Change-Maker Program – May 2019
Speaker Series: Christopher Nyakpo

Topic for the day: How to create your own NGO and the impacts of NGOs in community

GEC Attendees: Derrick (Program Coordinator), Pricilla (SS 1), Amatu (SS 1), Richard (JSS 2), Millicent (JSS 1), Prince (JSS 1), Linda (Class 6), Shelia (Class 6), Sadik (Class 6) GEC Student Guests: Jennifer Ofei

Description: As a part of GEC’s 2019 Changemaker Program students learn about famous figures past and present, about historically significant events, as well as community events and movements throughout Ghana. This helps the students reflect on an ever changing society and their roles within it. Several students in GEC are interested in pursuing a career in Engineering. We were honored to have Christopher Nyakpo come speak to the group on biomedical engineering.

Christopher Nyakpo is a graduate from the University of Ghana at Legon. For the past year he has practiced as a clinical engineer at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital. His focus has been writing specification for medical equipment procurement, conducting preventive maintenances and break and fix services on the medical devices. He is also a project consultant for the Challenges group where he manages market research across sectors such as agriculture, energy efficiency, renewable energy and organic waste recycling. In addition, he is a research assistant for Social Enterprise Africa where he conducts research on how social entrepreneurships can be supported and harnessed as tools for improvement in the livelihood of people on the African continent. Mr. Nyakpo spoke to the students on how to identify problems in their own communities and how to provide solutions to those problems in order to create a meaningful impact on the community. He explained to the students that no matter what profession you choose you must first find a problem in the field that you would like to solve and pursue it. The students then identified problems for him that they were interested in solving which included; HIV/AIDS, Malnutrition, Rights of Women and Children and Streetism.