Engaging The French Students in a Blockchain Kowledge-Based Competition to Facilitate Their Insersion Into the Ecosystem

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

This project is a follow-up on the previous funded project in fund 8 titles French West Africa Outreach. After considering the impact and the number of students my team and I were able to mobilise and onboard, and seeing the level of interest they express in the opportunities, we decided to go a step further to help them build confidence and have more of them take on roles in the ecosystem.

During the execusion of the project, we realised that there was a language barrier and we decided to include a language training center in our hub. So far we have been able to train over 30 people out of our 300 tagerted number this year. Most of them when they joined our course they could not understand anything in English, but now, they understand and can interact on a certain level.

We happen to organise a ten-week Haskell and Plutus course for our developer in collaboration with the Goma hub, the training was very successful and two of our develppers participated in an interview for a 6 months paid mentorship with Lido Nation. One of them was successful and started the mentorship. But unfortunately, he was not able to continue due to the fact that he was not fluent in English and he was given 6 month to improve his English level and reapply. This revolted me and I decided to embark on training our community members in English.

So in order to deepen their understanding in the blockchain and help them become productively active in the Cardano community I thought about a Blockchain Knowledge-based English contest. We recently runned an English contest in our hub and itwas very successful. The outcome was that we noticed an increase of interest in the language. We believe this Blockchain Contest, will not only increase the contestants' knowledge in the blockchain technology and in the mastery of English language, this will also build their confidence to boldy interact in the Cardano community without any language blockage.

This will be a 3 round competition and a four-month coaching for university students at the end of which 3 winners will be rewarded.

[IMPACT] How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

The project addresses the challenge in the sens that many students will be willing to take the challege and by so doing we will have many new onboarding and more engagement into the Cardano ecosystem, thus expanding the impact of the Cardano blockchain in the French West Africa.

We expect to have at leat 50 people registered for the contest but during each rounds, people will be invited to come and support the candidates. The attendees will also be our target in a sens that there will be a session where we will present on the Cardano Blockchain and encourage people to join the community.

Each round will take place on the last week of each month, starting a month after the launch of the project. And there will be coaching sessions with one of our English teachers and myself that will consist of conversations on the Blockchain related topics in English, sharing of update in the Cardano ecosystem in English. These immersive sessions will not only help them improve their English skills, but it will also increase their interest in the Blockchain technology and further lead to building their confidence to engage in the Cardano community by taking on roles.

All 50 participants will participate in the coaching sessions, just that not all of them will be part of the final stage. after the first eliminatory round, the group will be divided into 2: those who will continue the competition and those who have been eliminated. Both groups will receive the same coaching separately to allow the competition to continue. And in order to ensure that the contested that have been eliminated will still continue, there will be another contest before the final round that will oppose all candidates in the second group. It will just be a one-day competition just a week before the end and the winner will be rewarded in Ada.

[IMPACT] How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

The success of the project will be measured by the number of the number of people who will enroll for the competition, the number of people who will register to the Project Catalyst platform, the number of wallet opened on Yoroi and the level of knowledge both in the Blockchain and English skills. This will lead to an increase of Ada holder, more members joining the ecosystem activily as they take roles.

Most students in Burkina Faso are interested in the Blockchain in one way or the other but when it comes to getting involved and joining a community like Cardano as an active member they find it difficult and they lack confidence. Students also like fun activities and they love English language especially English conversation classes. The idea will attract many of them because of the double interest: Expansion of their knowledge in the blockchain technology and learning English.

All our activities will be streamed live to reach even a larger number of people and this will trigger their curriosity as they will seek to know more about what is going on.

The videos will be share publicly on Youtube and Facebook. Imagies also will be documented.

Monthly reports including links and photos will be share to the Catalyst team.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

After successfully completing two projects in fund 8 of which one has been closed out the other yet to close out, I am best suited to continue this project. I have trained trainers who have already started taking up the tasks. So far I have mobilized a total of over 500 participants during our various workshops in Burkina Faso and Senegal cumulatively. Our Burkina Faso hub has a language center where we teach people English. We recently organised an English contest and had 21 persons registered. It was in three rounds and 3 winners were rewarded. It was very successful.

I am an entrepreneur with good strategic leadership skills and I know how to identify opportunities and go for them. This skill helped me to have 10 developers from our community initiated to the Haskell and Plutus development even though that was not part of the planned activities of the funded project. I am ready to go an extra mile to have the work done and have it done well.

Through my contribution to WADA Global and through my collaboration with other hubs namely the Ghana and Congo hubs as a French translator/interpreter, I have acquired a lot experience in the Blockchain technology.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

The main goal of the project is enable the French speaking students in Burkina Faso to build confidence in themselves and participate activily in the Cardano Blockchain. As I stated earlier, the interactions of our French community in the Catalyst platform is limited because of language barrier. This competition will not only equip them with a deep understanding of blockchain in general and the Cardano blockchain in particular, but it will also improve their English skills, thus building their confidence and enabling them to interact without language blockage

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

The project will run for 4 months and the details are as follows:

October:

up to the second week: announcing the competition, communication
General English test: Only 50 participants with an intermediate level in English will be selected for the competition. Members of our hub who have already completed our 12 week English class will automatically qualify to participate in the competition.
3rd and 4th week: 4 coaching sessions to prepare the English coaches for the contest. At this stage, we will update their knowledge of the blockchain technology in general and the Cardano blockchain in particular: 8 hours

Budget: 3340

November:

6 sessions of English conversation and coaching around Blockchain related topics and especially the Cardano blockchain: 12 hours
Last week of November: 1st round of the competition

Aside the candidates(50 at this stage), there will be attendees who also learn about Cardano blockchain. 25 people will qualify for the second round.

Budget: 10330

December:

6 sessions of English conversation and coaching around Blockchain related topics and especially the Cardano blockchain. Two groups will be formed: Those continuing the competition and those who are eliminated.
Last week of Dcember: 2nd round of the competition

aside the candidates(25 at this stage), the other 25 eliminated will be expected and there will be attendees who will also learn about the Cardano blockchain. I will expect about 20 new attendees.

10 candidate will qualify for the final round.

Budget: 10330

January:

4 sessions of English conversation and coaching around Blockchain related topicsand especially the Cardano blockchain: 8 hours
3rd week of January: A competition between those who have been eliminated in the first two rounds. The result will be announced on the final day of the main competition.
Last week of January: final round of the competition

aside the candidates(10 at this stage), the other 40 eliminated contestants will be expected and there will be invitees who will also learn about the Cardano blockchain.

3 winners and three prizes:

1st winner: 500 Ada

2nd winner: 300 Ada

3rd winner: 100 Ada

Winner of the group of eliminated candidate: 50 Ada

At the final round, we will expect about 50 people in attendance

Budget: 8050

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

50 people will gain English proficiency not only in general English but also in the blockchain terminology and be ready to confidently and actively get involved in the Cardano community.

At least 20 new attendees will be onboarded during each round.

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

Venue: Burkina hub(free)

Equipment rental(projector, speakers, microphone)4000

media(banners, flyers, communication and administrative activities) 6000

resource persons(2 English tutors, a bilingual blockchain expert): 21 000

winners' prizes: 1050

Total: 32050

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Aime Nico Kam: A Master student at the Nazi Boni University department of Law( and a volunteer at our Cardano hub in Burkina(Inkuba) as administrative assistant

Nico has been a member of the Catalyst Community and an active member of the Cardano Burkina Hub(Inkuba) since February 2022. He got trained and became a trainer and started making presentations during our workshop sessions, educating people on the Cardano Blockchain, its opportunities, how to write and submit project on Catalyst ect. He is a beneficiary of the English classes the hub offers. He is a francophone with a working knowledge of English.

He is also the delagate of his class and has occupied various positions in several students association.

Mr. Kojo Darkwa: English Tutor and quiz master(Inkuba)

Mr. Kojo Darkwa: English tutor with 5 years of experience in English teaching and with an extraodinary capacity as a quiz master: He was in charge of the academic aspect of our English contest and it went very well. He is also very appreciated by our students for his creative approach and teaching skills.

Tony Nwachuku: English tutor(Inkuba)

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

Venue: Burkina hub(free)

Our hub has a space that can be used to host the competition.

Equipment rental(projector, speakers, microphone)4000

My team and I will need to rent out a projector, speakers and microphones to make the event

successful.

media(banners, flyers, communication, videos, photos ) 6000

Our community manager will be in charge of making graphics for each round and communicating on social media to invite people to enroll or attend the events. the events will be recorded and publicly shared on social media.

Organising team: 21 000

Our two English tutors will be in charge of coaching the candidates, setting the questions and moderating the contest.

Our hub administrative assistant will be responsible for cordinating the whole events. He will help with putting together all information that will be needed for writing the report.

I will be in charge of supervision and making sure everything is done according to plan. I will also be part of the coaching team, participating in the conversation class and training the teachers on the blockchain technology.

reward: 1050

Three winners will be rewarded:

1st winner: 500

2nd winner: 300

3rd winner: 200

Winner of the group of eliminated candidates: 50

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