FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE : YOUNG PEOPLE WE CARE (YPWC) RECEIVES YOUTH SERVICE AMERICA’S DISNEY’S FRIENDS FOR CHANGE GRANT TO HELP KIDS MAKE A DIFFERENCE

BUNKPURUGU-YUNYOO, NORTHERN REGION –13TH APRIL 2011– MATTHEW NYANNUBE YOSAH, A COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT STUDENT AT UNIVERSITY FOR DEVELOPMENT STUDIES WA, AND PROJECT OFFICER OF YOUNG PEOPLE WE CARE (YPWC) GHANA IN NORTHERN REGION was one of the selected youth leaders around the world to be awarded a $500 Disney’s fiends for Change Grant from YSA (Youth Service America) to support youth-led projects encouraging kids, families and communities to work together to make a positive change in their world.

One of 20 grants awarded in the United States, Matthew Nyannube Yosah will implement Youth Participatory Environmental Action for Sustainable Development from April 15th to 17th in celebration of Global Youth Service Day, the world’s largest and longest-running youth-led service campaign. According to Matthew, ‘Youth Participatory Environmental Action for Sustainable Development is a community felt, need-based and grassroots approach to a youth-led community action project that seeks to enhance the environmental health of communities. Located in the Northern Region of Ghana, an intervention is needed to enhance the attainment of the Millennium Development Goal 7 (Ensuring Environmental Sustainability) and improving climate change globally’.

Disney's Friends for Change (www.disney.com/projectgreen) is a program created to inspire kids and families to join together and make a positive impact on their world (and the people and animals that live there). The grants offer youth needed resources to bring environmental initiatives to life and inspire change within their local communities.

“These grants were extremely competitive, but ‘Youth Participatory Environmental Action for Sustainable Development’ exemplified the goals of the Disney’s Friends for Change program,” said Steve Culbertson, President and CEO of Youth Service America. “Young people in Kinkangu want to make a difference, and Disney’s Friends for Change Grant, in coordination with YSA (Youth Service America), offers them the resources needed to make a positive, measurable impact on their community.”

Now in its 23rd year, Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) engages millions of young people via partnerships with schools, youth development, community, and faith-based organizations. Events are currently planned in more than 100 countries and in all 50 states, addressing the most challenging local, national and global issues facing the world including health, literacy, childhood hunger and the environment.

"Kids and families are at the heart of everything we do athttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif Disney. We strive to partner with and inspire the next generation to improve the planet’s future by using creativity, arts and problem--solving to make a difference through Disney’s Friends for Change Grants,” said Leslie Goodman, senior vice president, Corporate Citizenship, The Walt Disney Company.

For more information about Youth Participatory Environmental Action For Sustainable Development visit www.ypwc.org and also join our Facebook fun page. For more information about YSA (Youth Service America) and Global Youth Service Day (GYSD), visit www.YSA.org.

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Disney's Friends for Change is a multiplatform initiative that helps inspire kids and families to join together and make a positive impact on their world (and the people and animals that live there). Through PSAs on-air and online tool-kits, the program aims to provide useful information to help kids make small changes that add up to big differences. As part of the program, Disney donates $1 million dollars annually to fund projects all around the globe and has funded over 41 projects that help the planet ranging from educational & community programs to species & habitat protection. Friends for Change currently has over 3 million actions taking place from kids in 33 countries throughout Europe, Latin America, Japan, India, and China. Kids can join online at www.Disney.com/projectgreen .

Youth Service America (YSA) improves communities by increasing the number and the diversity of young people, ages 5-25, serving in substantive roles. Founded in 1986, YSA supports a global culture of engaged youth committed to a lifetime of service, learning, leadership, and achievement. The impact of YSA’s work through service and service-learning is measured in student achievement, workplace readiness, and healthy communities. For more information, visit www.YSA.org.

Young People We Care (YPWC) is a youth led and youth focused organization headquartered in Ghana. Founded in 2005,our mission is to educate and inform youth on global issues, inspire them to take action, encourage their participation in global issues, identify and build sustainable partnerships aimed at youth development and provide young people with tools and resources for effective action. Our vision is to provide a ‘youthful voice’ that seeks to address the numerous challenges facing young people by effectively using young resourceful minds to influence the course of global policy formulation and development in a consistent and harmonized manner. For more information, visit: www.ypwc.org .

CONTACT:
Diane Dray
818-567-5384
The Walt Disney Company
diane.dray@disney.com

Jen Voss
Youth Service America
202-650-5064
jvoss@ysa.org

Matthew Nyannube Yosah
Young People We Care/ Development Education Club
+233-249431332
matthew@ypwc.org

Volunteer in Ghana, West Africa

Image by zug55 The Manhyia Palace was built by the British in 1925 to receive Asantehene (ruler of the Ashanti people) Prempeh I when he returned from a quarter of a century of exile in the Seychelles to resume residence in Kumasi. It was used by the Ashanti kings until 1974. It now serves as a museum, containing a range of items relating to the Ashanti Kingdom, particularly Prempeh I (ruled 1888-1931) and Prempeh II (ruled 1931-1970).

Have you ever thought about volunteering in a developing country like Ghana? Ghana is one of the most stable nations in Africa and voted as the 2nd most peaceful nation in Africa on the Global Peace Index.

Thousands of volunteers visit Ghana every year and spend anything from a few weeks to months working in different parts of the country to help make a difference. Some volunteer projects are based in Accra, the capital, and others can be located in rural areas spanning the breadth of Ghana.

YPWC's volunteer projects are based in and around Kumasi which is in the historical Ashanti Region in the centre of the southern half of Ghana. Kumasi is an excellent and central base from which to explore the whole country too.

The beautiful Rainbow Garden Village at Lake Bosumtwi (another resort) is just an hour outside of Kumasi on public transport. Once you arrive it's hard to believe such lush and beautiful surrounds are so close to the bustling city centre.

Some of the things volunteers will do at YPWC:

• Newsletter and website marketing and regular updating;
• Proposal writing;
• Running the Book Project series;
• Youth Migration and Development projects;
• Youth MDGs Programme;
• HIV/AIDS sensitisation in schools and community groups;
• Connecting North and South Schools/Youth Groups.

Read about just a few of the opportunities available in 2010.

Check out YPWC on Idealist.org.

A diverse range of images from Kumasi

Image by zug55

Kumasi's huge central market by Hugues

YPWC: DISNEY’S FRIENDS FOR CHANGE GRANT ADDRESSING ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

Where: BUNKPURUGU-YUNYOO, GHANA
25TH SEPTEMBER, 2010

Mr Jakperuk Judges Bilanmah of YPWC’s Development Education Club was one of 75 international applicants to receive a Disney’s Friends for Change Grant worth $500. The grant is administered by Youth Service America for youth-led environmental initiatives. A major project component occurs on International Coastal Cleanup Day on September 25.

Disney’s Friends for Change: Project Green is a program that encourages young people to take steps together with their friends to help the planet. The grants, administered by Youth Service America (YSA), offer youth the resources they need to bring environmental initiatives to life for their local communities, including the new Friends for Change project guide providing youth with helpful tips on contacting local media and public officials.

The Greening Ghanaian Child and Youth For Sustainable Development project engaged 100 children and youth in an environmental improvement initiative which was led by YPWC Development Education Club at Najiong No.1 Kings and Queens International School in the Bunkpurugu Yunyoo District of Northern Region in Ghana.

The project embarked on a cleanup exercise at the school, street, market, public toilets, urinal pits and capacity building workshops where young people were trained as “Green Child for Sustainable Environment Advocates”. Participants also discussed issues including, but not limited to, the MDGs, with emphasis on the MDG 7: Importance of Clean environment, Time Management. The group planted 20 mango trees on the school compound.

Waste collection and disposal bins, brooms, detergents and other items were also presented to the School Head Mistress, Madam Amuquandoh Hawa, who expressed her gratitude for such need-based intervention.

The PTA Board members present were Mr. Laamong Burika (Chairman), Mr. Elijah Laari-Bugri (Member), Mr. James Chapoli Suuk (Secretary). They expressed gratitude during a community impact assessment forum for such an intervention in their community--one of a kind ever realized in their community.

Matthew Nyannube Yosah,YPWC Project Officer, said “the Greening Ghanaian Child and Youth For Sustainable Development project was a grass-roots, child-led community service intervention responsive to the current environmental needs of the community as far as filth and climate change is concerned”.

He encouraged the community to involve children in decision making and in community developmental processes so as to showcase their aspirations and concerns in order to influence change. He again pledged the commitment of Young People We Care (YPWC) in sustaining the project even as the service dates are over since it helps achieve its mission as a youth led, youth serving organization”

“Youth around the world care a great deal about the environment,” said Steve Culbertson, YSA president and CEO. Disney’s Friends for Change grants provide thousands of young people opportunities to address the issues that are the most pressing in their communities.

National Public Lands Day is on September 25. Last year, 150,000 volunteers participated in local activities to improve and enhance America’s public lands.

For more information about the Disney Friends for Change Grants, visit Disney.com/projectgreen. To learn more about Youth Service America, visit www.YSA.org.

Disney's Friends for Change: Project Green is a multiplatform initiative that helps kids help the planet. Through the program, kids can learn practical ways to help the environment, get their friends involved, track their collective impact and have the opportunity to help Disney decide how $1 million in donations to various environmental causes will be made over the course of a year. Kids can join online at www.Disney.com/projectgreen, where they'll commit to taking simple everyday actions, such as turning off the lights and switching to reusable water bottles, and find out more about why these actions matter. To date, kids have taken 1.5 million pledges that stand to prevent more than 70,000 tons of carbon emissions per year, save nearly 122 million gallons of water per month and prevent close to 200,000 pounds of trash from entering landfills every month.

Youth Service America (YSA) improves communities by increasing the number and the diversity of young people, ages 5-25, serving in substantive roles. Founded in 1986, YSA supports a global culture of engaged youth committed to a lifetime of service, learning, leadership, and achievement. The impact of YSA’s work through service and service-learning is measured in student achievement, workplace readiness, and healthy communities. For more information, visit www.YSA.org.

Young People We Care (YPWC) is a youth led and youth focused organization headquartered in Ghana. The organization is operated by young people (ages 15–30) and adult allies working on youth and development related issues worldwide. Our mission is to educate and inform youth on global issues, inspire them to take action, encourage their participation in global issues, identify and build sustainable partnerships aimed at youth development and provide young people with tools and resources for effective action. Visit us at: www.ypwc.org

CONTACT: Lily Bedrossian
818-553-7292
The Walt Disney Company
Lily.Bedrossian@disney.com

Brandon Gryde Youth Service America
202-296-2992 x 128
bgryde@ysa.org

Matthew Nyannube Yosah
Young People We Care
+233-249431332
matthew@ypwc.org

Mango tree planting image by treesftf