Improving Partnerships and Collaboration in Cybersecurity

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Cybersecurity experts from Africa celebrate the completion of their IVLP project

In May of this year, for the first time ever the GasBuddy mobile app earned the achievement of most downloaded on the U.S. App Store. Overall, total downloads increased almost 20 fold compared to an average day earlier in the year. This was not simply a huge influx of people who wanted to see if they could save an extra three cents a gallon. Rather, a cyber attack on the Colonial Pipeline, the largest fuel pipeline in the U.S., caused a surge of panic buying amidst fears of an impending gas shortage. In early September, Howard University in Washington,...

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IVLP Alumni Spotlight: Creating Jobs for Women in Rural Côte d’Ivoire

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Antoinette Botti (in green shirt), founder and owner of ASSÔWÔ (meaning Stand Up), a cooperative that involves every woman in her village in Cote d'Ivoire

IVLP Alumni Spotlight features U.S. Department of State International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) alumni as they reflecton the impact of the program and how it has affected their work and lives. Here we spotlight, Ms. Antoinette Botti from Cote d’Ivoire, whose work focuses specifically on empowering women in rural environments. Ms. Botti participated in a large group project on volunteerism, and she recounts below the impact that this program had on her, both personally and professionally.

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IVLP Alumni Spotlight: Empowering Women in Rural Areas

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HOCIC's community service programs at a local children's home was inspired by Sunga's time on a Volunteerism IVLP project in 2014.

IVLP Alumni Spotlight features U.S. Department of State International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) alumni as they reflect on the impact of the program and how it has affected their work and lives. Here we feature the Director of Hope for a Child in Christ, a non-profit organisation based in Zimbabwe who participated on the IVLP in 2014. Ms. Sunga Mzeche spent three weeks in the United States visiting non-profit organisations, federal agencies, and corporations to learn about volunteerism and NGO best practices.  

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PAYLP Alumni Share Their Knowledge With Local Communities Back Home

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Our Alumnus Clarence Sarty from the team Liberia who shared their experience in a local radio station in Ganta city Nimba County Liberia.

In August 2018, Meridian welcomed 109 high school students and adult mentors from twenty-three African countries to the U.S. for the Pan Africa Youth Leadership Program (PAYLP), an annual three-week academic and cultural exchange on leadership development and civic engagement. Below is a blog post written by Vanessa Elongo Meridian’s PAYLP Intern who is originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is an international student at George Mason University studying Integrative Studies with a concentration in International Studies. “It has been almost two months that our PAYLP 2018 Alumni of the summer cohort returned to their home...

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IVLP Alumni Spotlight: Bringing Technology Entrepreneurship to Low-Tech Environments

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Jarius Andrew Greaves is working to bring Liberian youth opportunities through technology innovation.

IVLP Alumni Spotlight features U.S. Department of State International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) alumni as they reflect on the impact of the program and how it has affected their work and lives. Here we feature Mr. Jarius Andrew Greaves, the Founder and Executive Director of the Youth Network for Reform (YONER-Liberia),  a youth development organization in Liberia that has directly impacted the lives of more than 30,000 underprivileged and poverty-stricken youth and children through partnership with communities to provide local scholarships to deserving students. His three-week IVLP project introduced him to strategies for bringing technology (energy, IT, medical), technical education (STEM), and entrepreneurship to underserved communities. Mr. Greaves we recently selected to participate in the Obama Foundation Leaders Program: Africa.

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