The Future Awards Africa Tour Visits Chibok, Mubi, Yola, Others [PHOTOS]

 

 TFAA-Team-with-the-vigilante-group-who-won-the-war-with-the-soldiers

TFAA-Team-with-the-vigilante-group-who-won-the-war-with-the-soldiers

As part of the 100-city tour for The Future Awards Africa’s (TFAA) 10th anniversary, the awards visited conflict zones across the North of Nigeria last week – to highlight challenges, spotlight inspiring stories and set up hubs to solve problems at scale.

The delegation was led by the co-founder of TFAA, Chude Jideonwo and visited Chibok, Mubi and Yola. The tour, led by project managers Bukonla Adebakin and Seun Oluyemi had previously visited Enugu, Banjul, Badagry, Ibadan, Akure, Port Harcourt and Kano.

TFAA team
TFAA team

The tour has a three-pronged focus: a) re-focus attention on the issues young people are facing across the continent, b) the case studies of how TFAA’s global brain trust has solved these issues and then c) set up hubs in each city – made up of past winners, nominees, partners and volunteers at community-levels – to solve these problems.

Some children at the IDP Camp, Yola
Some children at the IDP Camp, Yola

“The stories and the people we have met on this trip have confirmed some of our worst fears, but more importantly also fired up our resolve,” said Jideonwo after the tour. “There is so much work we have to do, and we are building a network of problem solvers across the continent to engage, solve and sustain the solutions to these problems.
“We are celebrating 10 years of TFAA, but more importantly, we are fired up to begin 10 more years of building entrepreneurs, supporting change makers and transforming societies.”

Team awaiting response from the army before going in to Chibok
Team awaiting response from the army before going in to Chibok

The one-year tour, which kicked off in October 2015, has now visited Kano, Banjul, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Enugu, Abuja, Lagos, Yola, Mubi and Chibok.
“The challenges we saw on this tour are enough to make you worry,” said Mohamed Diaby, a member of the Central Working Committee, from Abidjan. “From young people feeling their own communities and countries to communicable diseases from recused individuals coming back into town, rebuilding of clinic/hospital, school, bridge and markets, education, employment, drug use, to cities that urgently demand government reconstruction, there is so much work left to be done. We are determined to lead an army of young people, through our hubs, to do this urgent work, to solve these problems.”

bridge linking to Mubi town
bridge linking to Mubi town

Hubs have now been set up in Mubi with the Initiative for Human Rights, Yola with Centre for Caring, Empowerment and Peace Initiative (CCEPI) and Chibok with the Red Cross. These hubs will work together with the Global TFAA Secretariat to pull resources and media attention to solve the identified problems in each community.

Yola IDP Camp
Yola IDP Camp

The next stop for the tour is Johannesburg, South Africa, after which phase one of the tour will conclude.
The Future Awards Africa 2015 is powered by RED and held in partnership with the Ford Foundation, Microsoft, the US Consulate, the Canadian High Commission Nigeria and The Tony Elumelu Foundation. The event will be hosted in Lagos on Sunday, 6 December, 2015.
For more information, visit awards.thefutureafrica.com

TFAA Team with Hub lead and members - Mubi Hub
TFAA Team with Hub lead and members – Mubi Hub

ABOUT THE FUTURE AWARDS AFRICA

The Future Awards Africa has been called the ‘Nobel Prize for Young Africans’, and the ‘most important youth awards’ by Forbes. It is a set of prizes given annually to celebrate and accelerate innovation, creativity and enterprise amongst young Africans aged 18 – 31. It has produced over 150 winners and over 1550 nominees since its first edition in 2006.

It is presented in conjunction with The Future Project, which has a mandate to build empowered citizens across Africa, through (inclusive) enterprise and (active) citizenship. This focus on Human Capital Development is informed by our value proposition: Africa’s growth needs a generation of young people who are gainfully employed and able to demand and secure better leadership.

Our projects include Aiki.ng, an employability portal presented with Microsoft; the Nigeria Symposium for Young & Emerging Leaders, #StartupsAfrica, Intern4Jobs, The m-Hub, The Future Enterprise Support Scheme and The Future Africa Awards & Summit, described as ‘The Nobel Prize for Young Africans’.

With a network of funders and partners including the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Ford Foundation, the US Government, First Bank, MTN, The Canadian Embassy, HP, the Nigerian Government and the British Council, our work has spanned Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Malawi, Cameroon, Somalia, Equitorial Guinea, Ivory Coast and Kenya.

Founded by the Chude Jideonwo and Adebola Williams, TFP is supervised by a Global Board of Advisors drawn from Africa, Europe, North America and the Middle East, including the Coordinating Minister of the Nigerian Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; Senior Economic Advisor with the Open Society Foundations, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili; co-founder of ONE, Jamie Drummond and the Chief of Cabinet with the Africa Development Bank, Anne Kabagambe.