By Salif Romano Niang, Co-Founder & Chief Impact Officer, Malo Traders and New Voices Fellow, The Aspen Institute When I was growing up in Ethiopia, Cameroon and Mali in the 90s, my friends and I talked about creating companies that addressed problems in our communities. However, we always thought that first we’d have to become …
By Mohamed Ali, Founder, Iftiin Foundation and New Voices Fellow, The Aspen Institute I recently participated in a conference on fighting piracy in Somalia. The topic: how to combat the thousands of men, AK47’s strapped to their backs, that were taking skiffs into the azure blue waters of the Indian Ocean to hijack and loot …
I come from the slums of Nairobi, where delaying motherhood is not always a choice. I was lucky to have this option, and choosing to hold off on becoming a mother was my way of stepping out of poverty and getting an education. The question of when to have children is a luxury in much …
Editor’s note: Kennedy Odede is the president and CEO of Shining Hope for Communities, a nonprofit organization that fights gender inequality and extreme poverty in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya. He is a 2013 New Voices Fellow at the Aspen Institute. (CNN) — I had many conversations with Nelson Mandela, although I had not …