Where We Work: Sub-Saharan Africa
Peace First began funding a small number of projects in Nigeria in early 2018, and soon began supporting a growing and thriving community of young social entrepreneurs across the country. The program spread quickly through word-of-mouth from young social change leaders, and now Peace First supports young people to solve community problems across the continent, with particularly large hubs of youth supported in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. Peace First’s training and direct grants have enabled young people to launch projects to improve infrastructure in their communities, implement evidence-based sex education programs, create impactful out-of-school-time educational programs, and a lot more. Our young African change leaders are closely connected through virtual and occasional in-person meetups, collaborating and partnering on shared projects and benefitting from the wisdom and resources of their peers in the Peace First community.
Project Spotlights
Plant a tree: spreading awareness about climate change in Zambia
In her attempt to find out the root cause of deforestation in her country, Yande realized that the lack of adequate information to the general public about the effects of cutting down trees on climate change is the main reason behind deforestation. Armed with this knowledge, Yande embarked on her changemaking journey aiming to change the attitude of people towards cutting down trees without re-planting them.
Unreliable Maternal Healthcare in Njoro
Duke faced a lot of challenges growing up, with an absent father leaving Duke’s mother behind as the main breadwinner. His mother provided for the family by selling groceries in the market while Duke’s grandmother attended to him and his sister. His grandmother was often sick, causing Duke to miss school at least twice a week. Despite the challenges, Duke managed to get into university to study finance and banking. It was there that he met Brian, a friend who introduced him to the ideas of active citizenship and changemaking. Duke began to think about how he can apply what he learned to help his community, but it wasn’t until he witnessed a harrowing incident that he decided to become a changemaker.
Babatunde decided to introduce a mobile eye care service - first of its kind to the Ishor community. This service would make eye care affordable to the marginalized members of the community. He would also use this service to educate and spread awareness on how to prevent eye diseases. The service, being mobile, also meant that these members did not have to worry about how they would get to clinics where eye care services would be available to them. Instead, the eye care service would be brought to them.
What do you do when you realize you’re inheriting all the best and worst traits of your parents? Anyama Akomi Jonathan was caught up in all the freedoms that going away to university brings. He attended the local schools in the rural villages of Adjumani District in Uganda all his life. So when he found out he had been admitted to Makerere University medical school, it was like a whole new world was at his fingertips.
Fellow in Residence & Regional Manager, Sub-Saharan Africa
Aziz Tworo
Aziz Tworo is an electrical engineer and researcher with a keen interest in clean and sustainable energy technologies. Over the past four years, he has worked to combat food insecurity, poverty and climate change in the rural areas of northern Uganda through the implementation of solar powered projects and initiatives aimed at building resilience and strengthening existing systems in the agriculture and health sectors. Aziz is passionate about human rights, democracy and good governance