It is an honor to congratulate you on your extraordinary achievements, dedication, and commitment as young leaders throughout Cameroon. When President Obama launched the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) in 2010, his aim was to enhance young Africans’ leadership skills, promote entrepreneurship, and connect young African leaders with one another and with Americans. In order to empower even more African youth with skills and networks to improve their projects and organizations, President Obama launched the YALI Network in 2014 – a portal of online courses that provides members with invaluable opportunities to connect with other leaders in their
(U.S. Embassy Yaounde)
community and to learn from experts in their field. The increased interest in these courses and in the YALI community has made the network grow from 130,000 members in 2014 to over 400,000 young African leaders in 2016. Cameroon, with 11,439 members including 1,649 YALI Network Online Course certificate holders, is one of the Top 10 African countries with the highest number of YALI Network members. That is a testament to the dynamism and extraordinary talents of Cameroonians. It also means a lot to me personally that so many youth see in the United States of America a partner committed to promote their own talents, vision, and contributions to promote development in partnership with their fellow citizens, especially women and girls whose efforts are necessary to truly achieve development goals in all nations. Cameroonians all around this nation have pushed their engagement further by getting actively involved in the YALI campaigns such as #Africa4Her, #YALILearns, #YALIVotes and #YALIGoesGreen. The YALI Network members raised awareness and took action, both online and in their communities, on climate change awareness, women’s empowerment and gender-equity issues, health, civic engagement, and education for all. We are proud of the work you have accomplished from Garoua to Mbalmayo, Bertoua to Bamenda, Douala to Yaounde, Buea to Baffoussam. We hope you will keep using the YALI online courses to grow your knowledge and hone your skills, and are proud to reaffirm America’s commitment to support your work as you continue to positively transform the lives of citizens in your communities. On est ensemble!
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