One of my goals for the year was to upload videos consistently to my YouTube channel. Turns out, if you don't have much experience filming (or the patience to learn the ropes), things could go south pretty quickly.
I made a number of attempts trying to film new content but as you can see from my compilation video below, those videos (except for that one blurry haul video which I was bent on uploading because I suffered so much) never quite made it up on my channel.
The widely accepted logic to doing YouTube is you turn on your camera, sit down and talk. Right? Wrong. There were a number of reasons why those videos never made it to the channel. Mostly, apart from the obvious blurs, I would sometimes sit and film whole videos (..or at least I was under that impression) only to realize that my camera had cut off somewhere during filming and I would end up with just incomplete videos. The thought of refilming was not very appealing either especially after a long day's work. So the added editing effort was enough to push that goal all the way to the bottom of my to-do list.
But since I am getting back to blogging, I reckon that uploading videos to YouTube may become inevitable in the foreseeable future. So I am learning to do it right so that eventually, I can make better videos.
Let's simply hope for the best!
Xoxo
Hi All!
It's almost the end of 2018 and I want to officially call off this extreme blogging hiatus. It's been over two years since my last post.. (I know! I should have a degree in 'How To Go MIA' by now..) but life happened and it has taken me a while to get back to blogging. So I'm picking up right where I left off and hopefully, I get to share this marvelous journey of life with you all. I'm ecstatic to be back.
Get in touch with me also on social media. All my handles are @francescaandoh.
Let's do this!
Xoxo
With a new year comes a new birthday and a new campaign. This year, we (my sister and I) are dedicating the month of February to raising funds and awareness about a cause that is committed to lifting people out of poverty. Here's a preview of the work of Heifer International around the world.
Heifer International is a charity which focuses on eliminating hunger and poverty by empowering families with agricultural resources that ensure more than just food security. They provide animals and other agricultural items to families in need with training on how to turn these items into sources of food and income for themselves and their communities. Heifer encourages self-sustainability through the pay-it-forward approach by helping families share the resources and training they receive with other families in need. They also invest in education, women, small businesses, and more.
The aim of our campaign is to raise money to help Heifer's work. All donations are directed to areas where they're needed most. Support our campaign by visiting here to donate.
Use the hashtags #HeiferTwinTeam and #WhenCowsFly to promote this campaign on social media. Visit www.heifer.org for more information.
Donate now and give the gift of life.
Thank you for your support!
The UNYA is bi-annual event that brings young people from all over the world to the United Nations Headquarters in New York to discuss global issues. This year's summer event was held last August and gathered approximately five hundred young people from several nations under the UN to the venue. I had the opportunity to represent Ghana this year and had one of the most wonderful experiences of my life.
My UNYA journey began with a three-day program called the "Social Ventures For Social Development" (SV4SD) at the Farleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. There, we had the opportunity to learn everything about building social ventures that are able to solve some of our national and global problems. We were also able to get to know each other and forge great friendships among ourselves. I met some of the most amazing, most enterprising young people here. The program ended with a corporate visit to NOVARTIS pharmaceutical company and other social venture companies in the Newark community in New Jersey.
Then we moved on to New York for the main Summer event. Among the places we visited and had other sub-events in New York were the UN Headquarters, Pace University, Times Square, New York University (NYU), Columbia University, Permanent Mission of Germany to the UN, among others. In short, this whole event was the highlight of my entire summer. Scroll down to see my experience in pictures.
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| Corporate visit to NOVARTIS and other places in Newark |
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| Day of presentations at FDU |
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| Group Selfie! |
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| Group presentation at FDU (Group 5) |
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| Group 5 ties for 1st place |
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| Certified Delegates |
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| Times Square, New York |
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| View from inside the UNHQ |
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| First day of Youth Assembly |
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| UN Security Council |
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| Day two at UNYA 2015 |
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| A guided tour of the UN |
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| Countdown to the end of the MDGs |
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| "Do unto others as you'll have them do to you." |
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| Last day of meetings at the UNHQ & Group 5 presentation at the UNYA |
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| Culture night at Columbia University |
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| Headed to the farewell cruise dinner |
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| Our cruise ship on the Hudson River |
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| Before the actual party began on the cruise |
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| My best shot of NYC from the Hudson river. Lol |
Yesterday, my sister and I decided to volunteer with an organization called "Feed My Starving Children" for our birthday. It is a great Christian organization that packs meals for hungry children all over the world. I came across this organization while searching the internet for places to volunteer in Arizona and I'm glad we went with this one. We had the best time packing our batch of meals for kids in the Philippines.
The best thing about this charity is that kids can volunteer here too. I'll totally recommend FMSC if you're looking for a great cause to support with your friends and family. So if you have as little as two hours to spare in a day, you can register for packing sessions at your nearest FMSC location and help pack food for hungry kids across the globe. Visit fmsc.org to register for a session, donate or find the nearest place to volunteer.
Also, you can click the banner at the bottom of the page to donate your next birthday to charity: water and help in the global effort to provide families with clean water.
Dear Ghana, this is in anticipation of our 58th independence anniversary. May these words ring true in our hearts and steer us in the right direction.
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| The Ghana Flag |
The National Anthem
God bless our homeland Ghana
And make our nation great and strong
Bold to defend forever
The cause of freedom and of right
Fill our hearts with true humility
Make us cherish fearless honesty
And help us to resist oppressor's rule
With all our will and might forever more
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| Statue of a veteran returning from war and silhouette of the Great Black Star |
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| The Independence/ Black Star Square |
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| Emblem of the National Pledge |
The Pledge
I promise on my honor
To be faithful and loyal to Ghana my motherland
I pledge myself to the service of Ghana
With all my strength and with all my heart
I promise to hold in high esteem
Our heritage won for us
Through the blood and toil of our fathers
And I pledge myself in all things
To uphold and defend the good name of Ghana
So help me God!
(Images credit: Google)
I inspired my first product this past week on Dahlia Wolf! Yaayyy!! It's a comfy-looking black track pants with two bold vertical white stripes on the sides. It comes with drawstrings and a zipper along each side and can easily be dressed up or down. I'm loving how it looks on the models!
Click here to see a video of the right track pants on a model!
Dahlia Wolf is a fashion community where members can upload images from anywhere around the internet and inspire new designs. Visit my blog on Dahlia Wolf to see other images I have shared from all over or sign up to start inspiring fashion today!
See the video of my second product, a matching jacket, here.
A new year brings new hopes and fresh starts for most of us. Whatever you have resolved to do this year, may it flourish and may all your dreams come true.
Happy New Year!!!
Birthday Campaign:
Water is Life! It's a basic necessity that no one can live without. But for most families and communities around the world, the problem of water shortage remains an obstacle. Did you know that millions of people all around the world still live without safe drinking water?
Every day, 5,000 kids die from water-related illnesses before they reach their fifth birthday. But it doesn't have to be that way. There are simple solutions like drilled wells, spring protections and BioSand filters that help provide clean water to all these communities. The Charity: Water organization is committed to providing the families in need with clean water by building them lasting solutions in their communities.
This is where you and I come in. Charity: Water provides the opportunity for people like us to help get clean water to these communties by raising funds through special campaigns. So for my birthday this year (February 10), I'm asking everyone I know, including you, to donate $10 to mycharity: water to help get clean water to the people who need it most.
100% of every dollar you donate to my birthday campaign will be used to build clean water projects in developing countries. charity: water funds their operating costs separately through a group of private donors, so 100% of all public donations will go directly to people in need.
Together, let's help create lasting solutions to the water crisis everywhere.
Donate now!
*You can also support my campaign by following @cleanwater2014 on twitter and tweeting the hash tag #GiveCleanWater2014. Share on facebook, instagram, pinterest and across all other social media sites.
