By Dare Akogun
The Co founder International Climate Change Development Initiative Africa, CCDIA, Olumide Idowu, has won the United States government’s Exchange Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund (AEIF) projects.
CCDIA is a Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) that aims to produce climate-smart generations in the African continent while also tackling development disparities.
The grant worth $20,000 is meant to help continue with his climate education in helping Nigerian youths find their voice in climate change.
The fund will further Idowu’s cause in teaching 600 young Nigeria’s southwestern states about climate change and give them the information they need to make good decisions.
In addition, the team working on the project will record a documentary about the two-day workshops in order to demonstrate their development, according to Environment News Nigeria.
AEIF projects, sponsored by alumni of U.S. government exchange programmes and funded by the U.S. Department of State, increase regional and global collaboration between Exchange Alumni, support U.S. foreign policy objectives, and benefit local communities. U.S. Embassies and Consulates worldwide worked with Exchange Alumni to submit their proposals.
Idowu served as the UNDP Small Grants Programme’s Youth Focal Point in Nigeria, as well as the Youth Lead Author of the Global Environmental Outlook (GEO6) and the Executive Coordinator of the African Youth Initiative on Climate Change.
He is a former Atlas Corps Fellow and an alumnus of the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) in the United States.
This year’s projects range from empowering students in vulnerable communities to equipping farmers with climate smart agricultural practices, creating pathways to employment for young mothers, and enhancing young people’s digital and financial literacy in financial technology (fintech) and its application, and much more.
Since its inception in 2011, AEIF has funded over 600 Exchange Alumni-led projects around the world.
