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NEWSLETTERW E S T A F R I C A N R E G I O N

W E S T A F R I C A R E G I O N A L

ISSUE N°2: MARCH-APRIL-MAY

www.yali.state.govMARCH-APRIL-MAY 2018 www.irex.com 2

W E S T A F R I C A R E G I O N A L N E W S L E T T E R

EDITORIAL NOTE For this second edition of the Newsletter, we want to take the time to thank the dynamic team of fellows that dedicated their time, skills and energy to make this issue publication possible. On the Behalf of all West Africa Fellows and The West Africa Regional Advisory board, receive our sincere gratitude for every story or article written, edited, designed and featured in this issue.Our specials thanks and acknowledgment to:Newsletter Team Members WRITING TEAM: -Rahama Nantoume, MWF MALI 2017-AbdulRahman Kowa, MWF SIERRA LEONE 2017 -Bamba Abdourahman, MWF TOGO 2017 -Tiphaine Amoussou, MWF BENIN 2017 -Gbam Janet, MWF NIGERIA 2017-Mariyann Jabang, MWF GAMBIA 2017 -Christian Lambang Fonye, MWF CAMEROON 2017 -Moise Akebim, MWF TOGO 2017 -Budji Kefen Ivoline, MWF CAMEROON 2017

EDITING TEAM:-Sylvie Tougouma, MWF BURKINA FASO 2014-Tiphaine Amoussou, MWF BENIN 2017 -Kujeh Kah, MWF GAMBIA 2017 -John Stephen Agbenyo, MWF GHANA 2017 -Rebekah Awuah, MWF GHANA 2017 -Corneille Kossadoum, MWF CHAD 2017

GRAPHICS AND DESIGN TEAM:-Mohamed Doumbia, MWF MALI 2017 -Jefferson Boundamas, MWF GABON 2017

Additionally we want to address all our gratitude to all fellows from 2017 cohort and past cohorts that accepted to share their stories. Last, but not the least we thank WEST AFRICA REGIONAL ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS (WARAB) for their inputs and great help to this edition. Jessica GABA, Warab Communication officer and Coordinator of the Newsletter Project.



Delia Diabangouaya, a graduate from the University of Lomé in Togo, and quali-ty manager of Choco Togo, the first choco-late production firm in Togo, is a Mandela Washington Fellow 2017, Business and En-trepreneurship institute of Purdue University.

During her fellowship, Delia met Scott Mas-sey, a graduate from Purdue University in West Lafayette and the founder of an agri-cultural technology company Heliponix that builds hydroponic appliances. In the frame-work of Mandela Washington Fellowship Re-ciprocal Exchange program, Heliponix™ sent Scott as a guest lecturer at the University

of Lomé Togo, to exchange on creating sustainable agricultural methods that will increase yields without requiring extensive capital investments. This is possible through a hydropon-ic system designed by Heliponix™ to help meet the need with a high yield, low cost solution.

This experience led to the establishment of the first Heliponix farms in Togo. It was made pos-sible through series of lectures and workshops that were organized by Delia at the University of Lomé. Energy Generation Center and the Woelab technology incubator, where Scott trained participants, not only on funding entrepreneurial ventures, 3D printing, and the fundamentals of hydroponics through a translator, but also practical ways on how to grow plants without dirt using nutrient rich water recycled over the roots in a closed loop. The hydroponic tech-nologies are mostly designed for indoors in seasonal climates or outdoors in tropical environ-ments to facilitate year-rounds productions. Also using 95% less water, which is three times faster without the use of pesticides. According to Massey, Heliponix system is to “allow any-one in Africa to build their own system, and improve upon the designs as its user base rap-idly expands. This Heliponix system would cost $300 to build and could continue producing crops even when the power goes out. It takes up 4 m2, and can grow about 250 kg of vege-tables on an annual basis”. Therefore, Heliponix system may be an alternative as UNO rec-ommends an increase in the global food output by 70% to avoid a global food crisis in 2050.

For Delia, “the farm design has to be low-cost, highly productive, and easy to assem-ble”. In the same vein, Scott recommends that the use of Heliponix system be sustaina-ble and profitable to beneficiaries to bring a “practical solution for food insecurity”. That is why upon returning to US, Scott created a Facebook fundraising campaign to cover materi-als for two more hydroponic farms, with the intent to set up some in every university in Togo.

RECIPROCAL EXCHANGE RECIPIENT IN TOGO BRINGS NEW TECHNOLOGY ‘’ HYDROPONICS’’

USE



Aliou Mustafa is a 2017 Mandela Washington Fellow of Business and Entrepreneurship track at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Since 2013, he has been working as a solar energy technician, first with Cameroon Solar Solutions, and now with Solaire du Cameroun, an organization that promotes rural electrification through solar energy, and access to potable water through solar submersible water pump systems.In his work, he captures sunrays through solar panels, and converts them into electrical energy, which is then harnessed, and made available to the community. More-over, solar energy is used as an alternative source of en-ergy to run submersible water pumps in a bid to eradicate

cholera and other waterborne diseases.When asked why he chose to become a solar energy technician, a field quite rare in Cameroon and Africa, Aliou explains that having lived and worked in rural communities in several regions of Cameroon, he realized that these communities face several energy shortage/ inefficiency chal-lenges, a reason that motivated his commitment to improve on their living standards. Aliou sees solar energy as one of the principal solutions to Africa’s problems of low industriali-zation, climate change, and rural youth exodus. Since it is renewable and eco-friendly, its usage entails no side effects like noise or harmful gas emission he argues. Moreover, solar energy is a relatively cheaper alternative source of energy; simple to use and in abundant supply given Africa’s predominant sunny climate.After the fellowship he became involved in many more solar energy programs in Cameroon, train-ing and aiding rural communities, managing cognitive solar installations, installing solar street lights and water systems to mention but a few.In addition, Aliou is collaborating with his MWF peers in Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria on a cross-border project with the objective of raising awareness and change rural populations’ men-tality vis-à-vis their involvement in the transportation, sale and consumption of tramadol (a deadly drug known for influencing many youths’ enrolment in the terrorist organization Boko Haram). Their work is a series of workshops on entrepreneurial avenues such as soap-manufacturing, other business techniques, and solar energy.

ALIOU MUSTAFA CREATES ENERGY FOR THE FUTURE



As young and bright woman named Walaa Isam Elboushi, 2016 Mandela Washington Fellow of Sudan, decided to recognize and dedicate a day to celebrate her fellow colleagues, the “Man-dela Washington Fellows Day” was initiated to celebrate the fabulous work that Mandela Fellows are doing in their communities for the development of Africa.

Indeed, the main goal in addition to sustaining this day is to allow fellows in all corners of Africa to celebrate this day together by giving back to the communities. The initiative was endorsed by many fellows and effectively started on July 15, 2017, celebrated in more than 10 countries by 2016 Mandela Fellows. This year’s celebration was on May 5th, and many countries celebrated it across the continent through capacity building sessions, peace building activities, civic en-gagement or services, fundraising events, workshop, TV and Radio Interviews amongst other community activities.

One particular case that caught our attention was Christian Lambang Fonye, a 2017 fellow from Cameroon, who celebrated the day off the continent, and precisely in Australia. We felt it was necessary to share his story with you. THE MANDELA FELLOW’S DAY IS CELEBRATED IN AUSTRALIAIn commemoration of the global values of service, peace and justice, epitomized by the Man-dela Washington fellowship, Christian Lambang Fonye, a 2017 MWF Fellow from Cameroon, resounded the idea of a common humanity through shared values and actions manifested and celebrated across peoples of the world. It is upon this backdrop that he engaged his community in Canberra, Australia to celebrate the Mandela fellows’ Day. The event captured the power of diversity through the passion and com-mitment displayed by participants, from different backgrounds living in Australia. This event remarkably benefitted from the contributions of the teachers, students and facil-itators of disability studies and community development in the Australian Academy of Man-agement and Sciences (AAMS). “I believe in the universality of human rights, and have made a commitment to advance children’s rights and the rights of people living with disabilities”, declared Karen Mohring, a facilitator for disability studies in AAMS. “The promotion of a rights based approach that prioritizes the right to self-determination and inclusion for people living with disabilities is compelling for their wellbeing”, she added. Other students and participants made pledges to promote human rights and peaceful coexistence through the display of plac-ards and positive declarations.

THE MANDELA WASHINGTON FELLOWS DAY CELEBRATION IN WEST AFRICA

The 2017 YALI fellow used this opportunity to forge a partnership of purpose between the YALI network, AAMS and other relevant stakeholders involved in community development. “I believe in the power of collaboration and the dividends that accrue from serving humanity, especially the protection of vul-nerable categories. I look forward to promoting the YALI vision in Australia with the goal of giving back to my country, continent and the world at large”, said Christian Fonye.



FELLOWS DAY CELEBRATION IN MALI THROUGH CIVIC LEADERSHIP TRAINING

FELLOWS FROM GUINEA CELEBRATE THE DAY THROUGH A CONFERENCE WITH STUDENTS

From Australia, we return to Africa precisely in the north of Mali in Timbuktu, where EL Hadj Maha-mane Djitteye, 2017 Fellows, CEO of Timbuktu Land of Peace and Culture, decided to magnify this day with other associations of young Malians in organizing a training on leadership,

For El Hadj “It is important to train oneself to serve one’s country, and how to have a lasting and positive impact as a young person?’’

As part of the capacity building of young people in personal development of its members and supporters, the association of young Tuareg and sympathizers for peace organized this Satur-day, May 5, 2018, a training in civic leadership and parliamentary procedure.Civics and leadership training according to him is the most powerful weapon to meet the chal-lenges of our time, therefore Celebrate the legacy of Mandela equals to promote civics training across Africa.

In Guinea, the YALI MWF Association held a conference on “Strategies for Personal Growth and Development”. The event was held at the American Corner of the University of Sonfonia, with about 100 students attending. 3 MWF fellows from the 2016 and 2017 Cohorts along with a Fullbright alumnus were panelists at the conference. This fellowship day sparked a series of YALI Learns Conference across the country.



The 2017 Mandela Washington Fellows in The Gambia joined fellows in 49 other countries to cele-brate the Mandela Washington Fellows Day. Indeed, The Gambia alumni observed the Mandela Washington Fellowship Day with a community service at a women horticultural garden in Lamin, West Coast Region (WCR) of the Gambia. They spent time helping the women gardeners with watering, weeding and learning about their chal-lenges. Through this activity, the 2017 Mandela Washington Fellows are currently working on a project to help overcome one of the women’s challenges, which is water supply.The event was marked a success, as over 50 women benefitted from the help of the fellows on the day. The fellows pledged to continuously celebrate the MWF Day in the Gambia on fifth of May annually.

REEL Foundation (a community-based nonprofit organization in Nige-ria) in partnership with Pehhills, Brain Chess and several youth vol-unteers, recently hosted the first ever community games competition featuring Chess, Scrabble and Spelling Bee in Agbado, Ogun State Ni-geria. 180 children and 30 adults representing over 20 schools in and around Agbado attended the event. The aim of the tournament was to support the foundation’s vision of creating a platform where children in low-income and underserved communities could have fun while en-joying learning privileges like other kids worldwide. The day’s highlight was the overall winner of the Chess tournament – a 7-year old boy. He and other winners of the various competitions received professional

Chess and Scrabble boards, math sets, dictionaries, storybooks, and exercise books from multiple donors. A major consequence of these activities has been the influx of more community members to the REEL Foundation-pow-ered Agbado E-learning hub, which now has as registered members about 350 children, 50% of whom regularly visit the hub to either borrow books or gain access to the internet. It is hoped that this number will continue to grow espe-cially as plans for the future include involving more young people by making available miniature chess and scrabble boards for mock competitions leading up to the annual community game tournaments, which will hopefully attract children from multiple areas. In addition, the foundation hopes to open many more E-learning hubs in collaboration with individuals, schools and other organizations interested in setting up E-learning hubs and/or future tournaments for young people.The architect behind REEL Foundation, Olatunde Ajoke Omoware-Adeola, is a 2017 Mandela Washington Fellow who is very passionate about the role that education can play in providing equal opportunities irrespective of socio-economic status or background. Olatunde works as a project manager and freelance project consultant especially in the field of education. Thus, she strives, through REEL Foundation to promote equitable access to quality learning for children from low income and underserved communities.

Overall, the Mandela Washington Fellows Day Celebration by young African leaders across Africa and beyond shows us the dynamism and willingness of this youth to make positive change in their communities.

A DAY WITH WOMEN GARDENERS IN THE GAMBIA TO CELEBRATE THE MWF DAY

GAME TOURNAMENT ORGANIZED BY A NIGERIAN 2017 FELLOW TO EMPOWER CHILDREN

Women gardeners working on the field



Linat Osman Kundaribuo is a teacher, a community development worker and a radio show host in the Upper West Region of Ghana who is actively campaigning for the rights of the vulnerable and changing the lives of deprived teen moms through her organization Teen Talk Ghana. Teen talk Ghana creates safe environ-ments for teenagers to discuss issues that bothers their welfare in areas of teenage crime, child marriage, sexu-al reproductive health and rights. Her

MOTHER LINAT AND THE TEENAGE GIRLS IN GHANA: A WONDER WOMAN STORY

Linat Osman cover poster for the MTN Hero challenge in Ghana

project has been in existence for the past four years and has influenced 100 teenage girls who were victims of child marriage practices and sexual exploitation.

Her organization, also sponsors out of school teenage mothers back to school and trains them in vocational skills such as tailoring, weaving, soap making and beading. This project supports these young mothers until they complete senior high school and vocational training. Our program through the Early Childhood Center carters to the needs of children of these young mothers while they study. Her organization has a Teen town, which is a temporal safe space for survivors of rape, child brides, sexual exploitation, violence and trafficked teenagers. These teenagers are housed in a safe place away from their victimizers. Mother Linat is a name that was given to her by the young girls she res-cue, because they consider her as Mother figure they can trust. According to Linat, it is critical that vulnerable teenage girls or victims of sexual discriminations or violence find a way to live a normal life even after those events, “We take them through counselling and train them vocationally whilst they are at teen town. We then try to engage their families and communities to negotiate for their return and safety back home”

Her participation in the Mandela Washington fellowship gave her work a boost equipping her with skills to impact her community. This im-pact also gave her the recognition to be nomi-nated as an MTN Hero of change 2018.

Linat Osman receiving her Price at the MTN Hero Challenge Ghana Finale

For us, she is a real African Wonder Woman.



Nneamaka Faith Mokwe is a 2017 Mandela Washington Fellow from Nigeria who heads an Organization called Eliakim Associates and Eliakim Global Resources. She works to create an inclusive education for children/individuals with special needs. To further this goal, she started the Inclusive Education First Aid training (IEFA) which aims to train teachers on how to provide first responders intervention for the child in school in order to reduce and hopefully, in the future, eradi-cate stigmatization and segregation of individuals with Special needs in schools and the society. The IEFA training arrived to Benin Republic with the collaboration of Francisca Adikpeto of Doss|&|ADK, who is a 2017 Mandela Washington Fellow from Benin. They have since trained and certified teachers of

“Complexes Scolaire Les Petit Poucet” as well as the management staff and team of “Centre de formation professionelle des personnes handicapees” and are in collaboration talks with the man-agement to train the students on soft skills to assure their inclusion in society. They are currently working IEFA training to Ivory Coast, Ghana, Egypt and Botswana and their future goal is to take IEFA to the 54 countries in Africa.

A COLLABORATION BETWEEN MWF FROM BENIN AND NIGERIA FOR THE PROFIT OF DISABLE PEOPLE



COUNTRIES OF HONOR

Two countries were chosen in this issue, because of the great work that their MWF fellows are doing since their return from the Fellowship.

NIGERIA

In Nigeria, a huge project was conducted right after the return of MWF2017. Thanks to this project, Nigerian YALI fellows demonstrated a real commitment to apply their experience in institute and give back to their community at the national level. This is why they deserve to be one of the countries of honor features in this issue.

According to the Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics, Youth Unemployment Rate in Nigeria increased to 25.20 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016 from 25 percent in the third quarter of 2016. Youth Unemployment Rate in Nigeria averaged 19.20 percent from 2014 until 2016, reaching an all-time high of 25.20 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016 and a record low of 11.70 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014.

It is in a way to change positively those numbers and statistics that the Mandela Washington fellowship Alumni Association initiated, and successfully completed a nationwide Mentoring Program called THE IMPACT PROJECT in every region of the country, where they targeted youths and YALI Network members. One of the aims of this initiative amongst others, was to train and mentor as many YALI network Members and youth across the country, in a bid to increase the Employability, Entrepreneurship capacity and innovative capacity of the youth.

The program was a huge success, and this report gives a detailed breakdown of the events in some select states of the various locations across the six Geo-political regions of Nigeria.At the end of The Impact Project, 1809 young people were impacted in 14 locations of the 6-geo political regions of Nigeria



MALI2017 Mandela Washington fellow Rahama Nantoume holds two Masters Degrees in Journalism and in Language Sciences. She is a journalist, researcher and blogger working on issues of governance, peace and security with more focus on the prevention and countering violent extremism in Mali. Her journey begun in 2012, after the political and security crisis that shook his country Mali where many young people joined the armed groups. After the loss of relatives, she decided to get in-volved in a fight to make young people aware of not going towards violence. 3 years ago, she joined Think Peace, a Malian think tank working on issues of governance, peace and security but mostly violent extremism in Mali created in 2015 by Malian youth. She is currently the Media Team Leader Project. At this position, she car-ries out researches or leads projects in conflict and sometimes dangerous areas (Center and northern Mali), in terms of commu-

nity support through projects of economic recovery, capacity building, awareness campaigns, ad-vocacy, research, management and conflict resolution and push communities to ownership. In 3 years, with her organization she reached more than 10,000 people directly and more than 50,000 indirectly throughout Mali. Furthermore, she helped to propose more than four public policy proposals to the government of Mali. Thus, she worked on the transitional justice, agree-ment for peace and reconciliation in Mali. She also worked on the action plan of the youth of Mali and advocacy on the implication of youth in the prevention and end countering violent extremism. The fourth proposal she worked on is an element of public policy to Parliament to set for a law or public policy on violent extremism, with youth as main target because they are the most affected by the phenomenon of radicalization and violent extremism. Last, but not the least she conducts reintegration activities of ex combatants to facilitate their return to the community so they do not return to violence.Rahama path and journey gave her an international recognition. Indeed, not only is she recog-nized in her country Mali, where she earned lot of honors and awards for her commitment from 2014 to now. In addition, the value of her work is acknowledged by many international organiza-tions as well. She was a panelist in February 2018 at the Youth Meeting in The Hague on the topic’’ Security from Global Youth Perspective’’. Moreover, she was chosen to be a speaker at UN global counterterrorism strategy review to speak of her advocacy work.

Thanks to Rahama, whose biggest dream is to “Make Mali and Africa a heaven of peace in which each youth is actor of positive change”, we can see that young leaders in Mali are working hard for the development of their country. Her amazing story is the reason why Mali is the second country of Honor in this issue.

COUNTRIES OF HONOR



PAST ALUMNI CORNERS

In this issue of the Newsletter we will feature three Alumni from past cohorts, namely 2014 and 2015, that are performing amazing actions in their respective communities.

Moussa Kondo founded and runs the Mali chapter of the Accountability Lab, which is a U.S.-based nonprofit that promotes public accountability in six African and Asian countries. Rather than condemning corrupt leaders, it works to boost the influence of their honest counterparts, running grassroots “Integrity Idol” cam-paigns to celebrate their good work. Communities nominate local civil servants, and the Lab then profiles the top five on TV. The movement reaches a broader audience, as viewers across the country vote for their favorite candidates. It also runs in-country incubators to train and mentor “accountrapreneurs” who launch their own accountability projects. Kondo, a journalist, started Mali’s Lab after spending six months embedded with Liberia’s team during his 2015 Mandela Washington Fellowship. While Accountability Lab is not new, Kondo has success-fully adapted it to a new and challenging context.He was selected with other leaders across the world for the inaugural class of the Obama Foundation Fellowship.

Moussa Kondo speaking in a panel



‘HER PASSION IS EM- POWERING GIRLS AND WOMEN’ Sefora Kodjo Kouas- si is working as Operations Officer in charge of Youth network, association and activities in the private office of the Minister of Youth. She is also the president/ founder of SEPHIS, a youth organization created in 2009 to promote female leadership and girls’ rights. Upon her completion of the Mandela Washington Fellowship, through SEPHIS, Sephora got a US Department of State grant to carry out the SEPHIS Tour for Women’s Empowerment. This tour was mainly a na-tional awareness campaign aiming to train 1000 young girls in 6 months in the areas of women’s rights, gender-based violence, women’s empowerment and leadership. During the tour, they worked with 1221 young people, discussing women’s rights and sharing ideas about empowering women. They equally trained many local female am-bassador to ensure a follow-up of activities. SEPHIS also visited some centers and organizations with vulnerable populations of Ivory Coast to empower them through do-nations and information/ knowledge dissemination. By the time, the program wrapped up they had reached out to 1910 young women in seven cities big cities of Ivory Coast. She was named spokesperson for Cote d’Ivoire’s collective of national female youth organizations during the November 2017 official visit of the Executive Director of UN Women to Ivory Coast; let us remind that the organization champions global gender equality. In 2018, in partnership with the African Development Bank, SEPHIS is in-volved in implementing the African Women of the Future Fellowship. This leadership/mentoring program seeks to train women between the ages of 18 and 35 to improve upon their self-esteem, positivity and confidence. The 6-week training focuses on leadership, effective governance, public speaking, and digital communication among others. These women will be connected, and mentored by exist- ing leaders in various fields. Sephora hopes that through this, they will be inspired and prepared to be the next generation of women leaders. Sefo-ra was recognized in May 2018 Exchange Alumni of the month by IREX

Sefora speaking about SEPHIS PAST ALUMNI CORNERS



PAST ALUMNI CORNERS

AN ASSOCIATION TO CHANGE THE FATE OF WOMEN IN BURKINA FASO

In January 2018 after her participation to the Women Global Leadership in No-vember 2017, 2014 MWF Sylvie Tougouma founded a female association named “Avenger4change” (Ave.C) as one of the forum’s outcome.• Soya Transformation Training

Africa4Her campaign 2018: 3 Majors activities in Burkina Fasothanks to the Ave.C Association



As part of the Africa4her campaign, Avengers4Change (Ave. C) in partnership with Education for Development (Edu4Dev) organized a training on soya transforma-tion for small market Income Generating Activities owners ( IGA) and high school girls of Komsilga county. The training took place on Saturday, March 24, 2018 in the Komsilga County High School. The 2018 edition of Africa4Her has been dedi-cated to support women entrepreneurs, raise awareness on their challenges and take steps to meet the said challenges without overlooking the important role men have to play in the process.Based on soya’s countless nutritional values, Ave.C proposed to train women en-trepreneurs of the small market and some high school girls. This training was an opportunity for the participants to get both theory and hands-on knowledge with regard to soya processing. They will ultimately be able to improve the nutritional status of the community’s women and kids, initiate new income-generating ac-tivities, and inspire female entrepreneurship; 3 objectives that the training aimed at achieving according to Sylvie Tougouma, President of the Association Avenger-s4Change who was in collaboration Mrs. Viviane Paré, a MWF 2015, president of the partner organization Edu4Dev.

• Workshops on Women and girls

Introduction of the Campaign Participants group work

Additionally, Mrs Tougouma in partnership with four others MWF deemed it im-portant to organize a workshop to empower women and girls on specific skills on March 12, 2016. The workshop that focused on entrepreneurship benefitted 24 members of the English Club of the University Joseph Ki Zerbo in Burkina. Then in collaboration with the Youth section of her local Church “MESC”, Sylvie held another workshop on “Understanding the Rights of Women and Girls: “Pav-ing the Way for Women Entrepreneurs” to raise awareness on girls’ education and to present the YALI program especially the YALI RLC to about 70 participants among whom were 41 women/girls were in attendance. The innovative aspect of this year was the inclusion of poetry performance after the workshop.

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