On Nov 28th KOLIBITRAP (Komba Literacy and Bible Translation Project) invited all Komba chiefs for the 2009 fundraising and Komba literacy promotion day. This year over 200 communities were represented and most of them made contributions to help KOLIBITRAP. The meeting was honored by the Deputy Northern Regional Minister of Ghana who came and led the way by giving a gift from the regional government towards Komba literacy. Two other local governments (districts) gave gifts also.
What all goes into organizing a Literacy Day in Northern Ghana?In sum, it is all of what goes into organizing a big event anywhere but due to the remote nature we do more through face to face meetings, and social networks (not online networks!).
• Most of these communities have been visited personally by one of the KOLIBITRAP staff or executive committee members at least once and some several times in the last three years.
• A month earlier we organized a preliminary all Komba chiefs meeting to tell the chiefs about the fundraising day so they could begin their own fundraising in their communities.
• Both the preliminary meeting and actual meeting required distributing letters to all the 200 plus communities through hand to hand distribution to very interior villages.
• The office staff and executive committee members (especially our chairman) visited 7 government offices and about 10 Non Government Organizational offices
• KOLIBITRAP had to collect and record the many small and large gifts given all at once all on the same day and then subsequently make receipts and “mail” them back with a thank you letter to all the interior village communities, distributing them through hand to hand contact utilizing the social networks of the KOLIBITRAP office staff. Many of the gifts were cash but much of it was grain (corn, guinea corn, millet, yams, chickens etc.)
• Office staff wives prepared food and drink for all the chiefs and dignitaries.
• Volunteers and office staff organized a meeting place by going around town to people’s houses borrowing chairs and logs to make a shade structure and then return them all back the next day.
• Office staff organized entertainment through local dancing and a modern sound system musician.
• Several organizational meetings where jobs were assigned and plans made, letters written etc.
As you can see this project takes a lot of time and energy. KOLIBITRAP feels that the PR is worth the effort since it promotes literacy and its importance to communities that have not valued it traditionally and asks those same communities and other stakeholders to invest in literacy by contributing to KOLIBITRAP. This requires that KOLIBITRAP is trustworthy and accountable for all its activities. In a sense it puts a greater pressure on the organization to do what it promises.
