A few days ago, popular Amazon Chief Executive, Jeff Bezos, posted a “request for ideas” on his philanthropy strategy on twitter.
In his own words, “I want much of my philanthropic activity to be helping people in the here and now – short term – at the intersection of urgent need and lasting impact.” He tweeted this request on June 15th and has received 39,000 replies so far. Several people thought this was a wrong move by Bezos and stated this in their tweets, but there were thousands more who replied with their ideas.
Request for ideas… pic.twitter.com/j6D68mhseL
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) June 15, 2017
While most of the proposed ideas were focused on health and education in the United States, we took a closer look and found a few ideas shared by individuals and organizations working in Africa (read about them below):
Human Rights Watch: Human Rights Watch, an international nonprofit organization, made a case for its advocacy programmes in Africa, particularly focusing on girls’ education and ending child marriage in Tanzania. The organization also posted a video about their work in Tanzania and Central African Republic.
Jhpiego: Jhpiego is an international nonprofit health organization with strong ties to U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University. The nonprofit pitched for support to scale up capacity building for Africa’s health workers citing the impact of their work in Ghana – 66% reduction in newborn deaths!
Andela: Andela’s Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, who cofounded an organization building the next generation of technology leaders in Africa, pitched support for new education models and platforms to enable broader participation of African youth in the digital economy. He also included a link to Andela’s model as a reference point.
It’s not too late to tell the third richest person in the world (according to Forbes magazine) what you think. Go to Jeff Bezos twitter page and post your own ideas. He also wants to know if you think his approach is wrong, so feel free to tweet that too or you may send your comments directly to us.