Collating a collective Ghanaian dream

Oftentimes, we hear people talk about the American Dream. Have you heard someone talk about the Ghanaian Dream? What is your dream for Ghana? What should the Ghanaian dream be? What should be our collective dream for Ghana?

GhanaThink is running a campaign in 2021 starting from Ghana’s birthday to collate individuals’ Ghanaian dreams to come up with Ghanaian dreams on a national level, as well as regional, municipal, metropolitan and community- based. We ran some #GhanaianDream breakout sessions in 2018 at the various Barcamps around Ghana.

This campaign is in conjunction with Moxie Marketing Group and it is being driven by the wider GhanaThink network, etc.

This campaign is in line with our desire to deepen conversations around nationalism, consciousness of the youth in national development, networking, discussing what we want for Ghana, etc.

This campaign would deepen engagement with Ghanaian communities on the future they perceive for the country and how they can contribute towards attaining that. Teresa Lemaire, a GhanaThink member shared: “When I think of home, it is a Ghana where everyone has a fair shot at success.

Systems work - you don't need to know someone to get a business registered, receive quality healthcare, or complete land registration. We succeed when Ghana succeeds. No matter what you are doing today or where you find yourself, we each have a role to play in building our dream home, Ghana”

This is not about an individual's Ghanaian dream for themselves, this is for an individual's dream for Ghana - and collating that to come up with collective dreams for Ghana. After a period of 6 months, collating these Ghanaian dreams, GhanaThink would look at the commonalities, diversity, trends, similarities to come up with Ghanaian dreams per various demographics, sectors or topics. These would be suggested to people who can help make it a reality at national, regional, municipal and community-based levels.

The campaign features an interactive microsite - GhanaianDream.com. At this website, people can submit information to develop a customized e-poster or e-flyer. This will bear their stated "Ghanaian Dream", their photo, name, related hashtag and logos. The web based microsite will be accessible via both mobile and desktop.

The platform was designed in collaboration with George Mensah Minyillah, a Computer Engineering student of Ashesi University. Moxie Marketing Group (Moxie) is a full-service marketing agency which creates intelligence-led brand campaigns. The agency executes projects in Ghana, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire and Kenya for leading brands including The British Council, Huawei, SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, Cisco, Palo Alto, Cybersoc and DataGroupIT.

Julian Ayim - CEO of Moxie Marketing Group stated: "Every great accomplishment begins with a dream or idea and these dreams have better chances of materialising when written down and discussed with like-minded people.

The #GhanaianDream digital activation enables Ghanaians and well-wishers of the country to join in on conversations, exchange of ideas and formation of partnerships for action with well-articulated thoughts being amplified through the #GhanaianDream hashtag.

These are interesting times and our productive use of social media and technology can take us closer to our goals".

The GhanaThink Foundation is a social enterprise (though it started as a not-for-profit) whose mission is to mobilize and organize talent for the benefit of Ghana and of the world. GhanaThink Foundation’s vision is to build a critical mass of passionate, patriotic, positive, proactive, progressive, and productive young Ghanaians.

GhanaThink's programs include Barcamp Ghana, Junior Camp Ghana (JCG), Ghana Volunteer Program (GVP), Komseko (formerly Ghana Youth Social Entrepreneurship Program). This #GhanaianDream campaign is being driven by Konnect meetups.

Konnect is made up of various local Konnects. Each one brings people, places, and organizations in the location together for opportunities, information and promotion. Each Konnect has Whatsapp groups mostly made up of past participants of Barcamps and people who have been involved in GhanaThink activities.

In Ghana, we have groups in the 12 locations we solely run Barcamps - Kumasi, Accra, Tema, Kasoa, Koforidua, Ho, Cape Coast, Takoradi, Kumasi, Sunyani, Tamale, Bolgatanga, as well as Ada, Somanya, Kintampo, Ahanta, Hohoe, Keta, Sefwi, Goaso, Kyebi, Suhum, Savannah and Oti.

There would be various physical and virtual Konnect meetups in March 2021 (Ghana Month aka Heritage Month) and beyond bringing people in Ghana together to network, catch up, hang out, learn about other, and discuss topics, primarily the #GhanaianDream. This campaign launched via the Tema Konnect Meetup at T-Havana Parks on Ghana’s Independence Day - 6th March 2021.

Patrick Keli Atitsogbui, the online and marketing lead for GhanaThink's Barcamp Ghana shared: "There are high goals that Ghana seeks to achieve and it will take the Ghanaian citizen to help in achieving these goals. This Ghanaian dream campaign would help Ghanaians identify the various types of dreams Ghanaians have and help in achieving some of these dreams."

What is your Ghanaian Dream? Generate an e-flyer from GhanaianDream.com and post about the Ghanaian Dream on social media with the #GhanaianDream hashtag.