Signatures has signed an MoU with the Tamale Metropolitan Education Office and the Savelugu District Education Office to implement this project and that the project had already started with 3 pilot schools; Darul Hardis Islamic Junior High School in Tamale, Yoo Roman Catholic Junior High School in Savelugu and Pong Tamale D/A Primary School in Pong Tamale. He mentioned that the Change Management Workshop was part of the series of activities and programs within the IIEP.

He added that the change management workshop was important because it aimed at reassessing and reinforcing top management engagement in ICT activities which are seen to be critical in sustaining the mainstreaming of ICTs into education. He outlined the objectives of the workshop as;

i) To improve participants overall understanding of both the project and organizational goals of the Integration of ICTs in Education Project
ii) To let participants appreciate the major challenges faced in internalization of ICT projects and activities
iii) To strengthen participants’ own commitment to ICT activities in their schools
iv) To offer participants skills and ideas on how to secure similar commitments from others.

A facilitator at the workshop, Patricia Fafa Formadi, Director for Women and Development Project (WADEP) explained that change happens at all times and the most important influence of change is the current situation. She added that in dealing with change, it is important to consider all human issues to be able to effect change. She said that change is often influence by factors such as Denial, Reaction, Acceptance and Action. She explained the process of effecting change with a diagram consisting of three major stages. The first stage being information stage where awareness must be created about the change to be effected, the second which involves education to bring about understanding of the change and the third being the commitment where people now would accept and use change for their benefit. On the phases of change, Madam Patricia outlined three issues; unfreezing, moving and refreezing. With unfreezing, she explained that change does not occur in a vacuum and that there is always an old way of doing some thing which must give way to the new ways in other for change to occur. On the other hand, the individual begins to accept the idea of change thus resulting in the moving stage. During this stage guidance is vital as the change process is still based on perception and feelings. The third phase which is refreezing is the period when the change now has a bearing on the individual or group, that is, they now reap the fruits of change. Madam Patricia added that, there have often been problems with change because of underground resistance, honest opponents, emigrants, missionaries and believers. She concluded by urging participants to use the reservation of other team members to work for the change.

Speaking on Problems of Change, Mr. Norbert Apentibadek, a Program Officer at the Association for Church Development Projects (ACDEP) said, perception is one major problem of change. He added that most people would resist change because of organisational culture, power, conflicts and resistance to change. To overcome resistance to change and change problems, Mr. Apentibadek added that communication is very important in alleviating people’s fear to change. In the integration of ICT in Education project for instance, he said the Head teachers and teachers of the schools have a responsibility to explain to GES and the PTA the essence of ICT in education. He urged participants to use evidence of change to convince others to see the need for change since change is for the better. Speaking on ‘commitment to change’, he urged participants to create positive perception about the new idea and also inform stakeholders about the impact the change would have on them.

Relating to the wheel of change, participants observed that change is not a one time activity nor can it be forced on leaders or the led but that it is a process which require information and education to get members’ commitment to achieve the desired change. Participants were grateful to Savana Signatures for organising such a workshop to enlighten and empower them.

Continue reading »]]> Savana Signatures is one of the proud winners of this year’s Google Rise Awards.

Search giant Google recently announced the winners of the RISE grant in which the Company will give away in excess of $ 340,000 as support to organizations that are rooted in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and CS (computer science).

The annual Google Roots in Science and Engineering (RISE) program supports organizations running innovative STEM and CS enrichment programs for students around the world.

Savana Signatures is one of the 5 Winners of the 2012 Google Rise Awards from Sub Saharan Africa to implement an ICT Clinic for Girls project.

The Google Rise team received over 400 applications but awarded only 26.

We are excited about this feat. See other winners at: http://www.google.com/edu/rise/recipients.html

Continue reading »]]> A half day stakeholder meeting has just ended at the Conference Room of Savana Signatures with a renewed commitment by all stakeholders (3 partner schools, Chairpersons of Parent Teacher Associations of partner schools, Savelugu District Director of Education, Tamale Metropolitan Director of Education and Northern regional Director of Education).

The meeting was organised by Savana Signatures with the aim of briefing the stakeholders on the Activities and Timelines involved in the Integration of ICTs in Education Project (IIEP) funded by C4C

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Africa Peace Festival 2012

The Africa Peace Festival aims at bringing together people from diverse cultures and origins, education and religion to display their cultures and commitment to development through peace building.

Music Festival, Arts, Sports & Cultural Events, Conferences & Workshops

The festival is drawing over 1,000 participants come together in Accra-Ghana, and over 50 supporting organizations across the globe.

Objectives of the Programme:

1. To provide as a safe, peaceful and joyful environment that allows for youth form different backgrounds to overcome their differences and unite for peace
2. To bring awareness and build capacity among youth on critical peace building issues with the objective of creating future peace educators
3. – To provide a forum for the youth to showcase their ideas in solving societal problems
4. – To showcase African rich culture
5. – To promote cultural tolerance and unity in diversity as a commitment to peaceful coexistence
6. – To engage political leaders, civil society, the media and representatives of the private sector with ideas of cultural tolerance and to encourage their commitment to peace, unity and development

Sub-Event under the festival;
International Peace Conference
Peace Education Workshop
Games for Peace
Art and Culture Exhibition
Business and NGO Executives Conference
Peace Concert
Visitation to some Tourist site in Ghana
Peace Awards/Dinner
Durbar and Cultural Display

for more information, visit www.africapeacefestival.org or www.afcopb.org or senyo@afcopb.org call 0249155003

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New office space

Savana Signatures has moved from its Jisonayili office to a new office. Our new location and address is:

Plot # 164, Block 6, Naa Luru Estate, Tamale.

The office is located directly behind the Fan Milk Depot, Tamale. It is a 3 minute walk from Gariba Lodge on the Tamale Bolgatanga Road. Our contact postal address and telephone numbers remains:

Post Office Box TL 332, Tamale, Northern Region, Ghana

Tel: +233 372 091 305

Cell: +233 264 421 532

All current and prospective project partners as well as other stakeholders are cordially informed.
Savana Signatures – Promoting ICTs for Development!

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PTA members attending the seminar

Savana Signatures has successfully organised a one day seminar on the theme “The Role of Parent Teacher Associations (PTA) in sustaining ICT Projects in schools”.

The seminar brought together Executives of PTAs of partner schools of Savana Signatures in Tamale and Savelugu Nanton Districts, school Administrators, officials of the Ghana Education Service as well as other NGOs working in Education.

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Web Development Training

At the opening the, the Executive Director of Savana Signatures, Mr. John Stephen Agbenyo stated that Savana Signatures deems it a top priority to constantly build the capacity of its staff. He mentioned that ” It is only when our capacities are built that we can confidently build the capacities of others” he mentioned that “It is the only way the organization can achieve its objectives”. He also noted that the reconstruction of Savsign web site is being supported by the African Centre for Peace Building under its Web for Peace Project.

The Executive Director of the African Centre for Peace Building-AFCOPB who was the resource person for the training also re-echoed AFCOPB’s commitment at sharing knowledge with its partners. He said ‘the only way we can build a peaceful society is when we share knowledge to finding solutions to our problems”.

Participants were taken through:
1. Introduction to Dreamweaver, 2. Introduction to Web Designing using tables, 3. Development using CSS, PHP and HTML 4. Introduction to Graphical Tool to aid web designing 4. Managing a CMS Website 5. Transferring Files onto a Server using Core FTP and Cpanel

To aid more in-depth into the training, an online platform was developed on the SavSign website to provide further discussion on the content of the training.

Continue reading »]]> Four Savana Signatures staff have successfully taken part in a one day capacity building training organized by the Tamale Branch of the Google Technology User Group (GTUG). The event, spearheaded by the Northern Ghana ICT Innovators,
an association of people involved in ICT and based in the Northern Part of Ghana was organized on Saturday the 26th of March 2011 at the Filla Consult Training centre.Jojoo Imbeah and Kelvin Fiifi Baidoo from Accra GTUG were the facilitators. Participants were taken through a general presentation on google and google apps. A hands on was done on google maps. Participants went through the Tamale township with some android devices to map key institutions and points of interest in Tamale.
Mr. Abdul Rashid Imoro, Program Officer – Education, Mr. Samuel Acheampong, Program officer – Documentation, Ralph Adomey, Capacity Building Officer, Robertson Agbenyo, Technical Officer and Miss Fuseina Dedawu, Secretary took part in the training. As a contribution to the success of the event, Savana
Signatures supported the training with computers and Internet facility.

Continue reading »]]> Savana Signature (SavSign) is a registered Non-Governmental Organization that has developed keen interest in the empowerment of youth and women through education. This is done mainly through and with the use of Information and Communication Technologies. Realizing that the development as a Nation and the North in particular will be much swifter when the development of the minds of the youth and women becomes a fundamental resources, Savana Signatures seeks to use ICT as a catalyst for rapid development.

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