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Academic leadership and development programme on offer to orphans and semi-orphans in Seychelles |21 September 2019

Academic leadership and development programme on offer to orphans and semi-orphans in Seychelles

Messrs Carter and Whittaker during their meeting with the press

Orphans and semi-orphans stand to benefit from a fully-funded academic leadership programme being offered in Seychelles for the first time, through the Ashinaga Africa Initiative (AAI).

Two representatives from Ashinaga, an international non-profit organisation based in Japan which provides educational and emotional support to orphans, arrived in the country last Monday and are currently holding discussions with relevant organisations including the National Council for Children (NCC), School of Advanced Level Studies (Sals) and the Agency for National Human Resource Development (ANHRD), among others regarding the country’s national priorities and needs.

Director of Ashinaga’s Senegal office, Nicolas Carter, and programme coordinator Toby Whittaker met with the media at NCC on Thursday to provide more information about the programme, from which Seychellois orphans and semi-orphans can benefit as from this year and subsequent years to come.

Mr Whittaker outlined that the foundation has been assisting and supporting orphans in Japan for over 50 years, and have funded academic programmes for over 100,000 students in Japan prior to the launch of the AAI in 2014.

AAI aims to contribute to sub-Saharan Africa’s expanding role in global development through increasing access to international higher education on condition that AAI scholars return home empowered to initiate change, innovation and development.

“A scholarship to study abroad but it is not the main purpose the programme. The purpose is to develop future leaders to empower students who have faced difficulties in the past and to give them an opportunity to experience new things, to learn from one another, develop their leadership skills and put all that to good use returning to their country and contributing in a way they see fit,” Mr Carter stated.

Students selected for the programme must have been born after September 1, 1997 and must be able to prove that they are an orphan, semi-orphan or have been abandoned. They must also be able to satisfy the entry criteria for university institutions.

Those who qualify for the programme are not only provided financial support to study abroad, but also receive psychological support through a one-year preparatory programme before they embark on their respective study programmes.

“Model is based on the idea that before they embark on their study programmes, they attend a one-year preparatory programme in which Francophone students go to a study camp in Senegal while Anglophone students go to a study camp in Uganda and during the year, they spend the time applying for universities. There is an element of college counselling, career counselling and it is also during this period that we focus on personal development and leadership development, professional development. We prepare them and give them the skills, prepare them for the challenges they will face and then we can prepare to send them abroad. All of our students study outside of Sub-Saharan Africa so they can come back and learn from the experiences and their peers and bring those skills back,” said Mr Carter.

The preparation and study camp aims to group all the selected students to create a pan-African network between students in preparation for the social, cultural and academic difference they will encounter during their studies abroad.

The network also serves to be useful after completion of their studies offering them a network that they can use for support.

Students can apply to study any undergraduate course of their choosing except from medical studies, dentistry, veterinary and science since the length of study abroad is significantly longer and on account of the availability of other programmes offering medical studies. There are numerous options in terms of study venues including Japan, the United States of America (USA) as well as some venues in Europe.

During the selection process, conducted with the collaboration of local organisations, national priorities are considered. During the interview, students should be able to explain their plans as well as how it is linked to the country’s development and their own goals.

Mr Whittaker noted that they have already conducted such discussions and have identified the national priorities as tourism, blue economy, aquaculture, engineering and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) among others.

The application process is now open until December 13 2019. Students are being urged to apply before the deadline even if they are yet to receive their examination results since it can be provided at a later date. Applicants can apply online on https://en.ashinaga.org/apply/aai/ or can submit a written application at the Japanese embassy based in Maison Esplanade.

Ashinaga generates fund through various means including Japanese-style Street fundraising where students and volunteers congregate across central points across Japan, raise awareness and raise funds through sharing their personal histories with passers-by. Funds are also raised through anonymous donors.

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