AFRICAN EXCELLENCE: ETIJAH MAKING A DIFFERENCE

The presence of non governmental organizations (NGOs) are a common fixtures in most African countries where there are survival challenges for vulnerable members in a particular society. NGOs exist as conduits for basic humanitarian outreaches, youth empowerment and general philanthropy. They are usually made up of a group of concerned individuals who volunteer their time and resources to address a pressing societal need. They are often set up as non profit organizations but their activities are sponsored by a network of public and private donors, corporate responsibility agreements and international trust funds.

The spotlight of this article is on an NGO located in Cairo, the capital city of Egypt, named officially as ETIJAH. Etijah is a youth and development consultancy institute with core interests in the needs of the average Egyptian youth. In recent times, they have carried out local campaigns to sensitise the Egyptian public on the dangers of early child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM).

The Etijah institute was founded and registered by Hisham El-Rouby in August 16, 2006 (reg No. 6638), under the Egyptian Law No. 84/2002 on Non Governmental Organisations. According to a statement made available on their official website (etijah.org), the institute adopts what is called the "ABCD" (Asset Based Community Development) methodology to address most of the youth needs under its policy frame work. They also follow a participatory approach in designing and implementing projects; where youths participate in all the different stages of their project areas. These project areas are focused on the following; entrepreneurship and employment, education and training, humanitarian, health and women's empowerment, volunteerism and civic engagement.

Beneficiaries of Etijah's programmes are individuals between the ages of 15 and 30. Some of Etijah's ongoing projects include Higher Education Initiative Program (2021), Youth Entrepreneurship Network and Community Theater for Gender Based Violence (GBV) and Rhesus factor (RH) for women.

For us at Power of Africa, we celebrate the impact of Etijah's intervention towards building capacity for young people and women in Egypt. A new Africa will become a reality day by day with more of such NGOs and selfless organizations investING in social causes that would directly improve the lives of people more especially the youths across all African communities.

Reference: etijah.org, ongood.ngo/info/