25 under 25 Awardee - Internet Society

On the 14^th of July, 2017, I was selected as a 25 under 25 awardee by the Internet Society to celebrate 25 young people who are under 25 years or 25 around the world who are taking action and using the Internet as a force for good. This was my first time going out of Africa and getting that visa I will say was a miracle. It was also my first time traveling alone but then I made it through though I struggled a bit as there were so many stops to get to Los Angeles. The award ceremony, which was held in California, Los Angeles, USA for four days (16th to 20th of September, 2017) gave me the privilege of meeting those who already have some years of experience with the Internet and meeting other exceptional young people doing amazing work with the Internet. I was able to network and learn a lot with a lot of people and the ceremony. I spoke and shared links of my initiative and success stories in the Gambia and how other people can get involved. With my networking skills, I envision a future where the unconnected get connected especially in my community ensuring that everyone becomes web literate through my tech club. I have no doubt that as I interact and learn from organizations like the Internet Society and individuals from different parts of the world I will be driven to achieve greater things. Once again I am grateful to the Internet Society for organizing such programs to recognize people like me that are doing amazing work with the Internet.

Appreciation 

It was overwhelming to be awarded a 25 under 25 awards by the Internet Society. I can't say much, I owe this to each and everyone who believes in me. I appreciate every single person who took time to nominate me for this prestigious award. To HackathonGirls, Banjul, Mozilla foundation, Django Girls, Banjul, The Internet Society Gambia Chapter, The American Corner, friends and my beloved family, you all contributed in making this possible for me. Can't thank you enough for your supports. I'm grateful.

Visit link for more details on the Recognition ceremony:

25 under 25 Recognition Ceremony

Young African Leaders Initiative Cohort 3 - Nigeria

On August 19^th 2017, I was selected for YALI ( Young African Leaders Initiative) RLC (Regional Centre), West Africa, a training program launched by the United States government as a signature effort to invest in the next generation of African leaders. I learnt and experienced that when one interacts, share ideas and solve problems together we only realize how strong and powerful we are as a people. In the intensively five weeks training, I saw a beautiful African future. I saw great hopes for Africa and my five weeks stay in Nigeria, Lagos, I interacted with people from nine countries in West Africa. We were placed into groups, where we worked and as a result, because of my team player skills, I was able to organize team members and we emerged first position during the creative night at YALI. Understanding how people work and appreciating efforts towards making communities, countries and the world at large a better place to live in is what keeps me going. My experience in the YALI program did not only help me interact with people but also gave me the confidence to express myself around people. I also engaged others, outside of my group by organizing a blog/website sessions, where I trained people on how to create a blog. Upon completion of the five weeks training, I was able to collect all photos that were taken by the Camera man (over 2000 pictures), and uploading them on a Google drive, which was a need by most people and requested, so this allowed me to engage and solve that issue with almost everyone else by sharing the link to the photos to a group that was created. This did not only help me get all the pictures but to be able to collaborate with people individually as I am in contact with most of them as a result.