Leadership Initiatives (LI) approaches the problems of underdevelopment by empowering communities to address their own needs. We partner with local government and business leaders to provide outstanding university students with entrepreneurial, leadership and project management training. These students then identify obstacles to development within their own communities, develop workable solutions, and create the community partnerships necessary to implement their solutions sustainably.

In the short term: Youth create solutions to local problems using existing community resources.

In the long term: We create honest, transparent generations of leaders who will empower entire nations.

NIGERIA REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
In the spring of 2008 we launched our first regional program in partnership with Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) in Bauchi, Nigeria. Our student leaders there designed five community development projects, three of which are already fully implemented and showing results.

Our primary focus is equipping a new generation of entrepreneurs and civic leaders with the skills necessary to solve Nigerian problems using Nigerian resources. We do this by helping them design and create self-sustaining businesses that make measurable differences in the lives of those most severely underserved within the existing economic infrastructure. Each project engages current local leadership as mentors while establishing models of transparency and accountability that provide tangible alternatives to existing practices.

BIRSHI AQUACULTURE PROGRAM

The entire village of Birshi has been integral to the success of the fish farming initiative from its inception. Use of the land on which the holding tanks now stand was donated as a result of early stage design meetings with village leaders. And the project's initial participants were chosen through community-based committees. Various members of the village have assisted our farmers in establishing a stable market for the fish, while the farmers themselves have contributed the smaller fish to sick and elderly villagers.

Morale throughout the village has improved as families have been able to make much-needed home repairs, build new homes, and send their children to school. By seeking community involvement from the earliest stages, our student leaders have been able to build on and strengthen the existing leadership structure in the village while developing independence and self-reliance in individual farmers.

SKILLS ACQUISITION INTIATIVE

In Yelwan Makaranta, our student leaders sought the support of local leaders in designing a program that would efficiently match accessible skill sets with existing community needs. Unemployed youth were brought into the dialogue as potential participants and it was their input that led to the selection of welding, tailoring, and motorcycle repair for our apprenticeships. Because the demand for those skills is so great within the region, our trainees have enjoyed full employment immediately on graduation.

COMPUTER wLITERACY FOR THE DISABLED

Disabled individuals have very few opportunities for meaningful employment in Bauchi. Without marketable skills or the respect of the surrounding community, they are often reduced to depending upon handouts for their support. Our student leaders recognized that both the community and its disabled citizens would benefit from a more productive integration.

Our partners at Challenge Your Disability Initiative (CYDI) identified computer literacy training as both accessible to those with a wide range of physical limitations and sorely needed in the surrounding community. By capitalizing on our existing partnership with Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, our student leaders were able to provide both the computer training itself and a suitable location in which it to conduct it.

LEADERSHIP INITIATIVES SISTER SCHOOL PROGRAM

Leadership Initiatives Sister School Programs are established in schools around the United States with goals of instilling leadership, sustainability and peace within youth. By working in conjunction with Leadership Initiatives programs abroad, US Sister School Programs learn with LI students, while also working to assist and aid the growth of projects developed by LI students over seas.

Together, with LI and participating high schools, an incredible program can be built allowing students to grow at a young age and see the opportunities the world has to offer. With an established program, students chosen will have the ability to choose a LI program to sponsor. The sponsorship will include direct contact with LI students working to establish the project, offering advice and ideas to better the progress and growth of the project, and devising fundraisers to aid development.

ENGLISH LITERACY PROGRAM

English is the language of business in Nigeria. Most jobs require English fluency and literacy. Poorer Nigerians-who often speak only one of more than 500 tribal languages in use throughout the nation-have limited or no access to either meaningful employment or basic financial services. And major cities such as Maiduguri suffer from recurring waves of cultural and religious unrest.

When LI began working with the University of Maiduguri in 2004, our students leaders decided that the root of this strife lay in the economic inequities perpetuated by unnecessary language barriers. Muhammad Lawan Khalifa, an LI student, grew up in Hausari ward, one of the most densely populated, least educated, and poorest neighborhoods in Maiduguri. His experiences as a youth inspired him to design the Real Change program for Hausari. His idea: integrate the social and economic sectors of the city by combining English language training with internships in targeted industries.

THE COMPUTER LITERACY PROJECT

The Computer Literacy Project is an initiative aimed at eradicating computer illiteracy at the secondary school level in Maiduguri. Started in August 2005, the Computer Literacy Project developed a comprehensive curriculum to introduce secondary school students to the capacities of Microsoft Office Programs, such as Microsoft Word and Excel, as well as providing tutorials in effective internet research through Google. After shopping around the program to various schools, the Maiduguri International School was selected as the pilot school.

As of December 2005, 120 students have graduated from the Computer Literacy Project and the Maiduguri International School has made it mandatory that every student must pass through the project in order to graduate. The Computer Literacy Project is currently in the process of copyrighting their curriculum and selling its services to various schools in the greater Maiduguri area.