Help Train Cameroon's Next Generation of Leaders
The Goodwill Fellowship Program is an intervention program conceived by Youths Inspiration after identifying a soaring number of young people in Cameroon who have amazing social impact ideas but with inadequate knowledge, skills, and resources to implement them. The aim of the project is to empower young people between 16 – 24 years old in Cameroon with the knowledge, skills, and resources needed to transform their social impact ideas into valuable, feasible, and sustainable projects that will bring about positive change within communities.
Need
According to the UN, the number of young people between the ages of 15 – 24 is expected to stand at 1.20 billion by the end of 2020. The youth population in sub-Saharan Africa continues to overgrow as it represents 18% of the world's youth population. These statistics, and many others, show that the future of the world – especially the African continent – heavily relies on young people. However, young people, particularly those in developing countries, are facing social and economic challenges but yet they are regularly excluded from policy decisions that affect them now and have implications for their future. The socioeconomic issues they deal with vary widely and are often deep-rooted. With over 60% of Cameroonians being under 35 years old, a massive 73% of them believe they have the capabilities to undertake entrepreneurial activities despite the bottle-neck regulations. With such a high percentage of young people striving to go against the odds, Dave (2015) concludes in his research to measure the entrepreneurial intent of Cameroonians that "...Cameroonian people appear to be equally entrepreneurial in their intentions as the people of Canada. This parity then raises an interesting question of wherein lies the source of any disparity in outcomes... the difference must perhaps lie in the actualization of the existing levels of intention."
Solution and Goal
This initiative seeks to bridge the gap which exists between the existence of viable social impact ideas and their realization. In line with the inadequacy of mentoring, guidance and knowledge in the running of social entrepreneurial projects, the aim of this initiative will be to empower young people between 16 – 24 years old in Cameroon with the knowledge, design thinking skills, and resources needed to transform their social impact ideas into valuable and sustainable projects that will bring about positive change within communities. The fellowship will focus on two core areas namely: Ethical Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship. By 2025, we hope to have trained at least 150 young people and not less than 15 sustainable social ventures that are solving some of the most pressing problems in our nation Cameroon. However, for the first edition of the project, we intend to run a small pilot program that will accept a maximum of 15 young people from all over Cameroon. The total number of young people we estimate to impact this year, including our team, volunteers, and the participants, sum up to 30. In proceeding editions, we expect to admit 25 – 30 new fellows annually in order to reach our goals by 2025.
Methods
The fellowship will focus on two core areas namely: Ethical Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship. To further guide the fellows and follow up with their work, the intensive three-day in-person training will be followed by a five-month post mentorship program with expert mentors from across Cameroon, after which they will be eligible to apply for grants to implement their solutions. The 3-day in-person training program has been designed to foster teamwork and develop soft skills like leadership, public speaking, and critical thinking skills within the fellows. The sessions are designed such that they deliver theoretical concepts in an engaging and practical manner by connecting the concepts to real-world scenarios. Topics covered in the sessions include team building, leadership, public speaking, personal branding, and core social entrepreneurship concepts like Design Thinking and Theory of Change.
Expected Outcomes
- The Goodwill Fellowship will inspire young people and present social entrepreneurship as a powerful solution to create employment and increase community engagement.
- Based on a Design Thinking approach, The Goodwill Fellowship will lead the young social entrepreneurs through the process of understanding local challenges and the creation of innovative solutions.
- Lastly, the young social entrepreneurs will be provided with the resources to implement their solutions and validate them with the support of expert local mentors.
Additional Resources
Project Proposal: This document contains detailed explanation of the breakdown of the estimated expenses. Goodwill Fellowship Program
Partners
Global Changemakers:
Global Changemakers was created in 2007 by the British Council with the aim of empowering youth to catalyse change. It has grown into a network of 1240 young people from 180 countries supporting each other and their efforts to make an impact. They became an independent organisation in 2013 and, to date, have funded over 396 youth-led projects on six continents, benefiting over 8,3 million others. These projects have also reached over 920 million people via the media and 17,5 million people online.
Website: Global Changemakers
Open Dreams
As a college-access organization, Open Dreams leverages a mentorship network, rigorous academic curriculum, and partnership system to bring educational opportunities to highly talented scholars from lower-income backgrounds. They ardently believe in a world where talent is universal, but opportunity is not. To reverse this inequality of opportunity and secure a better future for our scholars, they utilize connective technology bringing together mentors, teachers, admission officers and educators to their scholar community. They envision a world wherein every child has an equal chance of access to university education no matter what geography, race, gender, or socioeconomic background they entered the world.
Website: Open Dreams
