Leadership Initiatives Students Creating Change

Our incredible teams in the International Internship Program have dedicated their time and effort over the past few months to immerse themselves in the local culture of Bauchi, Nigeria and build strong relationships with our partners in Nigeria to approach a number of issues faced by the community.

In the International Business Internship Program, our devoted teams have partnered with 52 small business owners in Bauchi to help streamline their business processes. Teams conducted regular calls with their business partners over Skype in order to establish a strong working relationship and approach issues faced by the business collaboratively. Teams first focused on ensuring their partner’s financial tracking system was as accurate as possible, and are currently working to create advertising and microgrant proposals for their business partners to reach more members of their communities. These proposals, once approved, will enable our business partners to begin to grow their businesses and become pillars of their communities.

In the International Advocacy Internship Program, teams worked with their assigned project coordinator in Bauchi, Nigeria, to learn more about a variety of issues facing the community, such as corruption and human trafficking. These teams collaboratively developed a community survey to learn more about community perception of these issues and are currently developing community workshops to improve community understanding of these issues in a way that may enact positive change.

In the International Public Health Internship Program, teams have worked to increase their knowledge about a variety of public health issues in the community, such as dengue fever and under-immunization. Teams in this program also developed a community survey to gauge the community’s understanding of and ability to respond to these issues. Teams are currently working to develop community workshops in order to educate people in the community about these health issues and steps people in the community can take to improve their own response to these issues.

Additionally, Leadership Initiatives is continuing our larger development projects and improve the overall public infrastructures within each communities. These initiatives aim to improve the accessibility of basic resources for community members and aid each community in achieving and sustaining the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Further information about each of these projects can be found in our upcoming reports as we work to approve each project’s timeline and confirm their progresses. Previously we had completed our development projects in Tirwun and Madina QUarter communities, constructing new classrooms and boreholes for the community to use. These projects are especially important in sub-Saharan Africa, where infrastructure is often lacking and access to clean water is limited.

On behalf of everyone at Leadership Initiatives, thank you for everything that you have done. We all truly appreciate your donation and support for our organization. Everyone at Leadership Initiatives would love to have you more involved in our organization if you would ever want to help us grow our programs or learn more about ways that you can assist. Please contact Executive Director Marshall Bailly at mbailly@lichange.org if you have any suggestions, questions, or comments!

On behalf of everyone at Leadership Initiatives, thank you for everything that you have done. We all truly appreciate your donation and support for our organization. If you would ever like to speak to our staff in Nigeria or this specific project leader, we would love to communicate with you so you can personally see the change you are creating.