Paheja Siririka
WINDHOEK – The African Pathfinder Leaders Initiative (APLI Namibia) celebrated its 1st anniversary in the capital recently. Launched in September 2018, the initiative provides training opportunities to Namibian youth, equipping them with the key skills, resources and networks to actively achieve their personal and professional aspirations as well as to contribute to socio-economic development in their communities.
Founder and Executive Director Sem Mandela Uutoni said the ethos of APLI is quite multifaceted. “We believe that youth are often precluded and overlooked due to a lack of professional skills and know-how to form networks and access necessary resources to fully realise their goals, thus APLI partially addresses that,” explained Uutoni to Youth Corner.
APLI this year got 19 fellows. “We are helping to ‘activate’ young leaders and change-makers that are impacting society today, and for years to come,” stated Uutoni. He said the fellows are solving various challenges in communities such as providing ICT training in rural areas, providing public speaking training, collection and redistribution of clothing items to vulnerable communities and providing tutoring services to school learners amongst other projects.
Uutoni and his team had noticed that even with the call for entrepreneurship and civil society initiatives, many youths lack the access to resources and the practical knowledge to run a feasible, sustainable and credible business/project. “Many young entrepreneurs today cannot tell you what their value proposition is to the customer, or the key resources required to run their business efficiently and effectively,” pointed out Uutoni.
The APLI team also observed that when given the platform, many youths are discredited due to a lack of professional skills when presenting themselves to potential employers, investors and customers. “APLI aspires to address these challenges and develop change-makers and young leaders in diverse fields across Namibia.”
The initiative has received endorsements from the Ministry of Sports, Youth and National Service, which saw the need as far as investing in the youth is concerned.