Dear Friends,
2018 has been an incredible year for JAN!!! Soon after celebrating our selection as a finalist for the Google Impact Challenge, we left for Accra first week in December for the JA Africa Company of the Year (COY) competition with our winning team from the NCOY in October. Our students worked hard throughout the three days of the competition, attending seminars, rehearsing their pitch, and getting to know the students from other countries, so I was extremely delighted for them when they were announced overall winner and the new Africa Company of the Year! WOW!!!
As I look back at the year, at the incredible partnerships with organizations ranging from ANGUZ Partners, a group of four successful business leaders leading change in Owerri, to Citi Foundation, a multi-billion dollar foundation working in over 80 countries worldwide, I’m honored and humbled that JA Nigeria has been selected time and again as a trusted partner to prepare Nigerian youth for a successful future. We believe strongly in SDG Goal 17 and value every partner working with us to lead change in Nigeria, whether you are providing funds for programs, volunteers to teach those programs or capacity building to enhance the impact of those programs – we say a huge THANK YOU! Because of you, we were able to prepare over 120,000 young people for a successful future
We are excited about what 2019, our 20th anniversary year, will bring! Please connect with us on all social media platforms as we have a terrific line-up of events throughout the year that you would hate to miss!
On a personal note, I’d like to thank all of you who made my job easier this year, from our Board Members and donors who make our wishes come true to my wonderful colleagues in the office who are a dream to work with every day, from our volunteers who show up each week in classrooms with a kit full of programs and a heart full of love to our teachers who fill in the gaps and ensure the students relate what they learn in JA programs back to what they are learning at school, from the federal and state governments who open their doors and give us approval to go into their schools to private school administrators who trust us enough to pilot every new program at their school and provide real-time feedback that helps us improve curriculum and make our programs more relevant to specific communities within Nigeria. And to our awesome students who defy expectations and shoot past the sky with their boundless potential, thank you for inspiring us every day to keep doing what we do!
Thank you and Happy New Year!
Warm regards,
Simi
