{"id":29798,"date":"2016-10-28T02:57:50","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T02:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/ghana-education-boy-who-became-a-meme-raises\/"},"modified":"2016-10-28T02:57:47","modified_gmt":"2016-10-28T02:57:47","slug":"ghana-education-boy-who-became-a-meme-raises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/ghana-education-boy-who-became-a-meme-raises\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghana education: Boy who became a meme raises thousands"},"content":{"rendered":"

{A chubby-cheeked little boy whose serious expression turned him into a meme could end up educating an entire village.}<\/p>\n

Jake has become one of the most famous schoolchildren in South Africa since people began sharing a picture of him, joking he was everything from a grumpy driving instructor to an unimpressed security guard.<\/p>\n

But Jake lives thousands of miles north, in a small village in eastern Ghana, unaware of his new-found fame.<\/p>\n

In fact, up until Wednesday, not even the man who took the photograph knew it had proved such a hit.<\/p>\n

{{Pensive}}<\/p>\n

Cameraman Carlos Cortes travelled to Ghana in 2015 to make a documentary about Solomon Adufah, an artist returning to his home country from the US.<\/p>\n

The picture of Jake, then four, was one of hundreds taken by Cortes while Adufah taught art and creative studies to the children.<\/p>\n

“I just caught Jake in the moment of his teaching,” Cortes, of Chicago, told the BBC. “He definitely has a pensive look on his face.”<\/p>\n

The two men then returned to the States, unaware they had captured a future star.<\/p>\n

But the schoolboy’s picture began doing the rounds after Adufah shared it on his Instagram account.<\/p>\n

When he first realised it had gone viral, he was unsure of how to react to the posts, worried they were making fun of Jake.<\/p>\n

“I thought, I’m not going to respond,” the 27-year-old told the BBC. “But then I remember a moment when I thought, what if all these ‘likes’ turned into actual funds to help?”<\/p>\n

Jake and his friends live in a rural village, and for some families sending their children to school is more than they can afford.<\/p>\n

What is more, the primary school is also in need of supplies.<\/p>\n

“I remember one day we spent 20 minutes just trying to make sure we had enough pencils for all the kids,” Mr Cortes said. “That’s what the campaign is really about.”<\/p>\n

So Adufah, who has lived in the US since he was 16, set up a fundraising campaign, hoping Jake will really inspire people to turn their likes into cash to help pay for his education, and that of the other children in the village.<\/p>\n

Within 24 hours, it had raised $2,000 (\u00a31,642) – 10% of its target.<\/p>\n

Adufah said: “This money could make a huge difference to the kids – this could be something really positive going forward.”<\/p>\n

A documentary about Adufah’s time in Ghana is being finished at the moment. See more of Cortes’ photographs on his Instagram account.<\/p>\n

\"Jake<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{A chubby-cheeked little boy whose serious expression turned him into a meme could end up educating an entire village.} Jake has become one of the most famous schoolchildren in South Africa since people began sharing a picture of him, joking he was everything from a grumpy driving instructor to an unimpressed security guard. But Jake […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-29798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29798"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=29798"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=29798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}