Welcome to the official website for The Initiative™. To find out more about us and what we seek to do click here.
In this blog post, we will discuss the inspiration behind this project as well as our main objectives as an NGO.
The Initiative™ was founded as a community and passion-based project with the main aim of creating awareness and encouraging the community to take an initiative towards building the Africa that they want. Our mantra "Africans For Africa | Africa to the World", was inspired by the plaguing aura of over-dependency on foreign countries and our apparent inability to do without foreign aid and intervention when we are by far one of the most resourceful continents.
Fulfilling one of our core beliefs and priorities-- presenting evidence-based claims-- here are some statistics and facts to back our claim above that Africa is a very resourceful continent:
According to World Atlas,
- Africa is said to have the richest concentration of natural resources such as oil, copper, diamonds, bauxite, lithium, gold, hardwood forests, and tropical fruits".
- Africa also has the world’s biggest precious metal reserves on earth."
- It is estimated that 30% of the earth’s mineral resources are found in the African continent
According to the UN Environment Programme:
- Africa holds 65 per cent of the world’s arable land
- 10 per cent of internal renewable fresh water source
- The largest reserves of cobalt, diamonds, platinum and uranium in the world are in Africa.
Africa is the second most populous continent in the world: through investments into human capital such as education, healthcare and vocational training, we can turn this from a simple statistic to a productive asset.
Couple all these with our rich and diverse African cultures, vibrant people, experiences, expertise, and spirit of togetherness, we, The Initiative, believe we can work to create the Africa we all hope and dream for. We can work our personal knowledge and experiences, our shared knowledge and experiences, our resources, our human capital, our skills and expertise among others, to build an independent, self-sufficient, resourced continent. Key emphasis on "work". We may have everything we need but the real power and benefit of these things lie in our ability to work them into multiplication.
Life is not about what we possess but what we pursue.
Hence, even disregarding all we have as a continent, we should still be able to work for and attain what we desire. This is why here at The Initiative we believe in working around boundaries, limitations and stigmatization's. We believe that in raising awareness and reflecting accurate data on the current state of Africa, we can inspire and develop a community of like-minded individuals ready to take on personal and community projects all aimed at self development and the overall betterment of Africa as a continent. We seek to empower and inspire a deeply-rooted passion for Africa in Africans that would bring out proactive and interdependent catalysts of change-- that is we ourselves.
The initiative will take on work both in advocacy and community service.
Through our advocacy we hope to inform and educate the general population within and outside the continent on matters concerning Africa. We believe that one of the core problems we face as a continent is the spread of false information which leads to a general negative outlook. Such false information not only deters hope and effort for Africans but also impedes on our ability to progress on the global front starting straight from individuals to businesses and companies.
We will research on and address a lot of topics within the African scope, both controversial and uncontroversial , through blog post, videos, infographics, interviews and forum discussions. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and twitter to see our content, join active discussions on salient issues and receive alerts on new blog and website content!
The Community Service strand will be planned events, fundraisers and donations that The Initiative will host as opportunities for us, as an NGO and a community, to give back to society. We will collaborate with other NGO's across borders and the general public occasionally for these events. We stress on this strand because we believe it is one thing to recognize and be made aware of a problem and another to take the initiative to influence that problem positively. Once again we will promote and advertise such community service initiatives on our Instagram and twitter platforms as well as here on our website.
There are opportunities to join our team! No age or skill requirement just a passion for this cause and Africa. If you're interested apply here! There are many categories you can choose to work under. For collaborations you can reach out to us on our online form, our website or dm's on instagram or our email at info@theinitiaveafrica.com
“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
Maya Angelou
To wrap up this blog post above is with a quote from Maya Angelou which speaks to the idea and essence of process. We all have wonderful ideas of how we would want our beautiful continent to look like or be like if we have all needed resources at our disposal. But we need to value process. Rome was not built in a day and neither were all the other countries and continents we'd like to compare to. Change starts from our mindset and our thinking (Albert Einstein). Change takes persistency and effort. Like Arnold Bennett said "Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts". We must continue to have hope as this hope is the topmost guarantee of our future as a continent.
コメント