|
The African Youth Development Foundation (AFRYDEF) is a not-for-profit, non-governmental development organization established in Nigeria in 1999 to mobilize resources and to promote and support sustainable youth empowerment and rural development initiatives in Africa.
AFRYDEF was founded in 1999 while I was on my one year National Service in Kaduna State, Nigeria. There in Kaduna, I was moved by the hardships and very poor health conditions young people, children and women from poor families face in Africa. In Nigeria, for example, over 80% of the total family population can hardly afford three square meals a day, talkless of meeting the proper medical needs of their children. There is a high level of illiteracy among Nigerian young people, who are products of these families that cannot afford to feed themselves.
If the situation is as bad as this in Nigeria which claims to be the giant of Africa, what could be happening to our fellow young people in other African countries like Darfur, Sudan, war torn Liberia, Sierra Leone, etc I thought!
With my meager resources as a Youth Corper, I started mobilizing my friends and other people who adopted my vision of giving African youths a better future. We started coming together to develop programs that we can implement with the little resources at our disposal, at least to start making a difference in our small communities, there in Kaduna State, Nigeria.
These burning desires led to the founding of the African Youth Development Foundation (AFRYDEF) in 1999. May we use this opportunity to express our profound gratitude to the likes of Evangelist (Mrs.) July Amego and Engr. Ogbanje, all of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, Kaduna State, Nigeria, where I carried out my primary assignment for their financial support, which assisted in the successful take off of AFRYDEF.
|
