AIESEC in Ghana

I am applying for this prize because I believe so much in the work we are doing as AIESEC in Ghana and this prize will go a very long way to help us create relevant and sustainable impact.

The funding is going to help cover expenses like rent, internet, transportation and other logistics costs for the over 100 international volunteers and our membership who come together each year to work on our SDG tailored projects in 8 regions across Ghana.

In the three years, I have been in different leadership capacities in AIESEC, we have embarked on menstrual and reproductive health awareness campaigns and distributed free sanitary products through our "pad up" campaign. We have projects in education where our volunteers teach and support deprived schools and school children. Our health projects have also led to the building of a community hospital, which is still in progress, and the purchase of incubators for needy hospitals in the Ashanti region of Ghana.

The onus now falls on me as leader to ensure this impact is disruptive and accessible to all.We can certainly do more. We are young people between the ages of 18 and 30. We are vibrant, energetic and want to see our country better positioned by the impact we create.

Our membership of over 200 is vibrant and across the whole country, this funding will make us more accessible and we can drive much more impact than we have done in the past.

I have always been in a position to lead. Since my parents got separated, I was usually home alone with my 5 year old sister and took care of her till my dad would get back around 11pm. We were poor but my dad fought to ensure we had the best. From Senior School Prefect in one of Ghana's best secondary schools to becoming a Doctor of Optometry and running the day to day affairs of AIESEC in Ghana, I have always been at the forefront of transformation. The vision of AIESEC is leadership development through cross cultural exchanges. Our membership facilitates exchange opportunities for young people from Ghana to all over the world. We also create internship and volunteer opportunities for young people across the world to come and create impact.I believe in AIESEC's vision. I also believe the 5 years I have given this organization have been the most fulfilling and the most humbling experience of my life. I oversee the leadership development of over 200 youth, what could be better than that?My personal vision is to own an organizational development firm that creates practical growth solutions for others using the most important resource, people. I believe if we pay more attention to the beauty in diverse strengths people bring on board, there will always be accelerated growth and impact.

The problems we are solving are youth unemployment through our internship opportunities and attainment of the SDGs 3,4,5,6 and 8 through our volunteer programs.

Ghana, as at 2020 is reported to have an unemployment rate of 12% and the major setback to young people is the lack of volunteer and internship experience before entering the job market. Our internship opportunities seek to bridge that gap.

There are so many communities that are deprived and lack access to quality education and healthcare. This is mainly because workers in healthcare and education do not want to work and live in these communities due to general conditions of living in these areas. By creating volunteer opportunities, we serve as a supply link of volunteers willing to sacrifice time, energy and money to create impact in these communities.

In simple terms we create and facilitate these opportunities cross culturally. Our impact is across 8 regions in Ghana and our major partner countries are The Netherlands, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Germany and Kenya.

What makes our work unique is that AIESEC in Ghana is led by young people between the ages of 18 and 30. The organization is youth run and for youth.

The Country director being myself, the national directors of operations, the director of finance, director of business and partnership development, the brand to customer experience manager are all young people under age 30, with the oldest being 26. Together we manage operations across 8 Universities with a membership of over 200. Anually,we facilitate two major national conferences that bring together young people in Ghana with key stakeholders to provide leadership development training and capacity building in various field of socio-economic development.

 We have have placed our confidence in young people as the key to unlocking a better future.It is young people using all that energy and exuberance to create impact around the world. 

The AIESEC culture is very unique. We live and work together on the national level, we believe in striving for excellence, acting sustainably and living diversity. Our volunteers live together with AIESECers in the same house or live with host families that create that sense of cultural and cross cultural integration and understanding.We create a conscious network of powerful young people around the world, willing to make wherever they go, better than they left it.

Internally, we are ensuring the strictest levels of accountability to our board of directors and the membership as a whole, especially with finance standards implementation. Monthly, quarterly and yearly reporting, and legislations. We believe these structures must exist for us to carry out efficient impact.

What we are doing to ensure impact is regular and up to standard is constant monitoring and evaluation. We upsacle as and when SnD requires it and we are consistent. Even though we do not have the funds to be in every corner of Ghana like we want to, we are consistent in delivering impact where we find ourselves.We are focused on the number of people we have impacted and through our life long connection programs, they are constantly engaged with AIESEC in Ghana.

Our methods are effective because we rely on constant feedback and seek constant improvement. These are done by our regular partner, member and customer satisfaction surveys geared towards creating more tailor made products and projects to best suit our consumers.

 Whether you are a member facilitating exchange or you are a young person engaging with AIESEC through going on exchange or attending a conference or any of our other capacity building event, there are 4 distinct leadership qualities you will identify. LEADERS THAT ARE SELF AWARE, WORLD CITIZENS, EMPOWER OTHERS AND ARE SOLUTION ORIENTED.