At Springboard Sessions 2017, renowned champions of global citizenship share personal accounts from their lives, get your thoughts on today’s global challenges, and invite you to join them in their journeys...or start your own!
Launched in 2013, Springboard Sessions are the stimulus for new thinking and new action for global citizens.
Beyond simply transmitting ideas and information, they inspire, challenge and, above all, motivate people to take action on some of today’s most challenging problems.
At the 2017 Global Citizenship Conference, you’ll experience incredible leaders sharing intimate stories from their lives and work.
and join the stories that inspire action on Sunday, 13 August at Ashesi University near Berekuso (Ghana)!
(registrations are free of charge and close on 5 August 2017 – there are only limited spaces available)
Meet the incredible speakers who will inspire you during our 2017 Springboard Sessions.
Meet Sangu Delle
Entrepreneur, Author, Activist
Read BioMeet Farida Bedwei
Software Engineer, Disability-Rights Advocate, Author
Read BioMeet Nana Akwasi Awuah
Lawyer, Activist, Consultant
Read BioMeet Renee C Neblett
Artist, Educator, Social Innovator
Read BioMeet Shadrack Frimpong
Founder, Researcher, Singer
Read BioMeet Special Performance
Dance, Drums, Happy Cheers
Read BioEntrepreneur, Author, Activist
Born in Ghana, Sangu Delle’s childhood home was a refuge for victims of torture and violence from neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone.
In 2007, he co-founded cleanacwa, a nonprofit working in underdeveloped communities in Ghana to make sure that clean water and sanitation is available. Since then, cleanacwa has helped improve the lives of over 200,000 people across 160 villages in Ghana.
Convinced that the real needs of communities can best be met through entrepreneurship, in 2008 Sangu Delle founded an Golden Palm Investments, investment holding company that funds promising start-ups across the African continent that can have social impact and generate jobs.
Find out more about Sangu’s inspiring story at Springboard Sessions, and read more here!
Software Engineer, Disability-Rights Advocate, Author
Farida Bedwei was born in Nigeria, grew up in Grenada and the U.K., and moved to Ghana with her family in the late 1980s. Driven by the conviction that technology can change lives, she co-founded the software company Logiciel in 2011. As Logiciel’s chief technical officer, she developed a cloud-based banking system that uses SMS to make small loans available immediately. Since then, over 130 companies nationwide have adapted the software to administer micro-loans to their customers.
Diagnosed with cerebral palsy at the age of one, Farida has refused to let her disability affect her career trajectory. Today, she is considered one of the most influential women in financial technology on the continent. Farida has been appointed as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. With the publication of her novel Definition of a Miracle she also became a celebrated author.
Learn more about Farida Bedwei and her inspiring story at Springboard Sessions!
Lawyer, Activist, Consultant
Nana Akwasi Awuah is an activist with a focus on good governance, social accountability and social justice. His activism is rooted in his passionate belief that there is an inextricable link between good governance and the pursuit of happiness. He successfully organized the historic #OccupyFlagstaffHouse protest, which birthed the OccupyGhana Movement. He also served as legal counsel for two Ghanaian celebrities, Yvonne Nelson and Sarkodie, in the organization of the famous #DumsorMustStop Vigil.
Nana Akwasi Awuah is a co-founder of the CitizenGhana Movement and a Mandela Washington Fellow, a flagship program under Barack Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). A lawyer by training, he is interested in corporate and commercial law, human rights, constitutional law and intellectual property law.
Get inspired by Nana Akwasi’s amazing story at Springboard Sessions!
Artist, Educator, Social Innovator
Born in Boston, Massachusetts (USA), Renee C Neblett has lived in Ghana for the past 22 years. As someone who identifies with the term “Afropolitan”, she profoundly appreciates the value of culture and experience, and how they place us on the expansive landscape of our diverse yet common humanity.
She is the founding director of the Kokrobitey Institute, a private, research and development facility that began its work in 1992. Kokrobitey aims to support development by facilitating projects and programs that demonstrate the intersections between Art, Culture, Design, Health, and Sustainable Development through Literacy. Current initiatives include the manufacturing of the Ghana School Bag, made of recycled materials, and the Maker’s Workshop: Advancing literacy through supporting critical thinking, which teaches teachers to produce experiential learning tools for village classrooms.
Learn more about Renee’s inspiring story at Springboard Sessions, and read more here!
A proud son of a peasant farmer and charcoal seller, Shadrack Frimpong was born and raised in Tarkwa-Breman, a village in Ghana’s Western Region. With the aid of scholarships, he was able to study at the University of Pennsylvania (USA), where he graduated with a Biology degree in 2015.
Shadrack founded Cocoa360, a tuition-free girls’ school and hospital situated amid a cocoa plantation. There, he pioneered the “sweat-to-impact” health equity model: In exchange for subsidized fees, beneficiaries work on the plantation, which sustains the operations of the school and the hospital.
Prior to Cocoa360, Shadrack started Students for A Healthy Africa, which provides free health insurance for HIV/AIDS orphans in Ghana and supports a health clinic in rural Nigeria. He also spearheaded the African Research Academies for Women to help bridge the gap between male and female scientists in Africa.
Find out more about Shadrack’s amazing work at Springboard Sessions, and read more here!
In the royal land of Berekusu (Ghana), music is central. With dance, drums and happy cheers, a ceremony is worth every minute. The chief’s palace will grace this year’s Springboard Sessions with traditional music: rigorous drumming, melodic tunes and deliberate dance moves that will (literally) keep you on your feet.
Springboard Sessions are the stimulus for new thinking and new action for global citizens. The schedule is simple:
Enjoy a relaxing welcome reception in good company. Meet, greet, laugh, share your stories, sparkle and breath the joy of finally having arrived where the magic is going to happen: at Ashesi University.
At 16.00hrs, the curtains will go up with an impressive performance that officially opens the Global Citizenship Conference!
Springboard Sessions are the Melton Foundation’s signature event, featuring short talks from inspiring practitioners and advocates of global citizenship sharing their personal story and - through life interactions with the audience - inviting you to join them in their journeys.
Springboard Sessions inspire, challenge, and motivate to take action; they also raise a lot of questions! In an interactive panel conversation, participants have the opportunity to interact with the speakers, discuss experiences and dive into ideas for action.
Springboard Sessions are a must for anyone interested in being global citizens! Join us on 13 August 2017!
More than mediating ideas and information, Springboard Sessions motivate to make new choices for how to focus our time and talents in both the immediate and long term. They are a must for anyone interested in being global citizens!
Our signature event is open to the public and free of charge.
and experience stories that reveal, stimulate, provoke and yes, are the springboard for new actions!
(registrations are free of charge and close on 5 August 2017 – there are only limited spaces available)