Fellows

Oluwabusayomi is a Journalist with over seven years of experience in using storytelling to educate, empower, and encourage positive outlook on rural development, entrepreneurship, and youth leadership in Africa and across the Commonwealth region. A graduate of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, ’Busayomi’s work has been featured on news platforms and magazines with continental and global reach. She has also published in the How We Made It In Africa: The Book. (2018). Oluwabusayomi is the co-founder and managing editor of Rural Reporters – a Nigeria-based news platform with in-depth coverage of under-reported issues in rural communities in Nigeria and across Africa. She also served as the Assistant Editor of Leading Change, the University of Cambridge website for The Queen’s Young Leaders Programme. Her experience in the nonprofit sector includes working as the Communications Officer for Network of Migration Research on Africa (NOMRA), serving as an Editorial Assistant at Development Diaries, and volunteering as an advocate of Women Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights in Nigeria for Ipas. Oluwabusayomi has worked as an independent research consultant for Euromonitor International since 2016 covering consumer behaviour and lifestyles and other industry-related research in Nigeria. She draws on her experience as both a Journalist and industry watcher to communicate from an insider’s perspective. Oluwabusayomi, a fellow of the International Women’s Media Foundation, enjoys shining the spotlight on people who are breaking barriers in their field and communities. She is interested in making rural development issues an integral part of global development.

Host Organization: Transparency and Accountability Initiative

Role at Transparency and Accountability Initiative: At TAI, Oluwabusayomi will focus on developing and implementing a strategic communications plan for the organization. She will also help TAI undergo a strategy refresh in 2019, disseminate our new strategy widely in 2020, and work on fast changing, globally relevant issues with leading philanthropic funders.

Chewe Fredrick Mulenga is a Chevening scholar with over 9 years of experience in business development, project management, advocacy, brand management and programme development. He is passionate about mental health and work regarding Gender and Women issues. He is a member of the African youth Entrepreneurship Society and was Zambia’s representative to the Tokyo International conference on African Development-TICAD. Chewe holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Zambia and a Master of Science Degree in Management and International Business from Leeds Business School in the UK.

Host Organization: Promundo

Role at Promundo: At Promundo, Chewe will will be part of a dynamic team and support a wide range of research, program, and advocacy activities related to related to gender and masculinities. Working across\nsectors – health, violence prevention, economic empowerment – Chewe will participate in the development and implementation of gender transformative programming, conduct desk research and qualitative and quantitative analyses as appropriate, and work to effectively disseminate Promundo’s work through written materials, presentations, and partnership building.

Elijah has seven years of professional experience in the nonprofit sector. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Renewable Natural Resources Management from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. Passionate about driving positive social change, Elijah is a Co-Founder and Executive Director of community-based nonprofit organization- Help Change Ghana which works to empower communities to take proactive actions to reduce litter, indiscriminate dumping of waste and undertake beautification projects such as tree planting. His most significant professional accomplishment with this organization is the design and launch of the Community Litter Prevention initiative which trained and developed skills of 300 volunteers through a train the trainer model in 2014. The initiative has since reached over 30,000 individuals in nine communities with information on litter prevention techniques. Additionally, he coordinated conservation education programs in community schools which increased formation of Eco-clubs to ninety-six as at March 2019. Elijah’s efforts have been tremendous in rekindling grassroots support in keeping clean communities and conserving nature. Previously, he worked with the National Disaster Management Organization where he coordinated a team which administered support for flood displaced victims in rural Accra. Also, he volunteered with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly in public cleanup events such as the National Sanitation Initiative. Through these experiences, he has developed skills in project planning and implementation, leadership development, training and capacity building. Elijah has strong desire for leadership development, entrepreneurship and community empowerment.

Host Organization: Keep America Beautiful

Role at Keep America Beautiful: At Keep America Beautiful, Elijah will work with the Programs Director to execute Keep America Beautiful’s signature programs focused on cigarette litter prevention and community beautification. He will execute a grant program, market the programs to their affiliates and a broader audience, help execute an educational campaign and research potential new sponsors.

Ikenna Anyadike has seven years of experience in the social enterprise sector and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Government and Public Administration from Imo State University, Nigeria. Ikenna is a 2017 fellow of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, a program powered by the U.S State Department, and a recipient of the 2012 Commonwealth Youth Program for Africa intervention, Discovering Young Leaders Program. He is also a Google Digital Skills trainer and business partner with Clarity4D, UK. With a specific focus on youth development and education through capacity building, Ikenna currently leads a teen development campaign, Live Out Loud, dedicated to cultivating entrepreneurship and social innovation in teenagers. Along with a team of volunteers, Ikenna successfully pioneered PROJECT BYB=X (Best You, Better = X), a series of personality discovery, career path identification and digital skills workshops for teenage students drawn from select schools in Abuja, Nigeria. This triggered the adoption of the program now called, PROJECT D3-X (Discover | Develop | Deploy – X), by relevant stakeholders as a new approach to career and personality identification for students. Owing to his interest in education and youth empowerment, Ikenna is currently on a drive to provide youth-friendly safe spaces called, Discovery Hubs for adolescents to explore capacity building content and life-skills that are not covered in schools. He has two publications to his credit in addition to a personal development podcast channel viz: My Friend Figaro, Discovery Hub Setup Toolkit and iKsPeaks Podcast respectively.

Host Organization: Making Cents International

Role at Making Cents International: At Making Cents International, Ikenna will will help build and grow the community of young changemakers on YouthLead.org by orchestrating activities that encourage YouthLead members to engage with each other and truly form a community/communities on the platform. Ikenna will be working with a variety of sponsors, youth networks, and youth development experts around the world to expand the breadth, depth, and reach of the platform. At Making Cents International, Ikenna will will help build and grow the community of young changemakers on YouthLead.org by orchestrating activities that encourage YouthLead members to engage with each other and truly form a community/communities on the platform. Ikenna will be working with a variety of sponsors, youth networks, and youth development experts around the world to expand the breadth, depth, and reach of the platform.

Meriem is an open-minded, friendly and resourceful engineer in Computer Science who graduated from the Algerian National School of Computer Science in 2015. She has 3 years of solid experience and diverse capabilities in IT project management, Information System management and governance using agile and lean thinking, and Business Analysis. While working as an IT Project Management, she was heavily involved in redesigning the postal services’ Information System in Algeria by assisting experts in mapping business, app\nand technology processes using SIPOC, TOGAF & COBIT; requirements gathering and planning; elaborating IT strategical plans taking client’s needs into account; and supporting the client in his upstream thinking (writing specifications, change management) and downstream thinking (training).\nMeriem has a clear, logical mind with a practical approach to problem solving and a drive to see things through to completion. She is eager to learn, enjoy overcoming challenges, and have a genuine interest in Information Systems, enterprise architecture and evolving technologies. Meriem is also an active member in her neighborhood NGO and has always been engaged in working on how effectively we can educate people about their rights and obligations as democratic citizens, and how to develop citizens’ skills to work with one another\nto solve common problems, to debate public issues, and express their views. Within her NGO network, Meriem organize and participate in events related to youth education and women empowerment using her strong academic background and professional experience to ground her work. She is also part of various networks of women leaders from MENA regions that promote peace and discovering inner qualities to revolutionize and face nowadays hostile communities; to improve schools, the government, the environment and whatever her society needs to create and sustain an environment in which everyone can thrive.

Host Organization: boodleAI

Role at boodleAI: At boodleAI, Meriem will support the software development team by assisting in the identification of incoming features that are valuable to the business and their clients, gathering and analyzing high level requirements, tracking sprint progress and elevating risks to management, creating and maintaining project documentation, defining and executing test scenarios, and participating in all Agile ceremonies.

Rabecca Makhuwira is a professional and seasoned development practitioner specializing with over five years’ experience working in the non-profit sector. During her career, Rabecca has worked with three International Non-Governmental Organisations in various roles, including in monitoring and evaluation, project management, volunteering, proposal development, developing Monitoring and Evaluation systems, conducting research studies and reporting. Rabecca is also an entrepreneur in the Agriculture sector. Recently, Rabecca was working for Action Aid as Monitoring and Evaluation officer in a consortium of five non-governmental organisations. Rabecca also volunteers for Center for Women and Girls Empowerment (CEWOGE) as a Programs Director. She is very passionate about girls and women empowerment and investing in children as she believes the future of Africa lies on it. Some of the leadership roles Rabecca holds in her community include, developing effective social protection systems, motivational speaking, leadership training’s facilitation, adult literacy teaching and fundraising for needy female students. For the past two years Rabecca has impacted girl’s education by sharing her stories, encouraging female students’ dropouts to go back to school and providing scholastic materials to needy students. She is also a Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI) alumni, a program for Southern African Leaders and graduated with a certificate in public management by University of South Africa which has enhanced her authentic and transformative leadership. Through these experiences, Rabecca has been equipped with the necessary technical and leadership skills that has necessitated her to effectively deliver.

Host Organization: BronxWorks

Role at BronxWorks: With BronxWorks, Rabecca will to help strengthen the program’s effectiveness, with respect to tracking retention. This added investment in time and effort will help to increase their use metrics to track the follow-up of the income of the program participants continued employment, job promotion, increased wages and need for public supports (i.e. public assistance, transportation, childcare, etc.).

Wissal has a master degree in 2009 in computer sciences from INPT, an engineering school in Morocco. She has over 8 years of experience in the IT field and works now as an IT project manager. Besides, Wissal is a very active citizen as she loves to volunteer to make a positive impact in her community. She has joined JCI CasaImpact (Junior Chamber International CasaImpact) in 2014, and ever since has occupied various positions and led many social projects. Today she is the Communication Vice President and a mentor to new members. She is a certified JCI trainer and has organized and facilitated many trainings tackling active citizenship, interpersonal skills as well as successful project management. Prior to that, she was a training director in the same NGO. She also was a facilitator in Injaz Al-maghrib, another NGO aiming to inspire and prepare a generation of youth to become business leaders and promising entrepreneurs of tomorrow. She works hard in the youth capacity building and empowerment field because she strongly believes in the power of one person and especially the power of youth, if one has enough motivation and finds the right mentoring, he can change the world. Moreover Wissal is a fan of meditation. She is country coordinator and peace agent at Peace Revolution peace program, and had two training of meditation and mindfulness in Goergia and Thailand. Wissal has a master degree in 2009 in computer sciences from INPT, an engineering school in Morocco. She has over 8 years of experience in the IT field and works now as an IT project manager. Besides, Wissal is a very active citizen as she loves to volunteer to make a positive impact in her community. She has joined JCI CasaImpact (Junior Chamber International CasaImpact) in 2014, and ever since has occupied various positions and led many social projects. Today she is the Communication Vice President and a mentor to new members. She is a certified JCI trainer and has organized and facilitated many trainings tackling active citizenship, interpersonal skills as well as successful project management. Prior to that, she was a training director in the same NGO. She also was a facilitator in Injaz Al-maghrib, another NGO aiming to inspire and prepare a generation of youth to become business leaders and promising entrepreneurs of tomorrow. She works hard in the youth capacity building and empowerment field because she strongly believes in the power of one person and especially the power of youth, if one has enough motivation and finds the right mentoring, he can change the world. Moreover Wissal is a fan of meditation. She is country coordinator and peace agent at Peace Revolution peace program, and had two training of meditation and mindfulness in Goergia and Thailand.

Host Organization: Microsoft

Role at Microsoft: At Microsoft, Wissal will be a central player in making sure the team closes great deals, that partners achieve milestones in a timely fashion, and key metrics like expansion, revenue projections are met. The Fellow will support the Program Manager and the wider Airband team to evolve global project engagements, partnerships, processes, tools, research, and thought leadership.