- AAF: WHO WE ARE
Aye Africa Foundation Ltd is a Social Enterprise committed to shaping East African youths into excellent global professionals and role models in their careers and businesses as a critical measure to deal with current African challenges as articulated by the UN, AU and respective national programs.
We currently have teams in Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya.
AAFL, seeks to create a knowledge sharing youth empowerment platform to create awareness and learn practical skills for both employability and entrepreneurship through facilitation of critical strategies and technics in business and work ethics. Our volunteer membership of professionals from different fields and education back ground sits together to collect basic practical knowledge for every professional and then visits communities to share the same with students and other young men and women seeking to develop their careers.
- YOUTH IN EAST AFRICA; AN OPPORTUNITY OR PROBLEM;
Africa has the youngest population in the world, In East Africa alone about 80% of the population is under the age of 35. The median age is between 16 and 19, the lowest being 16 and 17 in Uganda and Tanzania respectively. Most youths are in rural areas though recent trends show an increasing rate of youth rural urban migration. These represent the current and future prosperity of the region.
Most African countries inherited an education system that was meant to support the colonial administration and is mostly concentrated on creating job seekers. Unfortunately, most educational systems do not provide early preparation in terms of educational, financial and career guidance to make graduates skilled enough to favorably compete in the global market. This is made worse by their attitudes towards certain jobs. It is no wonder that the graduates have a higher unemployment rate compared to their less educated peers.
The large number of out of school youths is not sufficiently catered for and despite the few labor-intensive jobs availed to them, there is a serious inadequacy of dignity of labor.
This gap in the education system would have been partly covered if the youth were given some kind of guidance from their parents but unfortunately because of the inadequate institutional set up to popularize a culture of professional excellence and high levels of corruption, Africa was characterized by population of highly subsistence farmers and soldiers who had no idea of the corporate world and could therefore provide no valuable career guidance to the youth.
Currently most government programs, civil society organizations and Not for profit Organizations are dealing with the youth unemployment issue by concentrating on promotion of agriculture and vocational training but unfortunately 80% of startups do not make it to their second birthday. This is majorly because successful startups must be run by employable people and must have a strong work ethic to succeed. This is the gap AAF Ltd aims to cover.
- WHAT WE BELIEVE IN
At AAF, we believe that youth have the greatest potential to transform their communities if they are skilled, guided and their talents nurtured. We believe that youth can change the course of not only their respective countries, but continent and this opportunity must be exploited else it becomes a major challenge and burden in future; politically, economically and socially.
- OUR VISION
To be the organization of choice in youth empowerment among all communities we engage.
- OUR MISSION
To Provide practical, relevant products and services to enhance professional knowledge, acquisition and sharing among East African youths.
- OUR STRENGTHS
We are driven by passion to empower young people to become agents of change in their communities. This passion is partly because we are also young people and have a deep understanding of young people’s problems and their potentials. We are dynamic, open to new ideas but highly respectful of the cultural dynamics of the different youth we work with.
OUR PROGRAMS:
Our youth empowerment programs are categorized in two forms;
- Skilling;
This involves training in key soft skills for employability like (Communication skills, problem solving skills, networking skills, team work, innovation among others. And also practical business skills which involves but not limited to soap making, candle making, paper bags, fish farming, poultry farming, charcoal briquettes among many others. We also provide basic financial literature and best practices like record keeping and management, budgeting, banking and debt management etc.
- Exposure;
Skilling with out exposure cannot yield much and indeed, most skills are often forgotten for lack of practice. At AAFL, we believe in the creativity, intelligence and hard-working character of the African youth. The biggest challenge the youths face is lack of exposure to the opportunities available.
Thus we deal with this issue by providing a platform through seminars, dialogues, peer discussions on the current challenges as clearly stipulated by the UN sustainable development goals, African Union Agenda 2063 and respective country national development plans. Key to this is to help youths identify priority areas to match their education, career and business decisions. The opportunities are in the challenges.
This is what makes it critical for us at AAFL to partner with the institutions accountable for such programs like the UN, AU and Government and related civil society organizations. The youths are eager to be apart of the solution not just the problem.