Through what they called ‘Pitch Night’, an initiative developed by UNICEF to motivate children and youth below 25 years to pitch their ideas for projects on environment, health and education.
The two development partners yesterday March 15th, 2017 launched opportunity to provide youth a platform to present innovative ideas that intends to improve the lives of adolescents.
The objective of pitch night will be to provide a platform to introduce emerging entrepreneurs to investors, potential clients, media and fellow entrepreneurs.
The initiative will also be an opportunity for children and youth to find innovative solutions to problems, with special focus on education, health and protection issues.
In addition to opportunities, the project seeks to provide mentorship to youth’s dreams to become ICT investors and innovators, and to give them occasion to express themselves.
The partnership between UNICEF and Airtel comes to life as Airtel Rwanda has positioned itself as a key player in the ICT innovation arena, where it seeks to develop solutions for issues in health, education and environment.
Speaking at the launch of the partnership, Airtel Managing Director Michael Adjei said,
“Airtel Rwanda is pleased to be partnering with UNICEF to launch what we call an innovative project, one which will continue to provide solutions for Rwandan adolescents and youths as we move towards achieving the vision 2020 goals that Rwanda committed to.”
“We are positive that the project we launch today will assist youths to build ideas that will help society, as the country moving towards using home-grown solutions to tackle the country’s problems,” added Mr. Adjei.
He further said that the partnership marks an important milestone combining Airtel’s technology and network infrastructure with UNICEF’s commitment to advance children’s rights through participation and empowerment.
“In early 2015, UNICEF and Airtel signed a multi-country alliance that reflects our shared values and commitment to improve lives of children. Projects focus on generating support and awareness to tackle critical issues for children in areas such as health and education,” said Adjei.
Ted Maly, UNICEF Representative, noted that “Participation is an important component of children’s rights. Our partnership with Airtel to launch pitch night brings the voices and ideas of Rwanda’s youth to the forefront of development discussions.”
To participate in Pitch Night, applications are open from 15 March to 6 April 2017. Shortlisted applicants and their projects will be up on 6 April.
The final pitch night will be held in Kigali in early May 2017 in order to showcase the talented participants and their projects.
John Magara, the head of brand and communications at Airtel explained that children in schools will be able to use ICT to showcase their projects.
He also said that even youth who did not get opportunity to further their education are allowed to participate.
Participant can work individually or in a group of at least three people. The first winner will be awarded 5000$ and various prizes including the annual internet connection, mobiles phones and more.
By Elias Hakizimana
