Young African leaders who attended the one-week Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) connect camp in Kigali have been urged to utilise the acquired skills to develop their communities. 

They were challenged by Erica J. Barks-Ruggles, the US ambassador to Rwanda, who closed the camp on Friday.

"I know all of you are busy with their development agenda.  As YALI fellows, YALI camp is meant to be a programme that helps to connect Alumni with people who need mentorship to improve their developments, and generate ideas that pitch funding.  You need to use the skills you gathered from the camp to generate ideas that will develop pitch community development,” She said.

The YALI connect camps are regional week-long workshops that offer alumni an opportunity to share and advance their professional skills and networks with other young leaders in their communities.

 Redempta Batete, a Rwandan who participated in the 2015 Kigali YALI connect camp,  committed to utilise the skills she acquired from the camp to strive for social development.

"During the camp, I got a clear meaning of leadership. After realising that there is something I can do to help in social development, I will utilise my skills to develop an awareness scheme on human rights through the media,” She said.

Jeff Boundamas, the associate manager of J&D Consulting Ltd in Gabon, said the camp helped him to realise the potential of African youth.

"I have realised that what we need to tap the potential in our youth is capacity building. There is   a need to empower our youth through mentorship so that we can be able to find solutions ourselves to our own problems,” he said.

Dr Yusuf Kalyango, an associate professor and director of the institute for international journalism at Ohio University’s Scripps College of Communication, said the YALI regional connect camps are meant to give  young and future African leaders the opportunity to collaborate, learn and interact with US and African experts and with each other.

This helps them develop innovative strategies for civic leadership and community outreach; and to further their professional development and capacity building through mentoring, networking and low bandwidth technology and open educational resources.

The camps also seek to demonstrate community-oriented enterprises that apply technology to support innovative community development, entrepreneurship, civic leadership and public management.

 The YALI connect camps are funded by a grant from the US Department of State’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs, and administered by the institute  for International Journalism (IIJ)at Ohio University.