kofipopolampo / @ctballer_
@November 20, 2023
Description
Introducing: A day of INK
We are planning to host a medical diagnosis clinic and art workshop for children with special needs living in Africa. We want to bring in medical doctors, speech + language therapists, audiologists, and physiotherapists to help autistic children in Ghana and educate their parents on how to communicate together better and guide behavioral therapy. From painting Doodles to mobility therapy, A day of INK will provide hundreds of locals of the town of Nsawam access to much needed medical care as well as allow them to have some fun painting/playing.
In addition to the clinic and workshop, part of our budget is allocated to allow participants to attend repeat medical visits with physicians at a local hospital for a 3 to 6 month period following A Day of INK. We are looking for longevity in our impact so that is the reasoning behind our ask for some medical care subsidy.
I am the director of a non-profit here in Ghana called Enabling the Disabled and am local to Accra.
Team Space: On approval Days until launch: 41 Requested Budget (USD): 19000
Team:
David (myself) - Director Illadaproducer - Partnerships & Advisor Lior - Partnerships & Advisor Esi Amissah Arthur - Accountant Chinery Evans - Accountant Dr Jeffrey Boateng - Speech & OT Therapy Dr Kelvin Bannerman - Speech & OT Therapy Abena Asiedua Owusu Antwi - Speech & Language Therapist Emmanuel Osei Ahensa - Speech & Language Therapist Priscilla Keren Tetteh - Speech & Language Therapist Dr Neal Boafo - Audiologist Habiba Sumaila - Audiologist Isaac Awuah-Siaw - Occupational Therapist Peter Gumouh Yiripae - Physiotherapist Elizabeth Arthur - Physiotherapist 10 local Volunteers - operations, event organization
Questionnaire
What unique benefit(s) or experience(s) does this project provide for the holders of the originals Doodles collection? Hosting this clinic/workshop will allow the community to be involved with helping make the world a better place. It would be awesome to eventually provide the opportunity for Doodles holders to host a mission trip to help us out on the ground in Ghana, so there is a chance we can develop our community’s culture to include philanthropy and volunteerism as it matures.
In addition, different OG doodles will have the opportunity to have their doodles in our artwork which will be printed of the shirts for the event! (with voluntary signed consent on-file only)
How might this project affect the overall value of the original Doodles collection: This project is the first public good/community service oriented initiative undertaken with Inkubator funding.
How does this initiative relate to Doodles' brand identity and values? The Doodles community guidelines states that Doodles stands for: Compassion and Accountability. Carrying out charitable work out of the goodness of helping others is compassion in action. Compassion can be passive but with A Day of INK we are looking to turn that potential energy kinetic.
I want to help people who are from my same country that are struggling to help themselves due to situations out of their control. Suffering that is being experienced by families with autistic children in Ghana goes so far beyond brands and projects, it's a human rights issue as children are losing their lives.
I think it’s safe to say that the Doodle community as a whole supports basic human rights and would like to provide monetary support for meaningful humanitarian efforts carried out by a fellow OG Doodler.
What aspects of this project could appeal to the Doodles community? The two primary goals of “A Day of INK” are helping local families with autistic children and proliferating Doodles IP in the non-profit space.
We will teach a workshop on how to draw Doodles from scratch, we will use doodly decorations + marketing materials, and do a limited merch run for the children and families who attend.
We will be capturing content through the entirety of the event and will be publishing video and photos from A Day of INK on social media.
We will also be hosting an art competition whereby the special needs children who are able to paints their doodles the best will be given an educational scholarship for 1 year to a local special needs school!
Hosting this clinic/workshop will allow the community to be involved with helping make the world a better place. It would be awesome to eventually provide the opportunity for Doodles holders to host a mission trip to help us out on the ground in Ghana, so there is a chance we can develop our community’s culture to include philanthropy and volunteerism as it matures.
In addition, different OG doodles will have the opportunity to have their doodles in our artwork which will be printed of the shirts for the event! (with voluntary signed consent on-file only)
If any, what are the projected financial outcomes of this project for Inkubator? This isn’t our first rodeo and we decided to host a one day event in the interest of keeping things simple and with a lower budget. The timeline continues from the time the event is done however, as we will have be providing attendees access to continued care for 3 to 6 months including speech and occupational therapy. We will be keeping up with the families to track our impact made over a medium time horizon.
Can you describe the team's skills, past performance and credentials? We recently hosted a baking workshop called “Bake for Good” where we taught around 50 local women the skill of baking. We collaborated with Yuga Lab’s Made by Apes and distributed merch sourced from local manufacturers.
In addition to the baking class, we provided $10,000 in small business grants to these mothers to help kickstart their own baking businesses. Our goal is to not only provide education, but to provide sustainable benefits to the individuals who we aid. https://x.com/ctballer_/status/1694129119582097482?s=20
We also gave out $6000 in business grants to 6 different families for mothers of special needs children of which some have gone on to establish successful businesses such as local restaurants. https://x.com/ctballer_/status/1670832379538165761?s=20
Our team's research expanded throughout the country, and we realized that public schools which are subsidized in fees often reject special needs children because of how cumbersome they can be at times. However, there are a few schools who have open arms towards these beautiful children, and as part of our educational scholarship programme, we renovate and fund such schools. https://x.com/ctballer_/status/1669080645438513156?s=20
We also have hospitals that we work with whereby we donate diapers and toiletries on a monthly basis as some families cannot afford the fees that come with the constant these items for their new borns. https://x.com/ctballer_/status/1566913913257615362?s=20
Project Food For All is one of our projects whereby we select impoverished neighborhoods and donate food. We actually dedicated one of our events to Burnt Toast! https://x.com/ctballer_/status/1566913913257615362?s=20
Organized a professional videography team and shot short documentary series to highlight the trials and tribulations families of special needs children. Great examples of the quality of content we can provide for A Day of INK. https://x.com/ctballer_/status/1589770755965059073?s=20 https://x.com/ByAutistic/status/1591239297696292865?s=20 https://x.com/ByAutistic/status/1591829941028794370?s=20 https://x.com/ByAutistic/status/1592289395046256641?s=20 https://x.com/ByAutistic/status/1592672598311448576?s=20
Who are the target audiences for this project? Local autistic children population in Nsawam. Nsawam is a town in south Ghana and is the capital of the Nsawam-Adoagyire Municipal District, a district in the Eastern Region of south Ghana.
Why is now the right time to fund this project? What does the spending plan look like? There is no time like the present, the more events we can secure funding to facilitate the greater the impact will be over time. The quicker we give these mothers a sense of direction and hope, the more lives we can save.
Cost elements:
Equipment, art supplies, transportation (bus), gift/incentive to show up (money for the day), venue, logistics, medical professionals, ongoing medical care, transfer contingency.
Please see file uploads for detailed and itemized budget*
Could you outline the plan for building awareness for this project once it is launched? We are well connected with special needs schools and location communities with children in need. We plan on having huge billboards up, and also acquiring time on the television and radio, to enable every autistic family in their community be a part of this. On the web 3 side of things, we will be leveraging our personal and foundation’s twitter accounts to sare marketing assets leading up to the workshop.
We will gather participants for the event by visiting and organizing transportation to and from the local villages. We will also transport the doctors from the capital city, Accra to the venue via flight and on ground transport once they arrive. Part of the local culture is that in order to incentivize individuals to take a day off from work to an event like this is by providing food and a small gift for them to take home. I understand how to host A Day of INK in a manner that is respectful without violating local tribal traditions and affairs. On the outside we will provide post-production edited videos and photo content of the event on our foundation’s twitter page @Byautistic, shared on my page ctballer_, and on other foundation worker’s social accounts.
What is the projected timeline for the completion of this project? It will take us approximately one and a half months from receiving funds to launching A Day of INK. Possibly quicker, but this is a liberal estimate.
Project Lead Additional Remarks
Growing up in Ghana, as I grew up I came to learn about a cultural stigma associated to children with Autism and their mothers. In the native culture families with Autistic children are considered to be cursed, as a result they are treated as lesser by the general population. They are at a severe disadvantage in the local communities and I knew that providing aid to them would help people that are suffering in their daily lives.
I want to help level the playing field. I think that Doodles artwork is very welcoming to the locals, and I want to incorporate making doodly art into the recreational curriculum we provide for autistic children whilst providing much needed medical outreach. I believe that the Inkubator can directly help us make a greater impact on a greater number of lives through meaningful collaboration/support.
Doodles artwork makes people feel good and we plan to replicate that experience for children and families who deserve a fun afternoon coloring and creating while being given much needed access to medical care. A Day of INK is not set out to onboard the next billions users to the blockchain, but what it will do is expose new audiences to the IP and put smiles on people’s faces.