Spirited, Expanded Leadership Competitions in 2008
From the lessons of the opening round in 2007, the African Human Rights Leadership Campaign organized and delivered a “second annual” cycle of human rights leadership competitions between March and August, 2008 in Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Rather than pit school against school in each country (a format that had led to unfounded accusations of favoritism by losing schools in 2007), we divided the 30 participating students in Accra, Monrovia and Freetown respectively into two 15 person coalition teams. This enhanced the leadership challenge as each group, made up of spectrum of ambitious and aspiring “chiefs” from different schools and youth groups unfamiliar with each other, had to organize itself into a coordinated whole.
Diana Asima, competitor and speaker, Accra, Ghana, August, 2008
90 high school- and college-age students participated over the three countries. The competition required each team to choose a prevalent human rights abuse in its country or community, research the issue in the field, and to create and deliver an effective public awareness campaign to end that abuse.