Garth Moore is US deputy director of new media for ONE. Before ONE, Garth worked with various nonprofit campaigns and causes, including foreign aid, health, climate, and animal welfare. He has a MA in communication from John Hopkins University. Garth follows global technology, social media and online organizing topics on Twitter at @garthmoore.
Mac-Jordan Degadjor is a Ghanaian social media entrepreneur and rising star among global tech bloggers. The 26-year-old recently spoke about the positive effects of social media at the TEDxYouthInspire conference in Ghana’s capital city of Accra and was spotlighted in the Christian Science Monitor’s “Thirty Ideas from People Under 30.” We asked Mac-Jordan to explain why mobile tech advancements are important for Ghana’s economic and social growth.
Why is Ghana ready for a mobile technology boom? Are investors looking to Ghana as a market ready to advance with mobile?
Anytime I’m asked if Ghana is ready for the mobile technology boom, my answer is always YES. In Ghana, there are two major organizations providing locals with the business and technology skills they need to leverage ideas into successful mobile web companies: Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology and Mobile Web Ghana.
New opportunities are showing up that make it possible for low-income economies to leapfrog other countries by adopting technologies that are suitable to their specific circumstances. I’m happy to say that Ghana is taking that bold step in adopting new mobile technologies. Take a critical look at the continent: Africa has more than 110 million Internet users, a number that is poised to grow by 2400 percent in this decade alone.
What about Ghana’s market makes it ready for mobile phone technology? How are smartphones being introduced into the market? Can bandwidth improvements keep up with the technology?
People might not associate rapid technology growth — especially mobile tech growth — with Africa. However, in 2011, Africa experienced a huge growth in tech, especially with mobile technologies. A recent article in The Economist estimates that there are 600 million mobile phone users in Africa, more than in the United States or Europe. Africa’s mobile telephone subscriptions are growing at twice the global average and tablet computers are hitting the market. And that growth is expected to continue in 2012 as investors flock to build technologies in Africa.
Each day this week, we’ll highlight a major accomplishment in the fight against poverty that ONE members helped achieve in 2011. Today, ONE’s US Deputy Director for New Media Garth Moore discusses our World AIDS Day campaign.
Last summer, new scientific studies pointed to a tantalizing possibility: The Beginning of the End of AIDS. What could that have meant? A horrible disease that has taken millions of lives could be on the downhill thanks to advancements and lower costs for treatment and prevention. Suddenly, villages and communities where AIDS was once a death sentence could be kept healthy and avoid getting HIV in the first place through stopping mother-to-child transmission and more preventive methods. When ONE, (RED) and other partners combined forces to push US leaders to scale up treatment and prevention, we recognized this wasn’t a pipe dream, but a serious call to action.
Back in 1984, I didn’t know much about the devastating famine in Ethiopia until I heard Band Aid’s single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” on the radio. As a teenager, it was amazing to hear so many new wave stars and British and Irish musicians on one song. It was a truly accessible way –- especially for younger people –- to learn about the famine in Ethiopia and how to be a voice for the world’s poorest. All holiday season long, everyone sang “Feed the Worrrr-ld,” and it was a smash single.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the discovery of HIV/AIDS. But this World AIDS Day –- December 1st — we’re commemorating it as a call to action to help bring about the beginning of the end of AIDS… and it starts with you.
We’re proud to announce the launch of the (2015)QUILT, a groundbreaking digital tool that brings people from all over the world together to fight for a historic achievement –- the delivery of the first AIDS-free generation in more than 30 years. Watch our latest video and get started now:
Earlier this month, we asked for your help to nominate ONE for Mashable’s Social Media Awards in the category of “Must-Follow Nonprofit.” And WOW, did you come through in a big way!
ONE is now nominated as a finalist in “Must-Follow Non-Profit on Social Media” category, an honor bestowed to us and six other lucky organizations. We’re truly honored to be nominated for the award with such great groups. Now, we need your help again to help us win this great honor. So visit Mashable‘s Social Media award website now and nominate ONE campaign:
Get ready to take part in one of the largest World AIDS Day online events ever. Next Thursday, December 1st, ONE, (RED) and an impressive list of partners and influencers are hosting a live broadcast event with an amazing group of people –- and we want you at the table, too.
The event, “The Beginning of the End of AIDS,” is a live discussion powered by YouTube, featuring former Presidents George W. Bush and President Bill Clinton, Bono, Alicia Keys and more. The panel -– with help from partners at the Tema Clinic in Ghana, Keep a Child Alive, the Bush Foundation, Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, the Saddleback Church and others — will tackle key questions on the fight against AIDS, including where we are today, where we’re falling short, and what it’s going to take to end this preventable disease for good.
This is where you come in: we need your questions for the panel. Take a minute to watch this video from ONE CEO Michael Elliott above and visit www.youtube.com/TheONECampaign to submit your question on our YouTube channel now. Once you’re done, spread the word and ask your friends and family to vote on your question so we can present it to our distinguished panel.
AIDS used to be a death sentence. Now, remarkably, we could be looking at the beginning of the end of AIDS if certain steps are taken. So, be sure to ask your question now and mark your calendar for Thursday, December 1st from 10 to 12 p.m. ET to join our online YouTube event.
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
