Education Uganda Project #47317

Post-COVID Career Training for African Students

by Ashinaga Foundation

Post-COVID Career Training for African Students

Project Report | Oct 15, 2021
Ashinaga Masters in Africa Program Launch

By Shona Morimoto | Project Leader

AMIA Logo

Thanks to all who supported this project through GlobalGiving, we are happy to announce that we have launched a new program that offers graduates from our Ashinaga Africa Initiative program a grant of 3,000 $ annual grant for postgraduate study in top-tier universities in Sub-Saharan Africa. There will be ten scholarships available each year starting August 17th, 2021. On September 16th, the Graduates and Alumni Team organized a webinar to share more details about the program and hear stories from guests with postgraduate experience on the continent.

AAI Scholars and Graduates got the chance to hear from our honorary guest, Professor Miriam Were. Professor Were holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in Public Health degrees from Johns Hopkins University in the USA. She is also a former Chancellor of Moi University, Co-Founder of UZIMA Foundation-Africa, and an Ashinaga Kenjin-Tatsujin Council member.

Professor Were started her speech with the two main reasons she believes a master’s degree is essential on the continent. The first is that graduate students get to rub shoulders with those who have great expertise in their chosen areas of specialization. The second is the opportunity to focus on a local place of interest and identify ways to contribute to its development.

Professor Were reminded the AAI Graduates and Scholars that they had the unique privilege to undergo their undergraduate degrees abroad and gained excellent exposure to the world. In addition to the international outlook, the Ashinaga Masters in Africa offers its Scholars an even more unique opportunity to develop locally focused skills and complement those they developed abroad to fit the realities of the sub-Saharan African region.

According to Professor Were, through AMIA, AAI Graduates will be able to identify the problems related to their areas of interest and the expertise they need to solve them. Professor Were added that a Master’s program in Africa would allow the AAI Scholars and Graduates to develop a rich professional network back home and explore employment opportunities to ease their entry into the African job market.

Besides Professor Were’s speech, the AAI Scholars and Graduates heard testimonies from George Ampratwum and Suzan Kilamile. George is the Professional Network Development Team manager at Ashinaga. He has a wealth of experience in career development on the continent. He received a master’s degree in Experimental Psychology from the University of Ghana and then an MBA from the African Leadership University School of Business. In addition to George, The AAI Graduates and Scholars heard from fellow AAI Graduate Suzan Kilamile. Suzan is currently pursuing her master’s in Physiology at Muhimbili University in Dar Es Salaam. In parallel with her studies, she works as a tutorial assistant in Physiology at the Christian Medical University in Kilimanjaro. Besides learning more about the local Physiological field, Suzan highlighted how the master’s program helped her meet more Physiologists, expand her network in Tanzania and expose her to new opportunities.

Professor Were, George, and Suzan all emphasized that AMIA offers AAI Graduates and Scholars an unparalleled opportunity to develop skills relevant to their countries. Such as building rich local networks and exploring professional opportunities to make significant contributions that will improve the quality of life in Sub-Saharan Africa.

AMIA Webinar

Links:

Permalink

Jun 22, 2021
Apollo's Year-Long Wait for University in Uganda

By Lilly | Fundraising Coordinator

Apollo is an AAI Scholar from Uganda. Due to COVID-related travel restrictions, he wasn’t able to come to Japan to start his university degree in person. This has not discouraged him to be proactive and use his time in Uganda to gain experience. He took on an internship with the Wakiso District Local Government and later participated in another online program called BuildforSDG2020. Additionally, he attended an entrepreneurship camp called the Swiss Re Start-Up Academy hosted by Swiss Re-insurance company, Aiducation International, and Junior Achievement Uganda. Apollo has also been very involved with the Nansana Cleaning Club.

He told us a little bit about the Swiss Re Start-Up Academy;

“This was an interactive program for young entrepreneurs to develop business plans for our start-up ideas. We were offered lectures and mentoring on topics of pitching a start-up in front of investors, identifying customer needs, solutions, and unique selling points, success factor business model, marketing and market analysis, sales, basics of book-keeping, negotiating, influencing skills, and teamwork. For my group, our idea was ‘Comfort Sanitary Pads’ which is a business idea of providing reusable sanitary pads for school-going children in Northern Uganda.

Comfort Sanitary pads come to avail reusable sanitary pads accompanied with anti-bacterial wash with a lower annual cumulative cost. A pack of 2 pads will cost 6000 Ugandan shillings and will take them for a year compared to the current one-time disposable pads of 3000 shillings.”

After attending this camp, Apollo put his entrepreneurship skills to the test and submit the idea to the UNICEF Uganda Innovation Fund Challenge.

Apollo and his teammates participating in the Swiss Re Start-Up Academy.

The Nansana Cleaning Club was first established by the fifth cohort of AAI Scholars as a community initiative to improve Nanasana’s hygiene and cleanness standards. Apollo has tried to carry on the legacy of the club, especially during the pandemic, when sanitation is central to stopping the spread of COVID-19. He says;

“The club has now spent two years in existence. As a club, we hold monthly cleaning vigils at different places within Nansana every second last Saturday of the month and periodically conduct sanitation clinics to raise awareness about the importance of a clean environment. Some members have volunteered to check the temperature of people entering marketplaces using temperature guns and also ensuring they wash their hands in these COVID times. The club has now secured partnerships with local NGOs like the Matovu Foundation and Uganda Pioneers Association.”

Though he may not be able to fly to Japan to attend university yet, his work for the community is not going unnoticed. Apollo has been recognized for his work with the Cleaning Club. He was named on 25 Under 25: Leaders Changing the Game 2020. Apollo also won the Samsung Hidden Eco-Hero Award 2020, selected as the26th Eco-Generation Regional Ambassador for Uganda, and is currently enrolled in the 2021 Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Program.

Apollo’s goals after getting to Japan include maintaining a high GPA, mastering Japanese, undertaking multiple internships, gaining multiple leadership experiences, and eventually going to graduate school.

Ashinaga is thrilled to see Apollo working for his local community already, and we cannot wait to welcome him to Japan.

Links:

Read Apollo's story on our website!

Permalink

Feb 22, 2021
Internship Update from Ashinaga

By Lillian | Marketing & Fundraising

Walter and Patience on-sight at their internship

A core component of the AAI program is the mandatory internship (8 weeks or longer), that scholars must complete in sub-Saharan Africa while in the program.

For the past couple of years, we have partnered with many companies and offered scholars a chance to gain working experience in Africa. This year, however, their opportunities were affected by the global pandemic, like the rest of the World.

There was one opportunity was born out of the shared interest for business in Africa among Ashinaga Foundation, Big Wave Kawasaki, an automobile recycling and spare parts business based in Oita Japan, and looking to expand their activities in Africa, and Qunie, a leading consulting firm of NTT DATA Group with a wide range of activities in Africa.

The two Scholars who were invited to complete the internship, Patience and Walter, are from Uganda and both pursuing undergraduate studies in Japan. This offered them a unique insight into the car parts import/export industry that ties Japan to several African countries, including Cameroon where Big Wave Kawasaki currently has operations.

The internship provider took a great approach with the scholars, allowing them access to many of their business operations, including their dedicated strategy to developing an environmentally-sound business, with emphasis on building a recycling-oriented society. To conclude their internship, the scholars presented their learning to an audience of members from Ashinaga, AFRECO, Mainichi Newspaper, Mainichi Advertisement, and Qunie, all partners who contributed to creating this opportunity.

Patience, as a business major, enjoyed the insights in business modeling and mentioned her interest in exploring the possibility to establish a similar business model to that being conducted in Cameroon in Uganda.

As a mechanical engineering major, Walter appreciated the opportunity for a concrete application of his theoretical knowledge. Having an early understanding of the power of a powerful network, they also shared their excitement to have now expanded theirs and met potential mentors, future employers, and business partners.

The synergy highlighted by this unique collaboration between three actors is one in which Ashinaga strongly believes in. Both Big Wave Kawasaki and Qunie recognized the value in the fresh perspective from the future African Leaders that are the AAI Scholars.

While Ashinaga will now explore ways to make this opportunity a consistent one, we also strive to develop similar ones with new partners. We are particularly eager to develop such opportunities with companies with operations in Africa interested in interns/employees with an international outlook.

Links:

Read the full article on our website

Permalink

‹ 1 2 3 4 5 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.