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Channel / Source:
TEDx Talks
Published: 2014-03-03
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqIVuGkE99k
and the age of six doesn't mean your buns are found himself here the refugee camp in Uganda yep feria together with %HESITATION about two at twenty three thousand inhabitants from countries like the Congo Sudan through London during the he was alone we will that and several thousand kilometers from his home in this community of twenty three thousand people the only two primary schools and one second
risk as I can imagine access to education to college education was was not repugnant to the top in that community schools overcrowded and so very few people have access to high quality he's now Joseph was spotted by a nonprofit organization that was working the community someone who had talent and the sponsor him to go to school outside of outside of the refugee camp and Joseph felt
so bad that he was the only one who had access to education that is how they would do something about it and access to high quality education and so began a program on the weekends he would get together with his peers and they'll go and work as laborers in the farms nearby and raise money to use that to sponsor others in the school in the refugee
camp to go to schools outside of the campus and soon he was sponsoring ten young people in this community is fourteen years old he kept doing this every weekend they go work as neighbors raise more money soon by the age of seventeen sponsored fifty these refugees now at this point two thousand and eight generate for every two thousand eight we are selecting the first class to
join the African leadership academy everyone around anti continent looking for young people that we believed transform Africa people with courage determination and passion to really change for ever but I didn't have a Joseph in those troubles I actually don't want Jews if when I was speaking of the Harvard pick a business for something similar to this and just like what's gonna happen after this there's an
after party don't hang around after party and this scrawny white guy comes up to me he says you know I don't even pay to be at this conference but I snuck into this party because I heard you were going to be here is this young man is refugee camp in Uganda that my organization sponsors it's amazing when you went on the owners and the way it
was done with this guy sound like a state I said no this is not in us too good to be true so I went back to South Africa look through the files of all applicants and read this guy's story and yes it was exactly what %HESITATION Eric it had had said about it and so we have managers of into the first class of African these no
one of things that happens of academy in addition to educating young people and train them to be its formative leaders for Africa if we bring different leaders and speakers on to capital the time to direct and shared experiences one day a woman came and shed the what she was doing help people overcome trauma people who had been traumatized to ensure using theater as the way to
do I just said you know people my refugee camp could really use your invited come and spend the days of her doing some of it is it she went so what he was doing and fell in love with this project it's just a second here she helped him to raise about ten thousand dollars and to just have built a school in the refugee camp the second
it is early and began educating two hundred forty three orphans this is the school because he got into that's Joe's during two thousand tendrils of graduates from African is becoming but unfortunately did have %HESITATION he was able to get a scholarship to go on to university have been admitted but do not enough funding to invest so we went back to the refugee camp kept working on
these projects you're getting more young people educating these offerings a lot of things one of the organization I started something called the African leadership network now that's commission that's rock is an association of young leaders from across Africa but who are low but more established and the ones of African expect so that thirties forties one thing you would bring these leaders together so they can forge
relationships with each other and actually do things together so what seventy percent of people that would be the Africans living on the continent twenty percent Africans giving the diaspora ten percent among Africans wanting to sing I just shared his vision for education what he was doing in the refugee camp and he had a vision specifically to build a hospital multitude to rent a hostile outside of
the refugee so that some of the young people when they could get access to hype which schools outside the refugee members of those only one I can be school in the refugee camp and he only went up to tenth grade so this is what happens when Jews of spoken African nation so then it do we plan to take one hundred and didn't students into high school
and to do this we need that ten thousand do is go to us I'm sure that didn't those and you just do us to both the demand does act in this room today young man from Congo I go to commit to thirteen thousand this'll be farm work a client %HESITATION by the name of Curtis Jackson who has a huge initiative to work in Africa Armen on
his behalf thank you both so much for this opportunity to help thank you now who knows who because Jackson's that's right right fifty cent he had been sponsored by fifty set and soon he was able to get and additional hundred young people into school any response enough three hundred these are some of the young people that he's been working with that's him leading a pep talk
from the high school student gets into school and that's him teaching them if you fix doesn't graduated after after a few moments of doing this and he was able to get a scholarship and then up attending a university in the U. S. hall Westminster college the Jews of not any second at Westminster in Missouri he continued to run his program in the refugee camp and now
today controls of an organization with a bunch of a hundred eighty six thousand dollars and ten full time employees what a specially Amazon about is that he's begun sponsoring some people from his refugee camp some of the universities so he had his and west is the way he is right now busy there's a freshman there %HESITATION came from his refugee camp and was one of the
participants in this program she sent a student invested much just the including the first goal ever to graduate and go to university from the refugee camp and especially dear to me he said to students who have come to the African leadership coming up these of two students that I took a picture them early on this week see I jumped they also came from his book as
a result of all this work Joseph recently was introduced to former U. S. %HESITATION UK prime minister Gordon brown and %HESITATION who as you know is now the UN special envoy an education and he has also we invited themselves as one of fifteen young people on the UN secretary general's special adviser come are you for education so does that mean emails September this year Kevin about
how he'd spent his summer holiday it's about how you it's going back to the Congo has been there for many years and as a result of connections that he has a Gordon brown and the UN secretary general he's the only thing with the chief of staff of the president administer medication in his entire cabinet and identify the bill seven million children the Congo who are out
of school and his objective was to see how I could get one million of these young people to go to school and the first step towards that was he managed to get up into the summer the minister of education because without expendable ducation budget my twenty percent and then I will in the way score one million now if this is not a ripple effect I don't
know what it is you went so just who then Fiske over five years I'm touching ten people you too twelve forty two the threat of forty three and now one million that is only twenty two the example does it really illustrates what I believe is one of the most powerful ripple effects that we could ever have in any society and that is the impact of leaders
now one might think that okay of course leaders make a difference in every society but I believe that in Africa more than anywhere else in the world leaders just one person one good leader can have much weight that left him in Wilson what and here's why the something that we called institutions that existed ever since I the two shows all the rules of the system that's
govern how society functions so the the things like usually the media the judiciary to the parliament is that all of those things the rule that I believe that the strong that institutions in a given country the less effect one leader can have in the country and therefore by the inverse of that means that the week of institutions in a country the much much more powerful effect
that one person can so when you look at a developed country like you can the parliament Big Bend New York possibly spin off for five hundred years you look at the U. S. very developed systems so you become the president of the United States and you think all have arrived I'm the most powerful man in the world they decide okay I think Americans should get healthcare
I'm going to pass a law to make this possible you go to the Senate is another you can do that you got a Congress that's it no you can't do that if you decide that you want to become president for life there's a three hundred year old constitutional stop it it's very powerful police force is a little come pick you out of that over office if
you decide you want to print money and you call Ben Bernanke Alan Greenspan the central bank governor they'll sell you smoking crack you come to Africa the situation is different if you are the president of Zimbabwe you decide that you know what and that sort of thing popped and there's no confusion that's going to stop and you just that on and on and on and on
like an exam energize about money if you decide that you want to print money and you play a central bank governor the gossip yes Sir how much do you need and as a result hyper inflation is who's in the country and so the lack of these tuitions in Africa have meant that our leaders have had tremendous impact on just one person like Robert Mugabe can destroy
an entire country and this is why I say that leaders in Africa can have much more impact that involves no they are really the ultimate triple effect in Africa and this is why myself and my peers will really spike to develop African used when you realize that this was the single biggest thing that was holding us back from achieving opportune it was off quality of the
leaders that we have do we just sit back and hope that one day we get would lead what can we create a system the machine I can actually find young people and develop hundreds of thousands of young people like just who each in their own way that I look to my last time when I was growing up as I grew up in different parts of Africa
I never went to so we have different problems healthcare poverty housing sanitation and it was overwhelming where would I start but I thought there's no in my lifetime but I can try to tackle the sticks but if I can produce a set of leaders and those leaders this one will take infrastructure that one will take politics it's one we'll take healthcare this woman take education each
and everyone of them in there we will go out and they will become the leaders I can really transform Afghan as I mentioned one leader very powerful effect on that and that's really what this by the African leadership academy today we get one hundred application we gotta falls several thousand applications only a hundred we'll see how can a hundred so that we don't need a lot
just need so when you walk into the laws of African everywhere not that I like that that is all over the place favorite quote it is never a doubt that a small group thoughtful committed citizens change the what indeed the only thing that ever has I believe in Africa how re read that statement its's never doubt that a group a small group thoughtful committed leaders change
