MCEBO VINCENT HLANZE CHALLENGING THE STATUS QUO THROUGH YOUTH EMPOWERMENT

by Elizabeth Chinenye Ejereonye - Ashesi University

Vincent is a Business Administration major at Ashesi University in Ghana and a member of the class of 2024. He is the founder of Dreams Arise Youth Empowerment Organization (DAYEO) and attended the 2022 OSUN Annual Get Engaged Student Action and Youth Leadership Conference held at the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Before this, he participated in the OSUN workshop for Public Finance and Economic Policy at Bard College, New York.

Pushing Beyond Barriers And Challenging The Status Quo

Vincent grew up in a rural community with his grandparents in Swaziland. He attended the only primary school in the community and then moved to an urban high school, where he ranked among the top 50 students in his country. He is the first person from his community to attain this feat. He received a fully funded Mastercard Foundation scholarship to attend Ashesi University for his tertiary education

In University, he took leadership classes, giving him a different perspective on problem-solving and impact-making These classes spurred him to seek issues and challenges in his community and create solutions to solve these problems This led him to take a deeper look at problems in his community in Mgamudze including a high school dropout rate and teenage pregnancy among kids as young as 12 His research also revealed that among 100 students, only 40% of graduated from high school, only 20 percent passed Form 3, and only 10 percent finisedh Form 5 Out of the 10 percent that finish Form 5, only 1 percent make it to tertiary institutions

All of this bothered Vincent. Vincent believed that if he had attained success despite growing up with all of these barriers, he could encourage others to do the same and more, using his story as one of many such examples.

Taking A More Active Approach Towards Creating Change

Vincent reached out to several other university students in his country who had also pushed through significant barriers to success. Together, they organized speaking events and held workshops for students from different schools in the community. These activities led to the creation of the Youth Empowerment organization. For Vincent, this was one way to actively affirm his belief that "One of the best forms of motivation to give to others is by being an example yourself, thereby proving that the status quo can and has been successfully challenged."

Through his organization, many impacts have been made, such as producing and donating school uniforms to students and experiencing a higher passing rate among students For Vincent, this is a highly fulfilling experience For him, the memory and joy of seeing bright smiles and happiness spread across the faces of the recipients always stays with him While he has made a lot of personal sacrifices, the project has also received support from the Ford Foundation, among others

Despite the project's successes, Vincent and his team have battled some challenges to bring the project to its current state For example, working with a team of students from different universities, stakeholders and locations poses a communication and coordination challenge However, Vincent does not intend to let these deter him He still hopes to see more students from his community attend university

As a result, he plans to expand the project further into more rural communities to reach students who face similar or more significant challenges than those in his community. He keeps a positive attitude and believes his organization will continue to educate and empower disadvantaged young people to break cycles of poverty and lead change in their families and communities and contribute to equitable and sustainable development in Mgamudze.