A visit to the US Embassy in Accra, Ghana for a presentation on Smithsonian resources

Daniel Fennell

I had the pleasure of being invited to the US Embassy in Accra, Ghana to meet with a group of 35 Ghanaian teachers and representatives from other non-governmental organizations. I also had a chance to meet with Rita Awuku, Information Resource Center Director and other staff of the embassy, including Jennifer Yeboah who provided valuable logistical support.

For my presentation to the group, I spoke about Smithsonian resources that would be valuable for teachers and helpful for literacy programs. We also did a live exploration of the Smithsonian's Collections Search where we looked at a variety of Smithsonian resources related to Ghana. There were many questions from the group  and there was a nice dialog about education and museum resources, especially those that come from library collections. There was also an opportunity to show some of the illustrations from the Biodiversity Heritage Library and explain how Smithsonian staff had used these at a presentation at the State Department's Mae Jemison Science Reading Room (Mamelodi, South Africa, see here for a report of that visit) for a group of middle school children in 2011.

Acting Deputy Chief of Mission, Daniel Fennell was my host for lunch and provided an introduction to the presentation. At the end of the session. I also had to opportunity to see the attendees receive their certificates for completion of an embassy sponsored educational program. The day concluded with a reception.

(Photos courtesy the US Embassy, Accra, Ghana)