Education Sierra Leone Project #55774

Build Young Social Entrepreneurs Across Africa

by Afrika Matters Initiative

Project Report | Mar 31, 2023
Africa Matters Ambassadors Program March 2023 Report

By La'eeqa Martin, Stuart Morrison & Yara Hamad | AMAP Program Team

2022 AMAP Ambassador (South Africa)

The Africa Matters Ambassadors Program 2023-24 program cycle has begun! Reflecting on our activities in 2022, we have dedicated significant time to improving our output quality and refining our program to ensure that we impact more African youth and work towards facilitating youth leadership development and community engagement across the continent

Key Milestones

AMAP 2023-24 Recruitment Process and our New Cohort

As per our last update, we shared that during our application period, we received a staggering amount of 2410 applications, of which 350 were eligible candidates. This demonstrated a clear interest in our work and the reach we have managed to amass over time.

Since then, we reviewed all 350 applications and selected 154 eligible candidates to proceed to the interview stage of the recruitment process. January and February 2023 were spent interviewing candidates in search of our next AMAP cohort.

Our pool of potential candidates proved to be very strong, with many vibrant and capable young leaders receiving glowing reviews from interviewers, but this only made the selection process that much more competitive. In the end, we selected the top 20 candidates who would form part of our new AMAP cohort for the 2023-24 program cycle! Our 20 Ambassadors, aged between 18-29, represent the following countries: Algeria (1), Botswana (1), Ghana (2), Kenya (2) Nigeria (4), Sierra Leone (2), Tanzania (2), South Africa (2), Uganda (2) and Zimbabwe (2).

You can view our AMAP 2023-24 Cohort Reveal on our Instagram account or any of our other social media platforms.

AMAP 2023-24 Program Commencement

We formally welcomed our new Ambassadors into the program on Wednesday, 29 March 2023 with a virtual opening session. As our first meeting together, we took this opportunity to introduce our team to the new cohort, outline the structure of our organisation and highlight the key components and expectations of the program for the year ahead. Visuals on our opening session can be found on our social media platforms.

Program Updates

Modules

Following a review of our previous program cycle, we have noted the need to update and restructure our module offerings to cater to the needs of our Ambassadors and to ensure that they receive quality education and practical skills development training.

As such, we have framed our modules under four (4) thematic areas:

Know Yourself - Modules under this thematic area focus on the act of introspection as a means of understanding purpose and value as a young leader

Nurture Your Potential - Here, modules focus on building our Ambassadors’ capacity and skills to tackle leadership opportunities and project development with confidence and ease

Understand Your Community - Under this thematic area, modules recognise and unpack the importance of contextualising communities using a multi-level approach for greater impact.

Take Up Space - As the final thematic area, these modules serve to answer one question, “Now that I know who I am, have gained skills and understand my community and place in it - how do I lead change?”

Our modules cover topics of personal development, soft skills and career development, social entrepreneurship, socio-political structures such Feminism, Global Citizenship, Identity and Culture under an Afrocentric lens, as well as youth leadership and youth advocacy in Africa.

Our first module session, as part of our online module component, is scheduled to take place on Thursday, 13 April 2023 at 18:00 CAT.

AMAP Mentorship Program

A vital component of our program is the Mentorship program, which sees us pair our Ambassadors with mentors, industry leaders selected based on their areas of expertise and experience, for the purpose of enhancing our Ambassadors’ personal and professional capacities and connecting them with professionals to extend their networks.

We put out a call for mentors over the course of last year in search of interested individuals capable of serving as a mentor to our Ambassadors. During the early months of 2023, we conducted interviews with candidates to gather a pool of mentors to match our Ambassadors with. This is currently an ongoing process and we hope to successfully pair all of our Ambassadors with mentors by May-June 2023. If you are interested in being a mentor with us, please be on the lookout for a call for mentors via our website or social media platforms.

Community Engagement Projects

The Community Engagement Project is a crucial part of our program as it provides our Ambassadors with the opportunity to initiate or expand a community engagement project to tackle community needs and promote sustained impact and change within their respective communities. During our 2023-24 program year, we will be hammering down the importance of project sustainability to ensure that all projects are long-term and sustainable well beyond our program. We have introduced Project Management modules that will focus on project sustainability, project fundraising and monitoring and evaluation strategies that will work towards this goal.

We also provide Ambassadors with seed funding towards the implementation of the community engagement projects, so if you would like to assist us in promoting youth-led community development across Africa, please consider donating to our program!

Residential Summit

A residential summit will see our Ambassadors gather in-person and be offered an opportunity to enhance their program experience by gaining exposure to keynote speakers and capacity building workshops, all while establishing solid connections with fellow young leaders that can work towards collaborative action for social and economic development across the continent.

We hope to collaborate with the Africa Matters ShE is Empowered Program to host a residential summit in early 2024, but we need YOUR help to raise funds and resources to make this happen. We kindly ask for your assistance in helping to fund our residential summit. You can do this by donating to our program via our GlobalGiving page - with your help, you can contribute to youth development across Africa.

GlobalGiving April Little by Little Campaign

Africa Matters Initiative (Africa Matters Ambassadors Program) will be participating in the April GlobalGiving Little by Little Campaign that will see donations up to $50 be matched by 50% by GlobalGiving. Big or small - your donation will travel a long way to assisting our program be of greater impact for African youth. Consider donating to our program from between 3 - 7 April 2023 as part of this campaign via our GlobalGiving page!

In Conclusion

We are very excited to kickstart our program this year and to provide our Ambassadors with a unique and transformative experience as they grow and develop their abilities with us. It is through your continued support and interest that we are able to continue the work that we do, and we have so much more to offer!

If you have any questions, suggestions or would like to connect with us, please feel free to contact us at amap@africamattersinitiative.com

And as always, We are the ones we’ve been waiting for!

Yours in African youth development,

The Africa Matters Ambassadors Program Team

2022 CEP (Menstrual Health Workshop) South Africa

2022 AMAP Ambassador with CEP team (Sierra Leone)

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Dec 2, 2022
AMAP December 2022 Report

By La'eeqa Martin, Stuart Morrison & Kedibone Shuping | Africa Matters Ambassadors Program Team

Ambassador overseeing Financial Literacy workshop

Africa Matters Ambassadors Program Updates

The Africa Matters Ambassadors Program (AMAP) has successfully concluded its 2022 programmatic activities. We have provided 13 participants (Ambassadors) with skills and an increased understanding of afrocentric ideologies to unlock their leadership capacity and transform their communities through community engagement projects (CEPs).

2022 AMAP Cohort

At the start of our 2022 program, 17 AMAP Ambassadors were accepted into the program. To date, four (4) Ambassadors have been dismissed or withdrawn from the program, leaving us with the remaining 13 Ambassadors from the following countries: South Africa (3), Tanzania (1), Botswana (1), Sierra Leone (2), Kenya (3), Cameroon (2) & Algeria (1).

Program Updates

Modules

All 14 modules were successfully completed with an 87.5% attendance rate throughout the program. These included 10 skills development modules covering a range of topics from Financial literacy to African feminism and Global Citizenship, as well as the 4 CEP-focused sessions dedicated to providing Ambassadors with the required support as they conceptualised and planned and implemented their CEPs.

Mentorship program

Our mentorship program has been a success, with mentors and mentees remaining committed and making good use of their arranged meeting times. Ambassadors have shared with us how their mentors have helped them to grow as young professionals and how they’ve often served as soundboards to struggles that they’ve faced personally or professionally. Some mentors have gone the extra mile to directly assist Ambassadors with their CEPs, truly investing in their mentorship relationship and offering a safe space for our Ambassadors to thrive and grow.

Community Engagement Projects (CEP)

Between August and November, Ambassadors were tasked with implementing their community engagement projects. Projects ranged across many themes, from hosting workshops to reduce stigma and raise awareness about Obstetric Fistula, a medical condition affecting women when they give birth, to conducting a livelihood training program in weaving and gara (cloth/material) tie-dying to produce clothing products to sell at community markets. Our Ambassadors targeted Gender-Based Violence survivors, unemployed youth, women and girls seeking empowerment and leadership opportunities and school children wanting to gain financial literacy training and managed to roughly impact more than 250 members of their communities through their projects.

We provided all Ambassadors with seed funding of up to $250 USD to assist with covering the costs of project implementation.

As representatives of the program, it is important that the Ambassadors are able to share the brand and message of Africa Matters Initiative with all of their project beneficiaries within their communities. Many Ambassadors have received AMI-branded t-shirts for themselves and their volunteers and wore them while conducting their projects.

Residential Summit

We were unable to mobilise enough funding to host a residential summit this year, but we have high hopes of collaborating with fellow AMI flagship program, the She Is Empowered Program, to host a joint residential summit in 2023 for both our Ambassadors and the ShE Leaders. More information about this will be shared in the new year.

The Road Ahead

CEP Presentations & 2022 Graduation

We recently held the Community Engagement Project presentations in which our 2022 Ambassadors shared some of their successes and challenges from the planning to implementation stages of their projects, as well as how they plan to make their projects sustainable and long-term. Out of the 13 ambassadors, we had 12 present over two sessions which took place on the 16th and 30th of November 2022, respectively. The recorded sessions will be uploaded onto the Africa Matters Initiative Youtube page in the coming weeks, so please do keep an eye out on our YouTube channel to see the work that our Ambassadors have been doing over the past several months.

The final phase of the 2022 program is the graduation ceremony (Date TBC), which will mark the conclusion of this year's program as well as induct the 2022 cohort into the AMAP Alumni network.

2023 AMAP Ambassadors Recruitment Process

We opened the 2023 AMAP Application Cycle in October and closed applications on 6 November 2022. We received a whopping 2410 applications of which 350 applications were successfully accepted to be received. The review process consists of external and internal volunteers reviewing the written applications. In early December, the AMAP team will be selecting candidates for the interview stage of the application process. We look forward to conducting interviews in early January 2023 with the intention of selecting 20 exceptional applicants for the 2023 cohort. The 2023 program will officially begin in February 2023.

GlobalGiving 'Giving Tuesday' Campaign

We recently took part in the GlobalGiving ‘Giving Tuesday’ campaign on 29 November 2022 to raise funds for our 2023 program. We are incredibly appreciative of the support we have received from the GlobalGiving community in helping to empower and upskill young African leaders and changemakers. Our fundraising effort for next year continues, so if you would like to support our work, please consider contributing towards the program by visiting our GlobalGiving page.

Conclusion

We could not do what we do without your unwavering support for our program. No words can express how grateful we are for your belief in our work, and we hope that you continue to invest and support us by sharing our work with your network and stand beside us as we aim to empower and upskill African youth to be the change they wish to see on this continent.

If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions, please feel free to contact us at amap@africamattersinitiative.com.

Wishing you a joyous holiday season and a happy new year!

Ambassador: Obstetric fistula advocacy workshop

Livelihoods training in weaving

Livelihoods training participants

Ambassador: Peace & Capacity Building training

Ambassadors with their project beneficiaries

Ambassador during a girls empowerment workshop

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Aug 3, 2022
AMAP Update 1

By Stuart Morrison, La'eeqa Martin & Kedibone Shuping | Africa Matters Ambassadors Program Team

AMAP 2022 Ambassadors busy in session

Introduction

Africa needs effective leadership and without it, the continent might never be able to overcome its challenges to achieve its full potential. What is often forgotten is that Africa's leader may come from its youth boom. The Africa Matters Ambassadors Program (AMAP) has been working with 15 young African leaders over the past seven (7) months to help them realise their full leadership potential. The 15 AMAP Ambassadors were selected from over 2002 applications, and 100 interviewed applicants from Algeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa and Botswana.

Cohort of 2022

The average age of AMAP Ambassadors for the 2022 cohort is 25 years old. The following countries have AMAP Ambassadors represented:

Botswana - 1

Kenya - 4

South Africa - 3

Cameroon - 3

Tanzania- 1

Sierra Leone - 2

Algeria- 1

Total AMAP Ambassadors - 15

AMAP Update/highlights:

The learning modules that have been completed so far have integrated relevant content and activities to provide a rich and interactive learning experience for the Ambassadors. To date, the Africa Matters Ambassadors Program has completed 11 out of the 15 modules over the past seven (7) months.

Namely, 1: Personal Development, 2: Soft Skills Building & Career Development, 4: African Identities, 5: African Leadership & Youth Activism, 7:African Feminisms, 8: Cultural Differences and Similarities, 9: Financial Literacy in Africa, 10: Social Entrepreneurship. We have also had three (3) Community Engagement Project (CEP) sessions so far to coach, advise and discuss the Ambassadors' progress on their community projects. We currently have four (4) modules remaining before their Community Engagement Projects are executed. Thanks to your support, we have been able to assist up to 2 gigs of mobile data to the Ambassadors so that they are able to attend and fully participate in the learning modules.

Community Engagement Project (CEP)

The Community Engagement Project (CEP) is a crucial part of the program as it provides our Ambassadors with the opportunity to apply and gain a deeper understanding of community work and leadership. This component tasks the Ambassadors with identifying key issues within their community, then planning and executing their own community project to address this problem. One of the core goals for this component is to assist the Ambassadors in building long-term and sustainable projects that can support the advancement of their communities. This year, some of our AMAP Ambassadors have chosen to focus on youth unemployment and skills empowerment, taking what they have learnt through the AMAP program and sharing the knowledge and skills with their own communities to help upskill youth in their communities. Other Ambassadors have identified issues such as climate change and women empowerment as issues to address.

By supporting and believing in our mission, we need your help to reach our goal of providing the Ambassadors with $250 in seed funding to help fund their projects, which we will be rolling out in August 2022 as the cohort begins implementing their CEP’s.

Mentorship Program

In addition to the learning modules and Community Engagement Project (CEP) component, AMAP has a mentorship component providing Ambassadors with an opportunity to engage with experienced and accomplished professionals to assist in their personal and professional development. We facilitate the creation of successful relationships between AMAP Ambassadors and Mentors outside of the AMI community. These mentors are to guide and support our AMAP Ambassadors to manage their own learning to maximise their full potential, develop their skills, and improve their performance throughout their program. The mentorship program officially began on 12 May 2022 with a Mentors Meet and Greet session with all the mentors. Since then, each Ambassador has had regular meetings with their mentors to help facilitate personal and professional development on the part of both the mentees and the mentors.

Residential Summit

After the virtual leadership development component, AMI will invite all 15 AMAP Ambassadors to meet in Tanzania as a unit to attend the residential summit. During that week, participants will listen to dynamic keynote speakers, members of the Africa Matters team and past program alumnae will lead sessions that will uplift and encourage AMAP Ambassadors with further resources for the future. They will also engage on topics surrounding additional professional and personal development skills. AMAP Ambassadors will also be asked to showcase their projects to their cohort. The residential serves as an opportunity for young African leaders who have completed the virtual modules and project executions to physically network and engage with one another around possible solutions for closing the gender gap and issues their projects focus on. After the residential summit, we encourage the participants, as thought leaders, to go back into their communities and reframe their thinking around how their projects will impact their communities with a sustainable and intersectional focus. They should be open to discussing ways to actively fight systems of oppression while creating targeted interventions leading to cascading change.

Conclusion:

As we approach the final section of the year, the Ambassadors will be focusing on the execution and implementation of their CEP’s as well as continuing to develop their skills and knowledge through the learning module session: Global Citizenship and African Advocacy.

We look forward to sharing more updates with you as the program continues to run until its completion. Please continue to share details of this program among your networks to help us raise the full $100,000 needed for 2022. https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/empower-17-young-africans-as-agents-of-change/

If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions, please feel free to contact us at amap@africamattersinitiative.com

AMAP Ambassadors celebrating African Identities

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