There is an increasing problem of unemployment in Africa. Nigeria, its most populous nation is not exempted from this crisis as nearly a quarter of its population is out of work and 20% underemployed.
Young Heart Vision Africa is seeking to change the narrative by getting more Youths empowered to become Job creators.
In an interview with Attain, Mrs Racheal Ginikachukwu Onyemairo, Founder Young Heart Vision Africa shares her reasons for creating YHVA and how she imparts meaning and clarity to the lives of young people within Africa and beyond.
This Interview story is best enjoyed with a chilled drink and snacks. (Lol)
Please, kindly tell us about yourself.
My name is Rachael Ginikachukwu Onyemairo, a PhD student of University of Nigeria, Nsukka where I study Applied Linguistics. I am a highly influential youth leader, a Thought Leader in Purpose Discovery, Career and Entrepreneurship who authored the most recommended book on Purpose Discovery and Career known as WHY THE YOU? I am passionate about curbing the high rate of Africa’s unemployment through multiple job creations among young people. I believe that this can be achieved through the discovery of their purposes, development through relevant training like STEM and others, what they have discovered and deploying it to solving high paying problems outstandingly. I see this as a way of promoting the MDGs 8 and 9.
As a Social Entrepreneur, I am the Founder of Young Heart Vision, Africa (YHVA). Young Heart Vision, Africa is a youth based NGO committed to training the minds and empowering the hands of young people across the African continent, to enable them create jobs for themselves and others through problem solving approaches and skills that meet global standards. As an Online Consultant, I help personal and corporate brands create highly profitable online products and businesses.
I am also the Lead Consultant, Digital Spotlight Consults- a premium consulting firm where I help individuals and businesses explore their unique selling points to achieve global influence and visibility. Equally, I specialize in helping our clients master the art of innovative thinking or idea creation and through this, build 6-figure careers around such ideas. I am the Founder and CEO of the phenomenal blog called superspotlight.com. As a writer, I have been published in various national and international journals as well contributed chapters in different textbooks, including the University of Nigeria, Nsukka’s 2019 festschrift.
In my spare time, I like playing games with my husband, being with my mentors, listening to cool music or reading creative writings.
Tell us about your non-profit organization.
As I earlier mentioned, Young Heart Vision, Africa (YHVA) is a community of young global African leaders committed to training the minds and empowering the hands of young people across the African continent, to enable them create jobs for themselves and others through problem solving approaches and skills that meet global standards. In YHVA, our five focus areas include:
Personality development
Education
Entrepreneurship
Technovation and
Digital Exploration.
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| Young Heart Vision Africa |
We are one of the first nonprofit organizations in Nigeria to provide the world’s most recent goldmine, the STEM-Invention Programme to young Nigerians. In July, 2019, we collaborated with a STEM certified, multiply patented inventor, who is also a Harvard trained Research Director, Science Medicine Research Institute, Dallas, Texas, USA, Prof. Alphonsus N. Ekwerike, to train the members of our organization as well as any other interested African youth to become entrepreneurs, techpreneurs, technovators or a combination of these through the STEM-Invention Programme. In that same July 2019, we collaborated with University of Nigeria Liaison Office Abuja, Nigeria; Comfort Foundation, USA and Marcel Ofomata Foundation to campaign against suicide among undergraduates.
Seeing our obvious impacts, radio stations like Radio Nigeria Heartland 100.5FM, Owerri; O’mega 101.7FM, Anambra state; Caritas 98.7FM and Solid 100.9FM both in Enugu, have repeatedly invited us to share our milestones so far to the world. In September, 2019, we trained over 50 corps members in Imo state on How to Discover, Develop and Deploy Their Potentials to High Paying Problem Solving Areas. In April, 2019, we launched a symposium on Purpose discovery, Entrepreneurial digital intelligence and Discipline called Elite’s Corner, during which we convened undergraduates from different faculties in University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in a one-day intensive symposium. We partnered with PeCap Development Centre, Enugu and Gideon Nwankwo Foundation (GNF) to achieve this feat.
In December, 2019, our Facebook community, Young Heart Vision, Africa with Rachael launched our In-House Mentorship Platform in which every member of the community has the free opportunity to mentor another member in any area of their expertise and be mentored as well. This initiative is geared towards sharing information and building capacity among young people. Currently, we have another capacity building scheme running. It is called Mind Training Digest. This is a scheme in which every member of Young Heart Vision Africa makes a commitment to acquire one new skill between January and March, 2020. In 2014, we launched a citywide symposium tagged The Heartbeat of the Young, for young people in Enugu, during which we helped over 150 students shun examination malpractice and imbibe the attitude of excellence in their academic pursuit.
When and what brought about your Non-profit?
Young Heart Vision, Africa is a product of a long nurtured desire to be part of the largest community of well informed young people in Africa who use what they have; knowing that what they have is plenty. Interestingly, this vision got actualized in 2014, when this group of problem solvers was birthed as Young Heart Vision, Africa. What spurred me into founding the organization was seeing intelligent and multi talented young Africans living from hand to mouth. Despite their natural endowments, I saw their families wallow in abject poverty to the point that some of them drop out of school because of hardship. I find that very excruciating. In most cases, even after they have graduated from college, their families still suffer in penury, as securing any secular jobs in Africa today becomes more difficult on daily bases. I saw that these young people suffer not necessarily because they are lazy, but because they are not intentional about meeting any specific need(s) with their talents nor know how they could package the solution they, provide for sale.
Besides, some parents forbid their children from acquiring knowledge and skills from other areas aside their individual academic specialties. Some of them term that a distraction. Therefore, a lot of young people who don't major in tech know little or nothing about it. Consequently, almost on daily basis, these graduates miss high paying jobs simply because they lack the technological skills which several jobs in our world today require. Furthermore, I am personally bothered about Africa’s high unemployment rate. I got provoked seeing that even the employed ones daily lose their jobs to artificial intelligence and automation. Interestingly, this STEMIE program offers the youths the required 21st century skills and teaches them to develop unique human intelligence which robots lack. So, Young Heart Vision, Africa is my own little way of curbing the menaces of unemployability and unemployment among African youths.
What were the main challenges you faced early on and how did you overcome it?
The biggest challenge that I faced at the start was financing our symposia, seminars and other life transforming events. A lot of individuals and groups saw no reason to assist us in the funding. The reason was probably because we had not produced results at the time, since we were just beginning. That experience taught me that words or plans alone do not move people; products or results do. Until your toiling begins to produce results, you cannot command reasonable followership. To overcome this challenge, we planned our programmes to be quite cost effective. So, we held all our events in church buildings, classrooms and other freely given centres. Having a family that believes in me, my sibling and I financed our very first event. Seeing both the success and the huge impacts of our earlier programmes, those who rejected to assist us began to volunteer to assist. In addition, before collaborating with Prof. Ekwerike, getting a program that would be suitable for every professional background was difficult. So, we began networking more purposely until we got Prof. Ekwerike.
What was the biggest challenge you ever faced since you started?
Raising funds for our various operations claims to be our biggest challenge so far. This is mainly because the majority of our members are students. Interestingly, our team’s strong will towards making transformational impacts, daily paves way for us. However, applying for grants and other kinds of sponsorships is one effort we have not stopped making. Besides, as the result of our numerous trainings and workshops becomes more obvious, entrepreneurs and other business men and women keep emerging from among the beneficiaries of these economic empowerment investments.
What do you consider success in your nonprofit?
Well, what I consider success here is seeing our tireless impacts yield unimaginable results in the lives of young people across the African continent. It is the “God bless you Mrs. Rachael. You have transformed my life through your organizational operations and formidable team. Thank you” that I receive from folks on regular basis.
Only in the last 8 months, over 20 members of Young Heart Vision Africa and other beneficiaries of our numerous economic and technovative programmes, which we hold both online and offline- in different parts of Nigeria, have discovered their potentials, developed and deployed them to their respective problem solving areas. So far, these beneficiaries range from Nigerians to Liberians, to Benineses. In other words, a lot of young Africans regularly employ themselves and others on account of Young Heart Vision Africa’s impacts. Also, our current In-House Mentorship Platform mentioned above is another avenue through which my team members, who have earlier been mentored by other resource persons including me, currently mentor others.
This chain-influence system is a way of replicating productivity in thousands of young Africans in few years. Today, three of these beneficiaries have authored their own books. Others run edupreneurship, fashionpreneurship, e-commerce, project management, consultancy services, etc. Believe me, there no better success than these.
At what point did you begin to achieve success and how did it happen?
I began to succeed the day my age long desire to make profound impacts within Nigeria and beyond materialized. That happened because I built efficient skills, systems and tools that make me a topnotch Purpose Discovery and Career Coach. I began to succeed the day the beneficiaries of our various empowerment outreaches began to be the ones spreading the good news to others. This happened because my team and I prioritized impacts above income. I began to succeed when I saw my team members champion our vision like ours that it is, not just mine. This success came because I explored every strategy to ensure that they themselves share the burden of Africa’s unemployment with me. I began to succeed when the members of Young Heart Vision Africa became the ones canvassing for members to join our Facebook community. Little wonder the community has been growing so speedily. I began to succeed when I could sit back and watch different radio stations, including Federal and private stations repeatedly invited us to come and share our journey so far to the world. We are able to achieve this feat because we allowed the light of our impacts to so shine before men that they just had to see us. Most interestingly, every member of my team including volunteers now enjoy much more clarity of purpose in their individual lives and careers. This can be attributed to the resources I invested in moulding our vision in their own lives first at the start.
What would you consider your greatest achievement since you started?
It is empowering young people through the provision of STEMIE (Science Technology Engineering, Mathematics Invention and Entrepreneurship); bringing to the reach of an average African youth an equipping like the STEMIE-Invention Programme, which offers the youths the required 21st century skills and teaches them to develop unique human intelligence which robots lack. This is groundbreaking, for me. This I called success: when I began to receive mind blowing feedback and heartfelt appreciations from the beneficiaries.
Who has inspired you the most as a non profit?
God remains my grand inspiration. The regeneration He accomplished in my life 10 years before the advent of Young Heart Vision Africa continues to empower me to stand as a global voice. My siblings and my ever supportive husband inspire me on daily basis. Similarly, seeing what John Obidi, Grace Ihejiamaizu and a few other social entrepreneurs are doing also incents me to be more and to do more.
If you could go back in time, what are the changes you would have made for your project or nonprofit?
It is obvious that in the course of this whole journey of making global impacts, some mistakes seem to have been recorded here and there. However, if they never happened, I wonder what would have taught me the lessons they have taught me. Really, every occurrence was directly or indirectly advantageous for me as a leader and for us as a team. Therefore, I see nothing that I would have changed. They are all for good.
What else should we see you do in the future?
Seeing my burning passion for imparting meaning and clarity to the lives of young people within Africa and beyond, I hope to create more channels or platforms; build more systems, skills and tools for reaching out to other youths in the hinterlands of the African continent.
Equally, I hope to have the opportunity to continue to proffer more solutions to the menace of unemployment in Africa by working with other global change makers in this regard, such as World Economic Forum, Economic and Social Council arm of the United Nations and other global economic bodies.
Aside your non profit, what are your other interests?
Well, other endeavours that tickle my fancy include consulting for both personal and corporate brands, in terms of building them to achieve global relevance. I also have interest in advancing personal transformations and businesses through technovation. And, public speaking for me, is a hobby turned into a hustle. I impart a lot through that.
What’s the most important lesson you have learnt from your nonprofit?
All through these years, I have learnt to walk my talk with the arms of resilience, resourcefulness and integrity. When it comes to working with people, integrity is a matchless currency while resourcefulness makes you desirable by everyone. I have learned that everyone’s experience is unique and is worthy of learning from. So, I have learnt to constantly upgrade my resourcefulness through constant learning.
Of course, I have learnt to preserve the quality relationships which integrity availed me.
Connect with Mrs Racheal Ginika on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
Also visit her Facebook community, Young Heart Vision to see how she is positively impacting lives.
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