LEAP Africa, in partnership with Dow and other technical partners, has committed to supporting and nurturing the agency of young people across the continent with skills and tools towards becoming transformative leaders in their sphere of influence.
LEAP Africa and Dow recently engaged over 5000 youth to transform communities across 34 African Countries during the third edition of the Pan African youth-led social impact campaign – Youth Day of Service (YDoS) 2022.
The week-long campaign with the theme, ‘Youthful and Useful’ engaged youth across the continent to leverage their strength and possibilities of their agency in actualising a sustainable future through volunteerism and community service.
“Dow recognises that the future is created by what is done today through empowerment, collaboration, and deliberate investments in the communities we live and work in,” Sami Mainich, managing director, Dow Northern and Western Africa, and chair of Dow Africa Steering Committee stated.
Speaking further on the partnership, Mainich stated that as global citizens, Dow believes in dedicating time and talents to challenges and opportunities that connect science, people, and community across the globe to achieve its envisioned world, built on human creativity, innovation, and problem-solving.
“This is achievable only when the youth are empowered to realise their full potential. As such, we partnered with Leap Africa on the Youth Day of Service campaign to develop and support solutions that spark positive change and build resilient, sustainable communities,” Mainich stated.
Read also: Imperative of massive youth education to reducing Africa’s poverty
Through the Dow Africa partnership as headline sponsor, LEAP Africa was able to mobilise young people across 34 African countries to champion and implement projects including tree planting, school painting, food drives, beach cleaning, digital sensitisation, medical outreach, prison outreach, among others.
“LEAP Africa is committed to supporting and nurturing the agency of young people across the continent with skills and tools to enable them to become transformative leaders in their sphere of influence,” Kehinde Ayeni, acting executive director, LEAP Africa said.
According to her, the Youth Day of Service provided an opportunity to engage the hands and hearts of individuals, the third sector, and public and private stakeholders to actualise the SDGs. “Our partnership with Dow in this year’s edition supported our vision to sustain our wide reach on the continent,” Ayeni said.
She stated further that about 620 projects were executed at the end of the week-long program across Nigeria, Kenya, Algeria, Sierra Leone, Mali, Niger, Madagascar, Ghana, The Gambia, Cameroon, Uganda, South Sudan, and South Africa.
“There are so many ways to continue participation as an organisation or an individual. You can initiate a project, sponsor or fund a project, or volunteer for an existing project either as an individual or staff of an organization,” she said
