On July 31st 2024, the Young African Leaders Initiative Regional Leadership Centers in South Africa, Dakar, Kenya and Accra came together in a maiden Day of Giving campaign.
The Day of Giving was a one-day fundraising campaign to generate awareness of YALI alumni chapters, build support for their community service activities, and raise funds from alumni, local community members, and donors to support selected alumni chapter projects.
Within the Accra RLC, community service projects selected for the campaign were the Cameroon chapter’s leadership & entrepreneurship training for orphaned youth, and the Togo chapter’s sensitization of market women on market fires and how to prevent them.
Togo alumni chapter president, Victoire Som, had this to say about why the market fire sensitization project was important and why alumni, local community members, and external donors needed to come together in support of their project: “The increased rate of fires in the local markets contributes to increased rates of poverty in Togo”.
Cameroun alumni chapter president, Viviane Tathi, invited alumni and local communities to support her chapter’s passion to empower orphaned youth, many of them internally displaced persons, with leadership and entrepreneurship training… “these young people are constantly facing threats such as terrorism leading to an increase in migration. The My Family project helps these young people to believe in themselves and their hope for a better future”
We extend our heartfelt thanks to all who gave to the Togo and Cameroon chapter projects. Your giving enabled the Togo chapter to carry out a preliminary orientation activity for market women, to be followed by a fully-fledged sensitization activity. Stay tuned for a report on the Cameroon chapter’s project.
We are excited about what YALI alumni country chapters are doing to improve their communities and the opportunity their projects provide for local philanthropy and for tapping into the African spirit of community, generosity, and giving.