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This is a journey of HOPE.
Joy Tang is the founder of oneVillage Foundation (OVF).
Before she started oneVillage Foundation Joy was involved
in business development in Africa for telecommunications
company. Her trips to Africa have allowed her to connect
in powerful ways with networks of committed leaders
and their communities in Africa and to get a sense of
their hopes, dreams, aspirations as well as frustrations.
Professor Akinsola Akiwowo is one such example. He is
a sociologist, Yoruba priest and an instrumental figure
in the revitalization of Yoruba culture. As a respected
elder in Yoruba society and also a member of the OVF
Board, Professor Akiwowo has played a key role in helping
us to better understand Yoruba culture (the Yoruba people
live in Nigeria) and the values as well as needs of
greater Africa.
Ojishe
Ojishe is a Yoruba word for messengers, people who provide
services for others.’ Inspired by the idea of
Ojishe, Joy has spread the message of community revitalization
to Africa as an alternative to Western development approaches.
Joy’s own experiences have involved using drumming
and chanting to heal herself from illness. Joy calls
this process of deep healing that one needs to engage
in order to be in touch with one’s true self,
getting “back to the root.” As she has engaged
in this therapeutic process of self-healing, she has
met many youth who resonate with this way of thinking
and who represent Africa’s hope for the future.
One Such youth leader is Kafui Prebbie, a 29-year-old
Ghanaian, who manages an ICT center at the University
of Education at Winneba Ghana by day and by night manages
OVF Ghana. His hard work represents the energy and vitality
of African youth. OVF Ghana under Kafui’s leadership
has developed several programs, which we believe are
instrumental to our work in Africa. Seeing the role
of ICT in potentially transforming the Ghanaian economy,
Kafui and his team have sought to develop a program,
Catch IT Young, to train K-12 students through computer
clubs at schools. Another program Sports People that
Care, uses sports men and women as role models to promote
awareness about wellness management and healthcare training
such as AIDS.
Unity Centers
We see the NIC as another term for building Unity Centers
(Ojishe Houses). Unity Centers will provide the physical
infrastructure to help congregate and mobilize local
resources so that people can come together sharing stories,
information and celebrating in the spirit of healing,
love and global transformation. Cascading out from the
Unity Center core will be the oneVillage Initiatives,
a series of programs that address local development
in underserved communities from a whole systems holistic
perspective. This process of community development will
allow us to empower ourselves and in so doing, become
the change we want to see in the world. Through this
process we become the inspirational models for others
who follow in our paths just as the ones who before
us who we relied on for guidance and inspiration.
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| This girl is a patient in a rural
health clinic that Joy Tang visited in the Zulu
land of South Africa. “She gave me unconditional
love at the moment she saw me without asking anything
in return. She inspires me to search deep and hard
to lead to my embark on oneVillage Initiative.”
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| Professor Akiwowo and Joy Tang
at Ojishe House in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. |
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| Catch IT Young Launch event in
2002, Winneba, Ghana. |
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| Youth leader Kafui Prebbie organized
his community to form ‘Sports People That
Care’ program to promote awareness of well
being and health education on Global AIDS Day, December
1, 2002 in Winneba, Ghana. |
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