YOUTH CULTURAL FESTIVAL AND DOCUMENTATION PROJECT (YCD PROJECT)
Background Information
The idea of CARD started in June, 2006 and has seen the limelight in January, 2008. It has the aim of empowering the vulnerable by fighting the ever-increasing rate of HIV/AIDS, falling standard of education and the upsurge of poverty evident within the Upper West Region of Ghana and Northern Ghana in general.
The aid program has focused on implementing and supporting community initiatives in exploiting culture for development in order to ensure steady empowerment of the marginalized especially women, children and persons with disabilities. Particular reference has been made to cultural potentials due to its diverse nature and the fact that it encompasses the social making of mankind. The effect of our interventions is to make beneficiaries agents of their own change and rural development. This we believe will accelerate and ensure speedy and sustainable reduction of acute poverty of the Upper West Region in attaining the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
Mission Statement/General Goals:
To work in partnership with NGOs and other organisations to ensure a sustainable increase in the welfare of women, children and persons with disabilities through efficient resource allocation, to reduce acute poverty and restore dignity among all.
Proposal Topic: Initiation and Celebration of Youth Festival in the Jirapa District of the Upper West Region of Ghana.
Specific Objectives;
- To document proverbs, drama, folklores, traditional games/plays and oral history of participating and communities. The aim is to ensure continuity and survival of our cultural heritage.
- Harnessing the Cultural Potentials (arts and craft) of the Youth for Rural Development.
- To sensitize for child rights, child abuse and child trafficking as well as behavioral change communication among the youth towards HIV/AIDS Prevention through traditional music and drama.
- Employing culture to harness tourism potential in the area for rural development.
Project Purpose:
To provide an avenue for the projection and instilling in the youth our cherished values, customs and tradition through the celebration of diversify cultural events. To document proverbs, drama, folklores, traditional games/plays and oral histories of participating communities for the youth. The aim is to preserve our cultural heritage and ensure its continuity and survival.
Problem Statement:
The cultural values, norms and traditions including proverbs drama, folklores, games/plays and oral histories of most communities in Ghana are fast declining and some has almost faded away in the face of history. It must be emphasised that preservation of our cultural heritage has, over the years, been left in the hands of the aged. As a result of the massive rural-urban drift in our part of the country, the death of a clan head, herd’s man, chief, or an elder in a community means the death of some part of our culture and tradition. This has led to several distortions and total collapse of most of our cherished values, customs and traditions.
Various governments have made relentless efforts through collaborations with national, bilateral and multilateral organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations in projecting our diverse cultural heritage through festivals for national development. What turn to be of outmost important yet been left out is the active role of the youth in the process and the inadequate documentations of the activities for future generations. CARD wants to take the initiative to bring on board the youth to take an active lead in the preservation of our cultural heritage. This we believed will bridge the generational gap between the aged and the youth in passing on essential components of our culture and traditions.
Justification of the Project:
Celebration of diversify cultural events has been identified as a tool for fostering tolerance, peace and tranquility and as a means for intercultural exploitation for national development. The Jirapa District is our area of focus because of the high exodus of its people down south. The venue for the celebration shall be Jirapa, because of its strategic location as it borders Burikina Faso. Also, the activity is the first of its kind in the area and will receive great patronage within and across Burkina Faso. The unique nature of CARD’s intervention is its approach of placing youth at the center of the celebrations and the documentations thereafter for preservation and for future references.
Activity Description
To promote and preserved among the diverse cultural heritage of the chiefs and peoples of the Jirapa District in the Upper West Region. This will be done through the celebration of a Youth Festival involving the youth across the whole district.
CARD intervention is to provide a unique opportunity for the youth to know and appreciate the rich cultural values and norms of their various communities. The aim is to place the youth at the centre of preserving the cultural heritage of their communities to ensure its sustainability and overall development of the cultural sector. Also, to document thereafter the cultural values, norms and traditions including proverbs drama, folklores, games/plays and oral histories of the communities in the District. Over the pas years, these aspects of our culture have been left to decay. CARD intent to restore these lost values and traditions celebrating and documenting them.
The project will also unearth the craft and arts skill of the youth. The youth will be made to make exhibit their talents in the arts and craft in a competitive basis. The best will be chosen, awarded and assisted to develop them. This has fit well in our objective of initiating and supporting for exploiting culture for rural development. Other cultural groups will be involved in occasioning the celebration. By so doing, we will revamp and activate them in their various cultural potentials. There will also be an exhibition of cultural products in the arts and craft so as to promote and market them during the celebration.