Yali Network Radio

Volunteering has never been more important than it is today. With the spate of global humanitarian crises and the growing consciousness of alternative problem solving techniques available, volunteering with organizations that are solving societal problems gives people the opportunity to be part of the solution. Volunteering to help people in your community leads to your personal development and to the development of that community and the country at large. Read more: https://yali.state.gov/yaliserves-joy-of-volunteering-2/

Volunteering is the act of rendering selfless service to a cause, oftentimes for free and without coercion. It is about giving time to a good cause, specifically to help an organization, your community or an individual you are not related to. People who engage in this type of activity are known as volunteers. Read more at: https://yali.state.gov/yaliserves-joy-of-volunteering-1/

Before you decide on how and where you will volunteer, it is important to have thought through three key questions. Why do you want to volunteer? What volunteer opportunity best fits your career and/or other goals? And how will you maximize the potential in every volunteering experience? Read more at: https://yali.state.gov/yaliserves-joy-of-volunteering-3/

While you are volunteering, be honest about your skills and experiences. One of the best things you can do for yourself during your period of volunteering is to be completely honest about your skills, abilities and experiences. What you already know you can apply and build on; what you do not know you can learn — but this can only happen when you are honest to both yourself and your employers and superiors.

An excellent way to appreciate the business of volunteering is to first understand how to get the best out of every volunteering experience, and this is what we will be looking at in this section. Read more: https://yali.state.gov/yaliserves-joy-of-volunteering-4/

Mr. Marshall Dyton, CEO of Freelance Web Solutions Malawi, interviews Mr. Alfred Kankuzi, Mobile Application Developer and graphic designer. Learn more and read the transcript at: https://yali.state.gov/yali-voices-malawi-kankuzi/

Mr. Marshall Dyton, CEO of Freelance Web Solutions Malawi, interviews Ms. Enelless Pemba Phiri, an arts and crafts entrepreneur in Malawi. Learn more and read the transcript at: https://yali.state.gov/yali-voices-malawi-pemba/

Felix Lanyo, is Youth Leader and Activist, Entrepreneur, Agriculturist, Peace and Climate Change Advocate, Humanitarian, Professional Digital Advertiser and Spoken Word Artist. His past projects include Scientific Research on Gene Repair to Combat Ebola, Malaria and HIV/AIDS in Africa which birthed World Scientific Conference in 2015. Inclusively, he is working on productive project; 'Agribusiness and Rural Entrepreneurship in Eradicating Poverty' for the past years and building Rural Communities, impacting and changing lives in rural communities in Ghana West Africa. He pilots Digital Entrepreneurship skills project; 'DIGITAL_CODE' for urban communities, impacting, equipping and developing young persons between the ages of 18 to 35 years with highly Digital Advertising and Coding skills in densely populated urban regions that have access to internet.

Michel is a 2015 Mandela Washington Fellow who works as a community activist and has spent several years working to reduce youth violence and encourage peaceful solutions to election-related conflicts. A graduate of Benin University, he currently serves as a United Nations Volunteer Peace Building Fund program assistant in Mali.

Macon Phillips podcast about renewable energy with South African Mandela Washington Fellows Adele Boadzo and Tshegofatso Neeuwfan. Adele Boadzo is a clean energy activist and solar entrepreneur with over five years’ experience in Africa’s energy sector. She is passionate about delivering clean energy projects to electrify the continent and is currently a project manager at a South African solar PV company and is also the founder of Hope Rises Solar, an organization that empowers women to distribute and install solar technologies to transform their communities. Tshegofatso Neeuwfan has six years of experience working in the South African electricity supply industry. He started his career as a project engineer and now works as a senior advisor at South Africa’s national power utility company. Chief among Tshegofatso’s responsibilities is developing and implementing a gas-to-power strategy that forms part of his company’s intention to reduce emissions and introduce flexible capacity that can partner with rene

Jamila Mayanja has 6 years’ experience as a professional marketer, she is the CEO of Smart Girls Uganda, a company that empowers young girls and women through trainings to build their self-esteem. Through Smart Girls she started a franchise company called J Mobile Laundry Services that has contributed to curbing unemployment among the youth in Kampala suburbs, where she works as the team leader. After the YALI program, Jamila will continue her work of empowering young women and work to have more than 1000 youth working or owning enterprises each year.

Manasseh Gowk, formerly Emmanuel Osei, is a humanitarian and an environmentalist with interest in food security and climate change. He holds a degree in Banking and Finance from the University of Ghana Business School and currently works as a Business Development Officer at PFL Education Ghana. His quest to enhance social development has earned him an award-winning poem “Broken Homes”; published in both Italian and English, the poem helped raised funds for the Association of Poetry and Solidarity, Italy. He has gained leadership skills as a speaker at international youth forums in Europe and as the hospitals, prisons, and orphanages coordinator during his undergraduate study; he was recently adjudged the best writer at the Voice of our Generation Essay Competition. Emmanuel’s approach to the future need of food in Ghana is evident in his volunteerism and public presentations on climate change.

Fombah Lasana Kanneh is an entrepreneur and has been working with impoverished youths in slum communities on waste recycling for sustainable livelihood for more than three years. He is the chief executive officer of Youth Empowerment Training, a social enterprise that focuses on educating impoverished kids in slum communities with skills and materials in order to reduce poverty. Currently, he has an ongoing campaign called Leave No Child Behind, helping children with needy school materials and scholarships. Fombah is a member of the US Ambassador's Council of Youth Advisors in Liberia, and a candidate for BBA degree in Marketing Management from the University of Liberia, with a diploma in Entrepreneurship and youth development from Casimiro Global Foundation in the United States. As a fellow emerging from the Mandela Washington Fellowship, he plans to use the knowledge and skills acquired to mentor youths in slum communities on entrepreneurship and career development.

She has over four years' experience in the community empowerment sector, focused on women and youth development. She is deputy coordinator for Collectif Des Association Pour La Citoyennetè Et La Sauvegarde Des Acquis Democratique Au Tchad, where she focuses on the association's training, management, and leadership. She is a contact person for IAVE in Chad, and the founder and president of a regional initiative for women and youth advancement, the goal of which is to strengthen the collaboration between African women and youth for sustainable development. Mami holds a Master’s degree in Project Management from Iscam Tchad, which enables her to help associations with writing and monitoring projects, and upon completion of the Mandela Washington Fellowship, she plans to continue working hard in gender equality, women’s rights and protection, and youth involvement in every development sector of the country.

Ako has worked for the past four years as the managing director of Radio Arc-en-ciel, a community-based radio station in the populous urban area of Abobo in Ivory Coast. Under his management, Radio Arc-en-ciel became known as the best community radio station of Ivory Coast, and in 2014 won a UNICEF competition on mother-and-child wellbeing. As a part-time consultant in advocacy and participatory budgeting, Ako is passionate about training and mentoring local stakeholders using results-oriented approaches. After the Fellowship, he wishes to set up a radio station specializing in motivating and impacting young people and women for sustainable changes. Ako holds a Master’s degree in English Linguistics, and further certification in sustainable development, advocacy and community-based development approaches. Currently, he is committed to promoting peaceful elections in his Côte d’Ivoire through the organization of public radio shows prior to upcoming presidential elections, a project funded by the USAID.

Alieu Jallow founded the Young Entrepreneurs Association in 2012 to improve young Gambians’ entrepreneurial capacities and move them from being job seekers to job providers. He has over three years’ experience initiating, designing, and implementing robust business support services. He is currently project manager at the American Chamber of Commerce where he is working to setup the first startup incubator. His end goal is to help build the next generation of entrepreneurs in the Gambia and he holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of the Gambia. He also volunteers as the coordinator for Generation Change Gambia, American Corner's, and Partnership in Employment. His interests include engaging with fellow Gambian youth to explore entrepreneur focused opportunities. Upon completion of the Fellowship, Alieu plans to continue his work in entrepreneurship development with a focus on trainings, capacity building, access to finance, and business support services.

Ugandan-born Cyrus Kawalya sounds a bit coy about his past as an entertainer in the latest YALI Voices Podcast with the State Department’s Macon Phillips. He was once nicknamed “Cyrus the Virus,” known for songs like “A Menace to Society.” He was also a professional photographer who founded Vision I, an organization that offers workshops to young people who are interested in pursuing a career in film or photography. But many YALI Network members have also heard of this 2014 Mandela Washington Fellow as the man behind the #IPledgePeaceUg campaign, which many credit with playing a part in the decreased violence around Uganda’s elections in February 2015. What motivated this successful artist to change his focus from the entertainment industry to social advocacy, and transform his routine from being “a late-night person” into someone who now advocates meditation and reading? Kawalya also discusses how he uses the YALI Network to engage rising leaders across the African continent and challenge them to stand u

Read the transcript and more about Raindolf on yali.state.gov: https://goo.gl/n1eKJG In 2012, a 22-year-old Ghanaian computer science student named Raindolf Owusu introduced African internet users to the Anansi Browser. It is considered Africa’s first web browser and was designed to help users with unreliable internet connections stay connected as well as use games and a web camera that can operate offline. For his creation, he has been dubbed “the Mark Zuckerberg of Accra” by Forbes Africa magazine. But as he tells the State Department’s Macon Phillips in a YALI Voices podcast, as successful and as celebrated as the browser has been been, he lives in a country where many people can’t use it because they aren’t connected to the internet. “Building a big web browser … will give you accolades and everything else, but that’s something my mother cannot use or my grandmother in the village cannot use,” he said. As founder and CEO of the software company Oasis WebSoft, Owusu wants to create products that woul

Fatu Ogwuche has five years’ experience in the public sector and is the new media consultant at the Independent National Electoral Commission where she's instrumental in project management, capacity development, and developing strategies for citizen engagement. Fatu worked with the African Elections Project in the 2012 Ghanaian elections by sharing knowledge of new media tools used during the 2011 Nigerian elections. She played a positive role in the 2015 elections and coordinated activities in the INEC's Situation Room which led to her meritorious selection by Professor Attahiru Jega to serve on the 2015 Elections Report Committee. She volunteers in voter education activities and raises money for charity through various programs. Fatu holds a Bachelor of Law degree from the Nigerian Law School and an LLB from the University of Jos. Upon completion, she plans to work with institutions that strengthen electoral processes, good governance, and democratic values in Africa

Timi has over five years' experience promoting good governance, human rights, democracy, and the youth agenda. He provides leadership to over three hundred and fifty young leaders in Nigeria through the Nigerian Youths in Motion (NYM), a non-profit organization that engages governments, institutions and communities in solving sociopolitical challenges, and promotes economic and societal growth upon which individuals and companies prosper. Timi holds a law degree from the University of Ibadan, and a certificate in the Science of Communication from the Graduate School of Communication in Amsterdam. He has trained thousands of young professional and students on how to creatively identify and solve socioeconomic challenges through the Eye for Accountability Initiative (EFAI). Timi is a lawyer, writer, and speaker dedicated to building stronger networks of sociopolitical thinkers, strategists, and problem-solvers across Nigeria, and eventually Africa, and intends to continue raising sociopolitical leaders upon his