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“In my work, I strive to improve the health, hygiene and well-being of women, children and infants, especially those at the base of the pyramid. The future of Africa will be determined by her young people. A lot of young Africans are changing the narrative through their work across the continent. It’s that can-do spirit that inspires me. As he sees it, it’s up to young leaders to advocate for change in their communities, setting the stage for a better, brighter future.”
“Today, many people in my community know the value of eating fruits and vegetables, but not long ago, men would say that ‘fruits are only good for children.’ Even if it’s hard for people to control their diet, it’s important for them to know what they should do.” Josias, whose work thus far has focused on educating friends and co-workers, plans to share his research more broadly over the coming years.
“I’ve learned that in life, networking is the key to success, and investing in people and knowledge pays off,” Desmond insists. Meeting new people is particularly helpful if you’d like to feature subject-matter experts in your session or want to hold a follow-up discussion on the topic. Networking at your session itself is important, too, if only to gauge how well the materials presented are resonating with participants.”
“Imagine a single child, one of eight, struggling to study,” Abel says. What will his future look like? As the one educated child in my family, I had to be strong, strong enough to face the realities of life. For me, a perfect day growing up was when we had enough food on the table for everyone,” Abel says. “And I would be the one to eat the leftovers.”It wasn’t until protests erupted in June that Abel saw an opportunity to advocate for a more egalitarian state.
“My favorite part of the session was the discussion and hearing participants’ feedback,” Alexandre says. “The conversations indicated to me that the course was an important one and that participants were excited to change their communities.For his session, Alexandre chose to focus on the YALI Network Online Course “Agripreneurship: A Path to the Future” (also available in French), which explores the intricacies of the agricultural value chain and the role young leaders can play in the agribusiness sector.
“Years ago I visited an orphanage in southwest Nigeria; that’s where I met Ruth, a 10-year-old girl with a hunger-stricken frame and infected with ringworm. Ruth was one of 50 children in that tiny orphanage. These kids were in desperate need of food and medical help.”After meeting Ruth, Olugbenga began assembling volunteers to help orphans across the state. In November 2019, Olugbenga took his initiative a step further and organized a YALILearns session on financial planning.
“My advice to other young leaders organizing in-person or virtual sessions is to plan early and be prepared for setbacks,” Segun says, reflecting on the technical difficulties he faced on the day of his session, among them a power outage. It’s important to give your audience an experience that will spur them to act and to act now,” That sense of urgency is vital, as you only have one chance to make an impact on participants. Segun found over the course of his session and other work with young adults a surprising openness to new perspectives and a willingness to entertain new ideas in a spirit of collaboration.
“Imagine loving education and not having access to it just because you are an orphan, or not being able to eat hot meals, not having new clothes, and living in a world where you don’t exist. There are so many children like me who are struggling on their own. Whether in an orphanage or abandoned by their parents, they all face the same pain. Being an orphan is like serving for a crime you never committed,”
“I don’t just want to educate my peers about these goals, but I also want to help them create the innovations to achieve them,” Oluwayomi says.I hope my YALILearns session motivated participants to be innovative, to broaden their thinking and to better understand the problems in their society.For Oluwayomi, an inspiring leader is interested in building others up, in highlighting their strengths and in helping them to overcome their weaknesses.
“I learned over the course of my session, for instance, that a lot of the attendees had never come across a code of ethics in a business context. They also saw networking as collecting business cards, rather than developing personal relationships.”To address this, Javnyuy used his session to teach others about the value of writing a code of ethics and of building meaningful relationships with others, not just to expand their business network but also to create lifelong ties.
