Fellowship Application Material for Graduate Study in Economics, African Applicant

What public problem are you working to solve and why? (Maximum of 1,500 characters, about 225 words) 

I have been heavily engaged in the struggle against drug addiction in Burkina Faso for the past several years. Neighborhood parks and schools have become recruiting grounds for child and teenage drug dealers seeking to cultivate new generations of addicts. While the common perception is that his is something that happens to boys, increasingly, many girls are involved as well. Our fight against the scourge of drug addiction, with its myriad, negative social consequences, is especially urgent given the fact that the population of Burkina Faso is young, with nearly half of the population younger than 20 years old. We depend on this generation for economic development. Of course, winning this battle will require the full inclusion of young people and motivating them to high levels of involvement and engagement. For some time now, I have been in contact and networking with numerous educational, financial and youth institutions, national as well as global, in the struggle to reach the widest audience possible, girls as well as boys. Much of our effort is geared towards the empowerment of parents with regard to this issue. Parents need the support of our business sector as well as our government and civic institutions. I seek a lifetime of engagement with this issue which I have identified as of especially paramount importance to the sustainability of economic development in Burkina Faso.

How are you attempting to solve the problem? (Maximum of 1,500 characters, about 225 words)

Along with my colleagues, I have labored to create youth associations in neighborhoods across my city to raise awareness concerning the consequences of drug abuse – especially in my own neighborhood. As a young leader in my community, I use innovative participatory strategies to get young people - including drug addicts and their families - more interested in working to tackle this burning issue of mammoth proportions. I bring them together to brainstorm on how we can better address the problem of drug addiction together, coordinating our efforts. Some of the members of this association are drug addicts but this association welcomes people without any distinction. One of their suggestions has been to organize a fundraiser for a three-day trade fair geared towards young people. An awareness campaign was organized during this fair and parents and youth were invited to attend so as to become more informed about the consequences of drugs and how to support drug addicts. To make campaigns sustainable, I encourage teenagers to organize themselves and invite former addicts to share experiences with their groups. We work with local groups fighting drug use by training teenagers to also inform their classmates about this terrible danger and the potential that it has to destroy their lives.

How does your work illustrate or expand the definition of what it means to be an active citizen or member of your community? (Maximum of 1,200 characters, about 175 words) *

Active citizens care about and tackle crucial issues in their community. My work illustrates the way that this activism is most effectively generated by awareness campaigns at the neighborhood level. My strategy is to teach by example, using my own track record as a highly motivated member of the community to inspire a similar activism in others. My initiatives have fully involved people from diverse social groups where all are welcome despite gender, age, ethnicity, religion or social class. The older generation is especially important in terms of funding, helping to advertise and provide technical assistance for training sessions while younger generations are indispensable for the coordination and general organization of the event. All segments of society are involved because drug abuse cannot be eradicated by only one social group. Active citizenship requires the involvement of all or nearly all community actors. Finally, active citizenship requires an evaluation of the impact of activities designed and implemented to improve performance. At the end of the campaign, we evaluate the activity and suggestions are made for additional steps to be taken.

What concrete impact – however you define impact – is your work having? (Maximum of 1,200 characters, about 175 words) *

My work has made the youth of my neighborhood, in particular, more conscious of their importance and the impact that they can have on the development of the community. During one of our campaign evaluation meetings, they explicitly recognized how their self-confidence was increasing as a result of our efforts. They never imagined that they could be able to organize such an activity with the support of their parents and local institutions. This led me to the conclusion that the major impact of our project is that young people realize that when they are drug-free, they can move mountains. I am applying for this fellowship so as to acquire the necessary tools and build the essential networks on national and global levels so as to reach the broadest audience possible and to make that audience as fully gender-inclusive as possible. Drug addiction is considered shameful in African society. This is especially true when females are involved. Thus, anti-addiction associations tend to be entirely made up of boys and men – despite the fact that Drug addiction among young women is increasing. I hope to better address this issue as a result of my graduate training.

Share an issue on which you’ve changed your mind and explain why. (Maximum of 1,200 characters, about 175 words

To develop their sense of responsibility, independence, and feeling of ownership of the project, I gave the young people engaged with me the freedom to write and submit funding proposals to potential partners. In the process, I discovered that they had asked for more money than they needed for the activity in question. We had previously agreed on a budget but some of them wanted to use the event as a way to make money. I was very disappointed and wanted to go and apologize to the partners. But I changed my mind and decided that the young people should do it themselves. I explained to them that honesty is key to building trust in their community ­–which is already disenchanted by their drug addictions. I asked them to go back to all the partners where they had already submitted the proposals and to take them back. Then, they were directed to draft new proposals for submission. They did it and we got funded in less than a week because donors were impressed by our transparency as well as our initiative.

How have you brought others to the cause in order to create change? (Maximum of 1,200 characters, about 175 words) *

I had a frank conversation with the teenagers at my house. After I listened to their explanations, I made it clear to them that for our partnership to work, we all needed to be honest as well as active citizens. I outlined very strong arguments concerning the consequences of overstating their budget. One of the consequences could be to lose credibility (which some of them had already lost since they got involved in drug abuse) and the support of their families and institutions. I clarified the goal of the project which is to promote social change and not simply collect money. They told me that they did not realize the consequences of their acts and that this would never happen again. Indeed, by the end of the activities, accounting records shows no missing money. Benefits were put back into the account of the association to organize future activities. We were all proud of our major accomplishment, which is hopefully just the beginning of future, life-changing opportunities for the young people in my neighborhood.