The Mandela Washington Fellowship Alumni Association of Nigeria (MWFAAN) has rewarded winners of the 2021 edition of its Community Innovation Challenge.
The community development initiative is a project under the ‘The Cross-Cohort Collaboration Initiative (CCCI)’ of the alumni association, which recognises the role of innovation in creating changes at community, state and national level.
The challenges, which saw many project entries, witnessed the emergence of three winners at the end who were presented with awards at the grand finale that was held recently at Next Innovation Hub, Yaba, Lagos.
The three winning projects include; Ebonyi Youth Development Project, STEAM in the Library and SHE SABI.
However, Ebonyi Youth Development Project administered by the duo of Ijeoma Idika-Chima and Dr. Bright Chimezie Irem, emerged the overall winner, STEAM in the Library by Funmi Ilori and Olatunde Ajoke Omoware emerged first runner up, while She Sabi by Nkem Okocha and Peter Ayeni won the third place.
In fulfillment of their promises, the organisers awarded the overall winner a N1, 500, 000 (one million five hundred thousand) grant to support their project in addition to plaques given to all the three winners.
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Speaking at the event, Ijeoma Idika-Chima commended MWFAAN and the United States of America for creating the platform to upgrade capacity across many levels and to uplift Nigerians by doing so. She explained that the Ebonyi Youth Development boot camp is a leadership and entrepreneurship skills development program that converges youths in the state from different sectors for capacity building, networking and collaborations.
For three months, the project, according to her, would impact 40 youths directly and about 400 youths indirectly, who would be mentored by people with success stories in the different sectors.
She also commended the other contestants for their projects, which she described as high impact community projects.
The other contestants were also given the opportunity to present their projects, detailing the impact on their target communities so far.
In her remarks at the event, Thelma Osadedebay, representative of The Incubator Reality, pointed out the importance of capacity building and using such capacities to impact local communities and vulnerable people.
She commended the ingenuity of the projects, while tanking the US government and MWFAAN for such impactful support to Nigerian communities through the projects.
Also speaking at the event, Austin Emeanua, from the United States Consulate General, Lagos and coordinator, Mandela Washington Fellowship, appraised the projects as impactful and solution-oriented. He noted further that the Mandela Fellowship offers a pool of the needed capacities and the best brains across many sectors, as well as encourages alumni to collaborate and achieve together as witnessed in the quality of the projects that emerged winners at the grand finale of the challenge.
He urged the winners to make good use of the opportunity, while reiterating the commitment of the United States of America at supporting more capacity development and community initiatives for uplifting livelihoods in such areas. and in Nigeria at large.
