Africa’s Youth-Driven Revitalization

There is a resounding positive trend in Africa currently taking shape on the social entrepreneurship front that we should all be getting excited about.  Youth-led social ventures are popping up throughout African rural villages and their main goal is to empower people living in these villages to help solve their own problems, giving them a sense of purpose rather than charity.  These young change leaders are using their entrepreneurial creativity and ingenuity to form organizations that are solving issues in some of Africa’s most impoverished regions.  YaYa Education Trust, The Yonso Project, and The Tanzania Youth Environmental Network are all African youth-led social change organizations, members of the YouthActionNet Fellowship, and are currently running or about to launch campaigns on StartSomeGood. 

YaYa Education Trust (YET) is dedicated to helping marginalized groups of women and children in the rural Mumias District, Kenya create better lives for themselves.  All of YET’s projects focus on supporting women and young girls—the poorest of the poor in the Mumias Distrcit—through income generating ventures that will raise capital to educate these women and girls, raise awareness of human rights violations, and provide them with the tools they need to become equals in their communities.  YET’s Community Goat Bank Project will create enterprising women that can lift themselves out of poverty through revolving goat donations.  Goat owning will provide income for poor women in Kenya so that they can become financially independent.  YET needs to raise $5,000 to launch this project, train 100 women to become entrepreneurs, and purchase 60 goats.

The Yonso Project is providing educational opportunities to the rural poor in Ghana so that they can create their own future free of poverty.  This is a grassroots, volunteer-run organization that is providing the rural poor with various tools to end the cycle of poverty that currently exists in Ghana.  The Yonso Project does this through scholarships, educational resources, business management training, and microfinance for women to launch and expand their businesses.  The Yonso Project’s Mentoring and Guidance for Rural School Children campaign on StartSomeGood will fund a three-day camping retreat where children will receive skills training and mentorships necessary for personal development.  The $2,000 tipping point goal will allow 150 children to participate in this program.

The Tanzania Youth Environmental Network (TAYEN) focuses on environmental conservation in Tanzania and gets kids excited to participate in various green initiatives.  TAYEN encourages Tanzanian children to take action against environmental issues such as deforestation, climate change, lack of clean water access, and insufficient sanitation.  TAYEN is about to launch an exciting new campaign within the next week, so make sure to keep your eye out for it and we’ll be sure to post an update once it goes live.

So why help?  Besides being African youth-led socially driven organizations, these three projects share another common thread.  They aren’t looking for charity; they are looking for support.  Rather than considering this a donation, consider it an investment in social change projects that will one day become self-sustaining.  They need this support so they can help people help themselves—become equals in their communities, learn how to lift themselves out of poverty, discover why conservation is vital to their communities—and thus create their own positive outcomes.  Please consider supporting these organizations on their missions to transform rural African communities and help us spread the word by sharing their campaigns with your social networks on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: The Yonso Project