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Zawadi Africa Summer Conference 2009

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2009 Summer Leadership Conference Delegates

In June 2009 Zawadi held its second annual Leadership Conference, at Hillsdale College in Michigan. The theme of this year’s conference was “Practicing Leadership”. Students were taught the fundamental, timeless guiding principles of leadership and the importance of practicing and demonstrating leadership behaviors early on in everything we do. As part of the conference, Zawadi held a round table discussion about the realities of returning to Africa and of the job search, and the skills a young person needs to cultivate in order to become competitive in the African job market.
The keynote speaker at this year’s conference was Dr PLO Lumumba, Founder and President of the PLO Lumumba Foundation. Other speakers included, Mr. Lennard Asher, CEO of Empowerment Resource Technologies, Inc., Mr Haskell Ward, Director of Government relations for Seacom, the Company that will be bringing the first fiberoptic network line to Africa in July, and Dr. Larry Arnn, President of Hillsdale College.
Zawadi will hold its annual fundraising benefit at the Laico Grand Regency Hotel in Nairobi Kenya on July 9th 2009.
Zawadi has been hard at work mapping out plans for 2009. We are pleased to announce that Zawadi Africa will send 25 additional students to colleges and Universities around the globe a value of over $4 million, in education that will come back to benefit the people of our region. Zawadi students will be joining an impressive roster of Colleges this Fall, including Harvard, Smith, Hillsdale College, Meredith College, Rutgers University, Hamilton College and repeat scholarships for USIU who has generously given 2 additional scholarships for the program for a total of 4.
We are extremely proud of these accomplishments, and we are grateful to all our sponsors, too numerous to name. We have been fortunate to have the support of many individuals and corporations including including Coca-Cola,

Google, Nation, Safaricom, and Scanad PR, as well as the parents and guardians of our Zawadi scholars, and many individuals who have given of their time and talents to make the program the success that it is.
None of this would have been possible without the help of these dedicated and generous supporters who believe in our Vision and Mission.
That said we cannot rest on our laurels; there is still a great deal that we need to accomplish in the coming year.

We need to successfully transition these 25 young women to college by September 2009 including providing orientation and help with transportation and startup costs including books, warm clothing and incidentals to ensure a smooth assimilation into their new schools.
We need to secure new scholarships for Fall 2010. We have set ourselves a very stretching goal of 50 scholarships for Fall 2010.
We will expand our network of Colleges and Universities beyond Kenya and the US to include Universities in Uganda, Ghana and Swaziland
We will build on our partnership with Google, to offer 8 new scholarships in Computer Science and Computer Engineering, to deserving girls.
Zawadi will be working to repatriate graduates of our program back to Kenya in 2010. We expect to have 7 Graduates in 2010, and Zawadi will be working with local sponsors and corporations to secure housing and employment for the students
Zawadi will be moving into new premises that will include computer facilities for the students to complete their college applications, a library, meeting rooms and study facilities for students, and boarding facilities for students travelling from upcountry.

With the current economic turmoil that the world is experiencing, we believe that the need for this program is greater than ever, and we hope that we will continue to receive the support and encouragement of our partners as we continue with this important Mission. The word “Zawadi” means “gift” in Swahili, and with the help of the public and corporations we will be able to give the gift of a first rate education to even more deserving young women, bringing positive change to the African communities and families that we serve.