Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, has continued to explore and expand the leadership potentials in Africa through Future Africa Leaders’ Award (FALA)
News Rain Nigeria reports that the annual event organized by LoveWorld President and founder of the Future Africa Leaders Foundation, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome selects deserving young people from across Africa who have demonstrated leadership in meeting challenging needs of their communities and nations, for special recognition and cash grants to further their projects.
The Future Africa Leaders Award (FALA) which was borne 8 years ago has recognized 81 recipients from several African countries, including Cameroon, South Africa, Nigeria, Southern Sudan, Kenya, Malawi, Egypt, Tanzania, Botswana, Uganda, Ghana and more.
Each Future Africa Leaders Awards is preceded by a widely-viewed Nomination Show; a live telecast during which the list of top 30 to 32 nominees across Africa are unveiled for that year’s Future Africa Leaders Award.
Pastor Chris Is Using Young Africans To Develop Africa
According to reports, the globally televised awards ceremony held on the night of December 31st, recognizes winners with a cash grant of 10,000 USD each. In addition to this, the FALA star prize winner is awarded a cash grant of 25,000 USD to further expand their sustainable projects.
The annual event attracts prominent leaders, top government officials from across Africa, and representatives of both federal and state parastatals in Nigeria, the host country.
The occasion is witnessed by a physical audience of over 25,000 people and is beamed live on over 500 terrestrial and cable television stations across every country of the world.
At the 2018 FALA event, the eminent global states-man and former president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR), gave a speech on ‘Building Tomorrow’s Africa’, to the global audience and announced the winner of the star prize, Isaiah Deng from South Sudan.
The first female democratically elected woman president of Liberia and Nobel peace prize winner, Madame President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, also honored the prestigious 2019 FALA event, with our Dear Man of God, Rev- (Dr.) Chris Oyakhilome DSC., DD.
During the course of the event, she inspired every young person present to become change agents in the areas of youth development, civic engagements, political transformation that leads to nation building.
Madame President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was also given the privilege platform to announce to the world the 2019 star prize-winner Babiene Heline Eweni from Cameroon.
The recipients of the FALA are further supported by training programs and featured in a special television program, Project Africa to give further exposure to their projects.
Currently, there are a total of 122 applicants from 47 African countries registered for this year’s amazing Future Africa Leaders Awards.
The Future Africa Leaders Foundation has carefully identified nominees who have demonstrated exemplary leadership traits and invested in others through their various programs and projects.
Gwei Michael Wawa-2020
Young Michael demonstrates astounding leadership prowess through the organisation of unique technology-based and humanitarian campaigns, bringing solutions to diverse problems in his country and beyond. The young social activist who has impacted the lives of 18,000 young people through insightful conferences, facilitated 15 new inventions, instituted projects to train teenagers in robotics, web design as well as computer literacy, steered the donation of over 2,400 litres of blood to various hospitals and was involved in several other humanitarian projects in Cameroon.
Babiene Heline Eweni-2019
She is a 22-year-old activist from Cameroon, and she is passionate about seeing young people reach their potential. Her enthusiasm for youth empowerment had led her to host a six-week skill acquisition workshop as part of the Leadership Initiative Awards scheme of FALF. This led to hundreds of youths developing skills in catering, fashion design, soap making, carpentry, and hairdressing.
She has visited 35 refugee camps in Nigeria helping improve the plight of the Cameroonian refugees there. There are some 8,000 refugees living there. She distributed food, personal hygiene items, and school materials to help alleviate suffering. She supplied medicines worth over $700 dollars to treat childhood ailments. She paid for the successful surgery of two orphans who had lost their sight due to cataracts in association with ‘Doctors without Borders.’
She was abducted, beaten and held in captivity. This left her paralyzed and using a wheelchair. On her recovery, she was undaunted and returned to her work working on behalf of and vulnerable in her nation. She was awarded the Star Prize for her vision, for her courage for her leadership.
Isaiah Deng –2018
The 20-year-old FALA winner from South Sudan has been pushing sustainable development in his community. As a participant of the Global Youth Leaders Forum (GYLF), he organized conferences which aimed to restore peace to his country that was ravaged by war. Deng also helped the GYLF to develop an outreach program for IDP’s (Internally Displaced Persons). With several projects other under his ‘belt’, such as youth development programs and his training seminar named “Acquire Skills for Your Future”, Deng is representing his country of Sudan in nation-building.
Naomi Ekpoki Aliyu-2017
Aliyu has spent her life helping those around her and has demonstrated to others just how much you can change lives. Naomi has reached about 1300 children through her work. Through donations from partners, she helped pay exam fees of two girls in her community, ultimately enabling them to study in university. Naomi is also a motivational speaker and has motivated many young people to stay focused in school and work hard and aim for success. She was overwhelmed with tears when Pastor Chris awarded her with the prize.
Karen Musodza – 2016
Young Karen Musodza from South Africa was honored as the FALA Star Winner 2016 for her outstanding efforts which helped thousands of young South Africans.
Karen Musodza is an outstanding youth leader who has worked with at-risk youth in her community. Her contribution has made a significant difference in every single one of their lives. Musodza organized a campaign called “Youth against Crime” in her province and began partnering with the local police to help kids avoid a life of crime and make better choices. She also partnered with some organizations to provide food and basic amenities as encouragement to those in attendance.
Rose Sakala – 2015
The Star Prize Winner of the 2015 Edition – Rose Sakala, from Malawi was just 22 when Pastor Chris selected her has the winner. With a bachelor in Science in Agribusiness Management from Lilongwe University, the young graduate became a blessing to other young people in her world.
The young woman has many other talents too, a public speaker, a preacher, an advocate, an up and coming scriptwriter and photographer. Rose Sakala is a passionate individual with a passion for youth development. As the founder of the Luanar Students Entrepreneurship Lead Initiative (Luseli) she is impacting on the lives of her fellow students.
Lotan Salapei – 2014
This young man from Kenya was recognized by Pastor Chris and honored for his outreach to at-risk youth in his home-town. Salapei provided shelter and welfare packages to orphanages in his community. Young Mr. Salapei has also helped create homes for children and given educational training to over 300 street children. His foundation, ‘Dignity of the Girl Child Campaign,’ provided sanitary resources to 30 schools, ultimately reaching over 3,000 students.
Sharon Sade Ajide – 2013
The winner of the first-ever Future Africa Leaders’ Award, Ajide certainly set the tone for the upcoming ceremonies. The FALA winner had a hand in the founding of over 50 youth cubs in several secondary schools in Lagos state.
In addition, she has collaborated with international organizations aimed at training teenage girls in subjects such as science, engineering, and technology.
Aijide also managed to gather over 3000 girls during a children’s day celebration for a public lecture. In the lecture she where she spoke on the fundamentals of personality development, grooming and self-awareness and of course included the importance of believing in God.
Recall that the Future Africa Leaders Foundation is an initiative aimed at exploring and expanding the leadership potential in Africa and for Africa, by identifying, celebrating and supporting young Africans who have demonstrated exemplary leadership by impacting their generation positively through education, youth empowerment and mentoring, and through other projects aimed at building young people and preparing them for a positive future.
