Hayford Siaw selected to 2015 Ford Fellowship

Street Library Ghana is pleased to announce that its founder and president, Hayford Siaw, has been chosen to participate in the 2015 Ford Motor Company International Fellowship of 92nd Street Y in New York City.

As one of just 25 participants chosen from more than 250 applicants around the world, Mr. Siaw will join a select group of emerging change makers and rising community leaders in this exciting and innovative program.

This May, Mr. Siaw and the others will attend participatory nonprofit management, strategic thinking, and leadership classes at the Picker Center for Executive Education at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.

The 2015 cohort will also visit with innovators from Yale University as well as model non-profit, business and government leaders as they focus on how to forge win-win partnerships between nonprofit, business and government entities.

In a brief interview about his selection into the program, Mr. Siaw expressed gratitude to Tigo Ghana, Reach for Change and The Global Fund for Children for their vital, multi-year support.

"Their generous financial contributions and capacity building efforts were crucial," he said. "Not only did they help us leverage and scale our impact to the benefit of numerous communities throughout Ghana, they helped bring our model global recognition."

Street Library Ghana—which began in 2011 as a single van full of books and other learning resources driven by Mr. Siaw—has grown exponentially, now serving over 10,000 children in 28 Ghanaian communities. The organization also partners with 2 communities in Liberia and 1 in Cameroon, with pending efforts in Mozambique on the horizon.

Additionally, last year SLG commissioned to electronically document local West African oral histories, stories and fables and distribute them in digital formats. This exciting new program was made possible by the European Development Fund—via the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) cultural support program—as well as partnerships with Microsoft Portugal and the Fraunhofer Research Institute.

"As American anthropologist Margaret Mead once said, 'Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has,'" said Mr. Siaw.

"I look forward to making new international contacts and expanding my knowledge base. To learn from, study with—and debate—some of the best, most innovative young minds in the field of social impact is tremendously exciting," he added. "I am blessed by this opportunity and look forward to returning home with new expertise and ideas."