In just 7 months, AOEF’s Youth Advisory Council and Young Friends of AOEF have made major contributions in support of our mission to educate children in Africa. Our African and American youth volunteers and young professionals have been meeting across time zones and continents on a weekly basis – leaning in hard, crushing barriers and participating as if the future of the world might depend on them.
Because it does.
They instinctively know this, and so do we.
In fact, few stakeholders have more to gain — or lose — in the decades ahead.
The Poetry Slam! they proposed and helped execute during lockdowns and curfews was nothing short of heroic. Instructions were delivered to and handwritten poetry submissions were gathered from students in remote villages of Africa during strict COVID lockdowns. AOEF and its youth leaders owe a huge debt of gratitude to Tujje Ministries’ and Light Up Hope’s African and American teams, with special thanks to Uganda’s Director Joshua Wepukhulu and Kenya’s Director Augustine Wanyama.
Upcoming creative-writing exchanges will augment poems already collected and be showcased in book form in the year ahead.
The Period Project, born out of concern for African girls missing school during ‘that time of the month’ is a special project of our female youth volunteers. And, as COVID fears subside, “Serving It Up For Africa” fundraising events will be ready to challenge tennis players on courts across our area. Finally, in addition to researching, writing and submitting articles for each newsletter, our Young Friends of AOEF recently asked to take on the full responsibility of putting our future newsletters together. Wow!
AOEF’s future leaders in the U.S. and Africa will likely arise from this group. Members engage and challenge each other with full expectation that something bigger than the sum talents of the group will emerge from the shared wisdom, experience and effort. We are beyond proud to have the world’s future leaders pouring into Africa’s children through us as we pour into them.
You won’t find more passion, conviction or obstacle-melting perseverance. We are so proud of our U.S. and African youth/young professional talent: Ballaion Cadet-Joram (US), Kate Halickman (US), Emily Winters (US), Patrick Karekezi (Rwanda), Eno Okpo (Nigeria), Abigail Oppong (Ghana), Kakaire Collins (Uganda).