Delta Air Lines and Junior Achievement Africa have renewed their partnership to advance business and STEM education among young people across the continent of Africa.
JA Africa is one of Africa’s largest and most impactful youth-serving NGOs. The organization delivers hands-on, immersive learning in work, financial health, entrepreneurship, sustainability, STEM, economics, citizenship, ethics, and more.
The airline presented the Delta Social Impact Award at JA Africa’s flagship Company of the Year Competition on Dec. 7-9 in Lagos, Nigeria. The competition is the culmination of a year’s work for young participants from nine countries across Africa. Youth from Eswatini, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe participated in the event. Their goal was to create and run their own businesses over the past academic year as part of the program.
“As the next generation of business leaders – and global travelers – we work with Junior Achievement across the globe to facilitate education programs for young people,” said Nicolas Ferri, Delta’s V.P. – Europe, Middle East, Africa, and India. “We have seen the positive impact of this work here in Africa and look forward to continuing our partnership as we support the next generation to meet their full educational potential and move into meaningful employment.”
An Expanding Partnership to Increase Impact
According to the company’s website, Delta is also sponsoring JA Africa’s STEM innovation camps for 50 school children each in Accra, Ghana, and Dakar, Senegal over the next 12 months. Both cities are destinations from which the airline flies nonstop to the United States. The one-day camps encourage creativity, critical thinking, teamwork, and problem-solving. The young people participating must put forward solutions to solve a specific business challenge. Colleagues from Delta will be on-hand to support JA Africa’s team and provide coaching and mentoring to the students throughout the day.
“We are honored to have Delta Air Lines as a long-standing partner. Their sponsorship for JA Africa’s 2022 Company of the Year Competition, through the Social Impact Award, will encourage our young entrepreneurs to use innovative approaches to solving societal issues,” said Simi Nwogugu, CEO of JA Africa. “This grant will also support Innovation Camps in Ghana and Senegal which provides a forum for our students to work in groups to address real-life business challenges. These programs give our students the exposure and skilling they need to thrive in the 21st-century workforce.”
Junior Achievement Africa, part of JA Worldwide, is one of Africa’s largest organizations working on youth economic empowerment. Delta supports 32 JA chapters across five continents to teach students about financial literacy, work readiness, and entrepreneurship. JA Africa has a presence in 13 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and collectively reaches more than 300,000 young people and more than 3,000 schools every year. JA works in Côte d’Ivoire, Eswatini, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe with a goal to secure better lives for the young, their families, and their communities.
Related: Delta To Launch Non-Stop Flights To South Africa From Atlanta | Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant Aims To Increase Diversity In STEM Through Season 2 Of The PBS Podcast Going Wild