ABOUT US – Open Foundation West Africa

Our Team

Meet the core team making all the magic happen

Our Brand

All you need to know about our brand and how to use it

Who We Are

A non-profit organization focused on, among other things, projecting and uplifting the image of Ghana, West Africa and the African continent through… read more

MISSION

VISION

Partners & Affiliates

Our Vision

Aiding more people to understand and use open resources as a basis for improving the quality and accessibility of education.

Our Mission

Creating the awareness of all available open resources, promoting their use and sharing the benefits of contributing towards the future of education and open learning.

We are a soft skills tech-based organization and a network of communities, committed to digitally representing and preserving the culture of Africa, and developing skills on the continent using an open-centered approach to deliver Skills Training and Capacity building opportunities for people whose stories and passions resonate deeply with ours in a way that is consistent with the quality, impact, and importance of our projects.

Advocacy & Awareness: As a non-profit organization, our commitment is to Advocacy and Awareness creation for policy, policy change, e.t.c. This dedication partly culminates in our drive to contribute to the Open Movement as a recognised affiliate of Wikimedia and Creative Commons.

Training and Development: We are focused on adding value to the skill sets of both community members and organisations. We are passionate about identifying skill gaps and providing relevant content to bridge those gaps.
We are also equipped to provide and effect training for individuals and organisations in Entrepreneurship, UN SDGs among others.

Consultancy Services: We are equipped to advise on Creative Commons and other areas of expertise as a non-profit. We also provide expert consultancy services in Research, Copyright and licensing along with Kiwix Deployment.

Digitization and Digitalisation: As part of our attempt to contribute to the digital representation of Africa and its culture, we have developed programs and events as an avenue to contribute our quota to a well represented Africa. These programs include but are not limited to the following:

- Tour Ghana
- Curriculum digitisation

Welcome to Open Foundation West Africa

We have played a significant role in supporting open communities on the continent. We are keen on continuing to work with individuals/organisations across the continent to promote and create awareness about open resources as well as aid in providing opportunities for capacity building among the youth on newer open technologies to bridge the skills, technology and information gap in Africa. Below are a few of the projects we have embarked on.

Summer Open School (SOS)
Monthly Edit-A-Thon
Digital Literacy Skills
Women of the Wiki
Africa Wiki Challenge
Wiki Loves Festival
Wiki Loves Monuments
Wiki Loves Earth
Wiki Loves Africa
Ghana Educators Forum
Africa Wikimedia Developers Program (AWDP)
Wikimedia Education’s Program (Ashesi University)

Open resources hold a great prospect in bridging the knowledge gap for the future. We are here to make this prospect a reality through nurturing contributors to contribute and create awareness of these resources to the general public. Over the years, we have established Wiki hubs to help in advancing the open movement. Most importantly we aim to have people in these areas write about their people and culture and to encourage the translation of Wikipedia in local languages.

This has birthed the following hubs.

The Ashesi Wiki club is our first campus-based wiki club which has seen immense growth with the club having its own executive body that organizes regular meetups and edit-a-thons. As a school that adheres to international standards, the members of the wiki club do not only edit and create articles about Ghana but other African countries. We also have Wiki Clubs in University of Ghana, Legon as well as Lancaster University.

Due to the nature of our work, OFWA runs largely on our affiliations, partnerships and goodwill donations of individuals and organisations alike. Our partners across the globe help us to scale-up our impact and universal influence. The force created by this unity helps us in our quest to shape the future through awareness creation of the opportunities available in and around open resources.

The Wikimedia Foundation, Creative Commons, Goethe Institut, African Women’s Development Fund, Alliance for Affordable Internet, Soronko Academy, Open Society Foundations, Ho Node Hub, Mozilla, the US Embassy, UEW, Hopin Academy, T-Tel, GIMPA e.t.c. are some of our partners and affiliates.

In closing, it is worth noting the following:

Advocacy & Awareness: As a non-profit organization, our commitment is to Advocacy and Awareness creation for policy, policy change, e.t.c. This dedication partly culminates in our drive to contribute to the Open Movement as a recognised affiliate of Wikimedia and Creative Commons.

Training and Development: We are focused on adding value to the skill sets of both community members and organisations. We are passionate about identifying skill gaps and providing relevant content to bridge those gaps. We are also equipped to provide and effect training for individuals and organisations in Entrepreneurship, UN SDGs among others.

Consultancy Services: We are equipped to advise on Creative Commons and other areas of expertise as a non-profit. We also provide expert consultancy services in Research, Copyright and licensing along with Kiwix Deployment.

Digitization and Digitalisation: As part of our attempt to contribute to the digital representation of Africa and its culture, we have developed programs and events as an avenue to contribute our quota to a well represented Africa. These programs include but are not limited to the following:
- Tour Ghana
- Curriculum digitisation