Ghanaian excels @ Ohio University

Second year CommDev student Ebenezer Malcalm is a very busy man. Like many students, Malcalm is earning towards his Masters degree while working under a Graduate Assistantship – in Malcalm’s case, with the African American Research and Service Institute.

However, unlike many graduate students, Malcalm also continues to run an NGO called “Rescue Mission Ghana” of which he is the Executive Director, as well as one of the founding fathers. Malcalm says he was inspired to create Rescue Mission Ghana by the idea of “young people taking action in their respective communities to ensure sustainable development.” According to Malcalm, Rescue Mission was conceived during the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in the principles of the Rio Declaration’s “Agenda 21 for Change.” Initially concerned with environmental issues, Rescue Mission has expanded its scope to include issues of ICT use and access and HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention.

Malcalm acknowledges that running an NGO from abroad can be time–consuming, but he is clearly quite dedicated to his work. Says Malcalm, “The main objectives of Rescue Mission Ghana are to ensure the collaborative use of ICTs in the classroom setting in order to bridge the digital divide between the developed and the developing countries.” To this end, Rescue Mission Ghana strives to empower young people through the implementation of ICT access and use in educational institutions, while promoting principles of sustainable human development and social justice. Malcalm demonstrated how Rescue Mission Ghana provides students with practical skills that will help them acquire jobs in the future. “It can be very difficult to get work if you are not computer–literate. In many ways, we are providing these students with a life–long learning experience and preparing them to enter the job market.”

Rescue Mission Ghana also works in a partnership with Global Teenager Project, an international youth program that integrates ICT use and education in classroom. The two organizations work together to implement cross–cultural learning programs in the classroom, facilitated by a network of 26 countries located throughout Latin America, North America, Europe and Africa. In this programs, student must interact through chat rooms and e–mails with other students from some of the other participating countries worldwide that participate in the program. At the end of the program, students collaborate to create websites about some of the important issues they have discussed during the year. The final projects are quite professional and Malcalm is clearly very proud of the students’ works. With a big smile, he goes to each student’s website, demonstrating how each has integrated music, animation, and numerous interactive features. Some of the sites were entered into a design competition and selected as finalists and will represent the group in Egypt this spring.

Like many CommDev students, Malcalm’s story of how he came to be enrolled into program involves a network of close friends already working in the field. Malcalm first met Felix Kumah-Abiwu, a CommDev alumni who graduated last year, in Ghana over ten years ago. Malcalm was working towards his Masters degree in Population Studies at the University of Accra, Ghana, while teaching courses at the “Superstars” Six–Form School. At the time, Kumah–Abiwu was enrolled in Malcalm’s A–level Geography course and the two quickly became friends. Years later, Kumah–Abiwu enrolled in the CommDev program, all the while sharing his experiences at OU with Malcalm. Says Malcalm about his decision to enroll in OU’s CommDev program, “I was studying demography, working on HIV projects . . . And there is a need for you to know how to package your information to the general population. Especially, with HIV/AIDS, awareness is inherently linked to attitudinal change.

So I thought to myself, ‘What new skills can I learn to influence people’s behavior?’” Since arriving at Ohio University, Malcalm has developed his graphic design skills, producing a number of pamphlets for the Grassroots Alliance for Community Education (GRACE) and Rescue Mission. Malcalm has also honed his skills in video production, producing a number of films since arriving at OU, including “HIV/AIDS Project Hope for People Living With HIV/AIDS in Ghana” and “Diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies in Education in Ghanaian Schools.” Malcalm particularly like using video production as a means of communication for social change, as he feels it “is a great way to communicate with your audience, because it is something that they like to watch, and it moves them.” Malcalm worked with fellow CommDevers Shermalon Kirby and Fletcher Ziwoya to produce a promotional video for Ohio’s “Rural Action” organization as a Capstone project. At the beginning of the project, the Malcalm felt that the Rural Action program didn’t have much confidence in their skills, but “she loved the final product. When we presented the video at a special screening, the program director was so happy, she cried.”

Communication and Development Studies Program

Center for International Studies Ohio University