The new offices being opened will provide skills trainiAng and microloans to hundreds of young people in those areas. Weeks says each of the offices will directly impact 600 young Liberians in its first year. Funded by Chevron, the Burt Family Foundation, Manifest Foundation and the Alabaster Fund Youth Action International’s new initiative are a part of the organizations scale up plan. According to Kimmie Weeks, the organization intends to open additional offices and larger scale projects in Grand Gedeh, Nimba, and Lofa by the end of 2012. In addition, Youth Action International has tripled its programs in Monrovia and is opening sub offices in heavily populated communities to provide training and opportunities for young people.

Newly appointed Country Representative for Youth Action International Mr. Daniel Thomas elaborated that the organization is heavily invested in a wide range of programs to help break young Liberians out of poverty. He noted: “we understand that young Liberians are going through a lot of difficulties and we are bringing a lot of innovative projects to break this cycle.”

Founded in 2005 by Kimmie Weeks, Youth Action International is headquartered in the United States and has a mission to provide education, health care, and economic empowerment to children and young people. The organization has impacted over 200,000 people in Burundi, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and Uganda. Weeks says Youth Action International will expand its work to Guinea and Ivory Coast at the end 2012.

Giving a brief story of his own challenges he encountered in life as a young man,
Kimmie Weeks told students that it they were never too young or old to impact the world. “I started my first organization when I was fourteen here in Liberia and I had to struggle for it to run. They used to call us NGO in a file because we did not have an office space to work and kept all of our papers in on faded file. But we kept on working and my vision continues to grow,” Weeks recalled.

Weeks challenged pupils to set a big long term vision that “makes even yourself afraid” and to work hard and diligently to achieving it. He noted: “Nothing worth having comes easy, you must also remember that to have great success means you have to work three or four times more than the person sitting next to you.”

According to Dr. Weeks, “in life’s journey, there is a lonely path we all encounter which needs to be travel upon alone.” He further explained that young people have to be ready face life with its’ challenges and live that fulfilled life they envision. He emphasized that the future is now, and young people all have effective roles to play in securing a bright future for themselves Liberia, and world at large.

Dr. Weeks parting quote from Mariaan Williamson: “our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure” has now become the slogan of Ricks Institute, established in 1887 and under a current administration of Mr. Olu Menjay.

In June 2010, a week before my graduation from the African Leadership Academy and my return to Liberia, I contacted Kimmie to volunteer to work for Youth Action International in the summer before heading off to College (I ended up staying a whole year). He accepted my offer. I arrived in Liberia on June 13. I started work on the 14. My first task was to help the graduation ceremony of the Center
for Women’s Empowerment; one YAI’s many projects. My second task was to help select a new batch of students to enroll at the Center. My third task was to organize an event for the women at the Center and influential women in Liberia.
This event ended up as a mentorship program and I was in charge of it. I organized meeting with these women senators and ministers and our students on a regular basis. I cannot remember the exact sequence in which my other tasks came but I can sit back today and point out the leadership lessons and
experiences that each of these tasks taught me and how they are panning out in my life.

Over the last one year, I met many people influential people because of Youth Action International. I met many ordinary people who have done extraordinary things. I met people who stories have humbled me and inspired me to work harder. I have become a more confident writer and speaker. I learned to see compliments as an opportunity to grow. I learned teamwork and diversity. I learned to use
negative feedback to improve. I learned to be optimistic even when the chances of success were so slim. I was introduced to the “real world” that people always talked about.
I did not have a specific job at YAI and it was because of this “free role”, as we would say in Soccer, I was able to learn the many things I know today. I wrote, edited, and delivered letters and documents. I created budgets, attended programs, made flight reservations, proxy for Kimmie, delivered stories to media institutions for publication, wrote proposal and did just about everything I was told to do. At times, I felt some of the stuff I did were burdensome but I learned to look beyond myself. I learned to work for others.
In March, I received college admission with full scholarship. Words will never describe how thankful I am to Youth Action International for assisting me in the process. The encouragement, guidance and letter of recommendation played a major part. A card from my admissions package read, “ Your dedication to Youth Action International and the youth of Liberia is awesome”.
I am truly thankful for everything.

Through the program, Youth Action International will open three new Centers for Women’s Empowerment.  Each center will train several hundred women in vocational training, life skills.    The women will also benefit from YAI’s specially designed empowerment curriculum that includes counseling, workshops on small business enterprise, marketing, adult literacy and month long apprenticeships.  At the end of each program, the women will be formed into cooperatives and will receive micro-credit loans to start new businesses.

Other young people will benefit from a component of the initiative which will work with youth in the poorest communities to develop community cooperatives and village savings schemes that will help community youth either start new businesses or improve on existing economic sustainability initiatives.    Taking advantage of this expansion to rural Liberia, YAI will also offer its workshops on
entrepreneurship, village savings loan schemes and small business enterprise to hundreds of other community members.

The new program is funded by several of YAI’s committed partners including the Alabaster Foundation, The Burt Family Foundation, and the Manifest Foundation with a generous commitment from Chevron.

This year, the charity with the most votes will receive a $1 million grant, the runner up will receive $500,000, the 3rd place charity will receive $250,000,
and the 4th and 5th place charities will each receive $125,000 grants.

There are only 25 organizations selected so we have a good chance to win, but it won’t be easy. That’s why we need a number of dedicated volunteers who can help us spread the word and get votes once the competition begins.

To sign up for this cause, visit: http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e4wtv5hwgsxj5um8/start and fill up the online volunteer form.

Please take a few minutes to check out the rest of the web site.

 Youth Action International (YAI) in collaboration with the US Embassy in Monrovia today announced a major new initiative geared at promoting non-violence amongst youth during and after Liberia’s upcoming general and presidential elections. The program, which is called the 2011 Electoral Violence Prevention Initiative will include various youth peace forums, community engagement programs, and will disseminate messages of peace and non-violence using the mass media.

Formally announcing the initiative, YAI’s Executive Director Dr. Kimmie L. Weeks said the project was timely and would play an essential role in facilitating discussions and promoting actions for peace amongst young people. He observed: “Liberia’s population is predominantly young people; therefore, any chance of preserving peace in this country is in the hands of youth. This is why we have tailored this entire program to target the younger generation.”

Dr. Weeks outlined that the media portion of the project has already begun rolling out and will be followed by a major Youth Peace Forum in Monrovia and various community engagement campaigns. “The whole idea is to reach out to the youth wherever they are: in their communities, on air, online, and off air,” Weeks said.

The US Embassy through its Public Affairs Section is a key partner in the initiative. Public Affairs Officer Dehab Ghebreab said, “we support youth activities through our ongoing educational and cultural programs and we are delighted to partner with Youth Action International to promote peaceful, free, and fair elections.”

The new initiative joins many other projects geared at preventing post election violence, however, this initiative stands out because of its multi-pronged approach of using every information dissemination tool to specifically target young people.

Youth Action International designed this program for youths in Grand Bassa because the county had no higher education institutions and young people finishing high school found it difficult to obtain jobs with mining companies due to their lack of computer skills.
In addition to the computer courses, students received professional and career development training to help them succeed in their jobs.