Like most achievers, Joseph Emmanuel was not born with a silver spoon; but he is making an impact despite that forgettable fact. The founder of Youth Initiative for Sustainable Human Development in Africa (YiSHDA), an organisation established to nurture discipline amongst young people by instilling in them the spirit of patriotism, moral values, and loyalty in a bid to raise better and responsible citizens, thereby promoting Sustainable Development in Nigeria and Africa at large.
YiSHDA brings young professionals with passion and hands-on experience in Business Development, HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Health, and Grassroots Mobilization together and provides these young professionals and other stakeholders a platform to participate in the development process of Africa at large.
Joseph Emmanuel Yaba was born into the Family of Mr. And Mrs. Joseph Abaniwo in the year August 13th and hails from Bassa Local Government Area of Kogi-State. He started his Primary School at L.E.A Primary School Phase II Nyanya Abuja -Nigeria in 1993 and obtained the First School-Leaving Certificate in 1998. In 2004 he obtained the National Business and Technical Certificate with flying colours from Government Science – Technical College Area 3 Garki Abuja-Nigeria and later proceeded to Federal Polytechnic Idah Kogi-State to Study Computer Science.
Are certain people destined for leadership? Or is it sheer grit and hardwork? Even as as Student of the Government Science – Technical College, Area 3, Garki-Abuja Joseph represented the school in the British Council Connecting Future and Crossing Continents Forum, SchoolNet Nigeria, ThinkQuest Africa and the Junior Achievement Nigeria -Student Company Program where he was the Vice President Human Resources.
A Member of the World Bank Youth Forum (Nigeria) and an alumnus of Discovering Young Leaders Program (DYLP) a program of the Commonwealth Youth Program, African Centre-Lusaka, Zambia, Joseph is also an alumnus of Venture in Enterprise & Management Program (ViEMP) a program of Junior Achievement Nigeria/Enterprise Development Center of the Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos.
In 2013, he was a Youth Delegate to the Inter-generational Dialogue between Heads of State in Africa and represented Nigeria at the opening ceremony of the Africa Youth Forum as part of the 50th Anniversary of African Unity. He was also a Panelist at the 2nd Edition of the Commonwealth Youth Program-Discovering Young Leaders Program (DYLP) where he held discussion with participants on the topic ‘Paying-It-Forward: Making Impact in your Community’.
In, 2014, he was one of four Nigerians selected by the Israeli’s Agency for International Development Cooperation (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel) to participate in an International Training Program on Policies, Strategies and Support Systems for Rural Revitalization. He was awarded the title of Jerusalem Pilgrim (JP) by virtue of ascending into Jerusalem-making Him one of the youngest JP’s in Nigeria.
He was also awarded a Membership Status by the Weitz Centre for Development Studies, Rehovot, Israel for becoming a Promoter of The Rehovot Approach of Integrated Development and a Member in the Weitz Centre Friends Network, Israel.
In recognition of his contributions to youth development in Nigeria the United Nations Youth Association of Nigeria (UNYAN) selected Joseph to become a Member of the organization.
Joseph believes in a new Nigeria and Africa where young men and women would have equal opportunity to develop themselves for the benefit of national development. In his words,
“All we need in Africa is a framework to boost employment and job creation for young people; and entrepreneurship is increasingly accepted as an important means and a valuable additional strategy to create jobs and improve livelihoods and economic independence of young people. It is an innovative approach to integrating youth into today’s changing labour markets.”
Joseph and his team are currently working on a Youth Empowerment and Entrepreneurship Project (YEEP) which seeks to provide a unique experience for young people to take an idea of their own and turn it into an actual business that serves their immediate community. The project will also teach them valuable and transferable life skills and core competence including effective communication, leadership skill, public speaking, intellectual development, marketing & advertising, fund sourcing and financial management amongst others.
What ideas are you working on and how can they serve your immediate community? Do share!
Learn. Think. Act. Repeat!
