To Be Worldwide

Cape Coast Educational Resource Centre opens its doors

27 March 2010

After just over a year of construction work, the Cape Coast Educational Resource Centre opens its doors.

We are very proud of this great achievement and would like to thank all our sponsors, Turing Foundation, Fondation Les Paquerettes, InterimIC, Wilde Ganzen/St. Willibrord Gymnasium and the Western Union Foundation for making this possible.

On the 27th of March 2010 the official opening ceremony was held in the presence of local dignitaries, chiefs of the region, representatives of the Ghana Education Services, Mr. and Mrs. Kumi Bruce (owners of the land) and Board members and staff of To Be Worldwide Ghana/NL. But most important many children were present to witness the opening. The children also participated in the ceremony by performing music in a marching band and cultural dances. Bishop Augustine Wellbourne, who is a board member of To Be Worldwide, performed the official ribbon cutting.

View photo impression of opening

Improving the reading skills of children at the Takoradi Centre

4 January 2010

My name is Sanne van Gessel and I am a master student in Linguistics at the University VU in Amsterdam. For my internship I travelled to Ghana, where I help children with their reading skills at a primary school in Takoradi and I read with the children in the library of the To Be Worldwide Educational Resource Centre.

I can clearly see the difference between the children at the school and the children in the Centre. The children at the school can barely read, the school doesn’t have any books and they don’t spend much time on reading during class time. When I came to the library and heard how well the children here can read, I experienced how important it is for the development of the reading skills to have the books and to use your time after school for reading. These children are fabulous readers!!

To Be Worldwide wins 1st Prize in Global Junior Challenge

9 October 2009

The Global Junior Challenge is an international competition rewarding the most innovative projects employing cutting-edge ICT technologies in the field of youth education and training.The competition, promoted by the City of Rome, is an initiative designed

and organized by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale to promote an inclusive knowledge society. The competition is supported by Microsoft and is open to everyone: associations, public and private institutions, cooperatives, schools, universities,individuals and companies of any age from all around the world. 

This year the competition received 456 applications out of which 12 winners were selected.

To Be Worldwide is supported by Head Matters

1 October 2009

Head Matters is an organisation that offers companies the possibility of purchasing CO2 neutral products to use as give-aways and presents for staff and clients. They feel that companies, through the purchase of such products, show their commitment to a better world and have an instrument to communicate their corporate social responsibility.

To Be Worldwide will receive 10% percent of the sale of the products (bags) from Ghana's Trashy Bags.

These bags are produced by an organisation in Ghana whose concern about the environment has lead to the concept of the Trashy Bag. Their bags are made from reclaimed plastic drinking water and ice-cream sachets, which they do not re-process in anyway apart from washing and disinfecting. By incorporating the original and complete sachets in their products, they demonstrate in a very visible way that it is possible to increase the lifespan of plastic packaging and so help tackle the very serious problem of environmental pollution in Africa and elsewhere.

Would you like to purchase such a bag? Go to www.hm-ok.nl

Develop Your World Conference

17 March 2009

Frits Bolkestein – former Dutch Minister of Foreign Trade and of Defense, former member of the European Commission Speaks at the “Develop Your World” Conference.

Mr. Bolkestein spoke at the Develop Your World Conference in March in Groningen. Develop Your World (DWY) is the largest congress in the North of the Netherlands that deals with the topic of development aid and development cooperation.

In his speech "Look Back in Anger" Mr.Bolkestein argued that a large amount of official Aid is not sufficient a condition for development, other factors such as peace keeping, good governance and economic growth are crucial. He selected our work at the Takoradi Educational Resource Centre as an example.

His full speech can be read on the following website:

www.fritsbolkestein.com/site/references Then select Development Aid and the article "Look Back in Anger"

To Be Worldwide builds her 2nd Educational Resource Centre

28 November 2008

To Be Worldwide has commenced building the Cape Coast Educational Resource Centre (CCERC). The location is Pedu, a suburb of Cape Coast, in the Central Region of Ghana. The location is within a 10-minute walk from a cluster of public schools.

We will be servicing 12 schools with 5500 students. The Cape Coast Educational Resource Centre will be based on the successful concept of the Takoradi Educational Resource Centre.

The ground breaking ceremony and the laying of the foundation took place in October/November 2008. We expect the building to be completed in the autumn of 2009.

Net4Kids Aid Foundation visits To Be Worldwide Ghana

4 November 2008

To Be Worldwide was very pleased to have the opportunity to show Mr. Emile van de Klok, of Net4kids Aid Foundation, our work at the Takoradi Eductional Resource Centre. Net4kids Aid Foundation has supported To Be Worldwide since 2003 and is always committed to helping us realise our goals.

Mr. van de Klok also worked with us to identify opportunities and create ideas to obtain a level of sustainability for the Centre and the Ghana based organisation. We hope to put some of the ideas discussed into practise in the future.

For a full report on Mr. van de Klok’s visit click on read more....

Read full report in PDF

Turing Foundation visits To Be Worldwide Ghana

3 November 2008

It was a pleasure to welcome the board of the Turing Foundation to our Takoradi Educational Resource Centre on November 3rd. The Turing Foundation, established in 2006 by Pieter Geelen, co-founder of TomTom,

awarded To Be Worldwide a grant to build its second centre in Cape Coast, Ghana. Construction on the Cape Coast started in November 2008.

The Board visited the Takoradi centre to get a feel for how future ToBe centres will operate and what they will achieve in their communities.

Mr. Frits Bolkestein visits To Be Worldwide Ghana

18 September 2008

Frits Bolkestein – former Dutch Minister of Foreign Trade and of Defence, former member of the European Commission - recently visited the Takoradi Educational Resource Centre as part of a personal West African tour to Sierra Leone and Ghana.

Mr. Bolkestein noted that Ghana is going through an impressive development. This is in stark contrast to Sierra Leone, which has suffered greatly due to the civil war. Ghana has shown an annual economic growth of approximately 6% in 2007 and is clearly committed to ICT for Accelerated Development.

CNote visits The Takoradi Educational Resource Centre.

26 May 2008

The purpose of the visit was to get to know the To Be Worldwide Foundation and the work it does with the children, in particular the work on a creative level.

Cnote creates customer experiences that delivers bottom line results. They define strategy & concepts that work for your customers each time.

The Cnote Team, Lea Ward (To Be Worldwide Boardmember and co-founder of Cnote), Veronique van Cruchten and Bernadette Kuiper worked with a group of 12 children on a project called "What's your business". Translating the mini business plans written by the children in to commercials made by the children themselves.

It was a very inspiring project. The enthusiasm of the Cnote Team, the incredible creativity and talent of the children.....everything fell into place.