Olaitan Taiwo is an entrepreneur and the founder of Vowen Africa, an organisation connecting young people to platforms to volunteer their skills and expertise.
As an entrepreneur, Olaitan leverages on international experience to run a business and travel consulting firm, COREE Consult. She has worked with individuals and brands for accountability where she trained over 1000 individuals on proven strategies to birth their ideas and stay relevant.
HOW ARE YOU LOCALIZING THE SDGS IN NIGERIA?
Through collaborations with organizations and communities, we are able to do more for people who truly need our skills and expertise. Everyone has something to give irrespective of location or economic status. We take all these together and help our immediate community to be better.
PLEASE TELL US MORE THE MAIN PROJECT YOU ARE WORKING ON
We are currently working on increasing active volunteering in Africa. We are aiming at 1000 active volunteers in Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana and connecting them to initiatives and programs in their immediate community. Most people really want to volunteer, but some do not understand the concept of volunteering while some don’t know where to start their journey as a volunteer. So currently we are sensitizing and educating individuals on the concepts and eventually we sign them up to the nearest opportunity close to them.
PLEASE SHARE SOME OF THE IMPACT STORIES
Many young people who have passed through Vowen Africa now understand their career paths and are actively developing the necessary skills to help reach their highest potentials. We have worked with other NGOs to achieve goals such as zero hunger especially during the covid19 when it was intense we fed over 159 families. We have had sensitization for over 1000 girl child. We have been able to collaborate and focus on 11 SDGs so far in less than 3 years.
HOW IS THE PROJECT ENSURING THAT NIGERIA ACHIEVES THE SDGS BY 2030?
We can only achieve if all hands are on deck. And this is what we are preaching and getting youth involvement in issues. So YES! We have more people who are now intentional and thus we are achieving more.
WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES OR CONSTRAINTS AFFECTING THE SUCCESS OF THIS PROJECT AND WHAT ARE THE SUPPORT YOU NEED?
Firstly, most volunteers have to show up in between their everyday work routine and the economic situation is not friendly enough to pay fully as they can only get stipends. Secondly, we need support from corporate organizations who can train individuals especially those who are either waiting to gain admission or those just out of university on skills to make them fit for jobs. Most of this training cost us a lot. We hope we can get more partnerships to fund more of our training programs.
YOUR ADVICE TO YOUNG PEOPLE
You have no excuse not to live a purposeful life. Take what could have been an excuse for not succeeding, and put some purpose on it. If you put a purpose on that ‘not so good’ upbringing or a bad experience or even a health challenge, you will make something out of the mess.
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