Eighteen select YES Alumni attended the Africa Regional Innovation Camp in Yaounde, Cameroon from November 16 – 21, 2014. The workshop enabled YES Alumni to spot assets around their communities and empowered them to create and implement their own solutions to pressing problems. Three Senegalese YES Alumni looked back upon their participation in the workshop and shared their reflections.

Seynabou Camara, YES 2011-2012, Senegal, hosted by CCI in Augusta, GA

That week we stayed in Yaounde was rich in opportunities. Not only did I get to meet people from all around the continent, but I had the chance to achieve really important skills that gave me confidence about starting a new project on my own. Also, the people I worked with were willing to help me with anything, mostly by giving me ideas about things we have in common.

The team that I worked with was called “Education for All.” We started working on a project that involved providing adequate educational materials to kids in rural areas. Our project plan included getting old books from friends, family, NGO’s and libraries and selling them at a very low price to kids in villages. With the money earned, we would purchase additional school supplies for the students. We would also look for funding to be able to start a bookstore. Aside from that project, Maty, Baytir and I are planning to give the same training that we had to the other YES alumni in Senegal so that we can work together more easily.

The part of the workshop that I enjoyed the most was pitching my ideas for the first time in front of the participants, staff members and authorities. It was very exciting for me to talk about something that is very important to me. The other thing that I liked was hearing the trainers share their experiences and their stories. It’s really touching to hear about how these people change others’ lives.

Ndeye Maty Tall, YES 2011-2012, Senegal, hosted by PAX in Cedar Rapids, IA

I have been to previous YES workshops, but this one was particularly enriching to me. In fact, this workshop challenged us to think outside the box. This is a concept that is used a lot lately but no one ever talks about what it really means and what is the best way to do so. I learned to stop fixating on a project or a solution and to think very widely about an issue and consider a lot of facts before narrowing down my thoughts to fewer possibilities. I also learned to identify local assets in my community, and to point to and solve issues that have seemed out of my reach before.

The workshop also boosted my teamwork skills and self-confidence because we designed projects with people that we just met few days ago and pitched our projects to the trainers in a very professional way. One of my favorite things is definitely my new understanding of the words “fixating” and “priming”. It is amazing to come to realize how much our environment can impact us and how sometimes we may need to tune everything out to make the right decisions when designing a project. All of these workshops and skills are needed by YES Alumni because we have a lot of ideas and will, but we lack the tools and ability to achieve them.

Serigne Baytir Dieng, YES 2007-2008, Senegal, hosted by ASSE in Diamond Bar, CA

During the workshop, I developed a project about sanitation and the environment. The main question is how to keep our communities clean. Narrowing down that question led us to think about how to separate plastic from other wastes, since plastics do not decay. By the end of the workshop, we decided to make some money with plastic waste by making plastic bags with water sachets that will be sold at a very low price in rural areas. Those plastics would have to be recycled in schools first. The plastic bottles will then be sold to recycling companies. We really hope to practice the skills that we have developed during the workshop and make our project successful.

Personally, this has been my best participation in a workshop so far, especially since the final winning idea was given to my group, “Money in Waste – Tanzania, Ghana, Senegal” aka “MIW – TAGS.” I’ve learned to be a good speaker just by practicing our final pitch with my teammates in front of the U.S. Embassy representative. It takes nothing else than practicing what you have to say, before getting there, which I never did in the past just because I was feeling overconfident. These are new leadership skills that we will live with and try to improve every single day in order to change other people’s lives.