YOUTH OF THE WEEK: WADI BEN-HIRKI

Wadi Ben-Hirki is a 21 year old young leader from Adamawa State located in North-Eastern Nigeria. She holds a BSc. in Accounting from Covenant University, Nigeria. She currently doubles as both the Founder and Chairman Board of Trustees of Wadi Ben-Hirki Foundation, a registered charity organization that impacts the lives of people through projects: Street2School (SDG 4) which provides free and quality education for disadvantaged children, GirlsNotWives (SDG 5) which advocates for girl-child education and gender equality and fights against child marriage, trafficking and gender-based violence and lastly, Project LITMOW: Love In The Midst Of War (SDG 16) which helps in rehabilitating survivors of the insurgency in Northern Nigeria and teaching people how to show love and promote peace, even in the midst of the insurgency.

In July 2016, the Foundation launched a social enterprise named Sapphire by WBHF where branded merchandise are produced and sold to help raise funds for the foundation’s community projects so as to avoid heavy reliance on only donations and external support but to also generate an internally sustainable means of funding.

She has also been trained and certified by the Satyagraha Institute for Non-violence, Peace building and Conflict Resolution, YIAGA/ NED Youth Organizing School on Policy Advocacy & Civic Engagement and Young African Leaders Initiative among others. The African Leadership Institute also recently appointed me to be a Member of the Pan African Leadership/ Youth Advisory Board. She is an Ashoka Changemaker and a ONE Champion in Nigeria.

She is a passionate advocate and humanitarian and believes in justice and equity. Through her work, some of her achievements include: Her Network Woman of the Future Award 2017, The Ebony Life TV Sisterhood Advocate and People’s Choice of the Year Awards 2017, Top 10 young people in Africa working towards achieving Gender Justice and Reconciliation Award, Civil Society Award 2017 for Peace Building, Impacting Young Female Leader in Africa 2017 by One World Foundation and 2^nd runner-up Africa Peace builder Award 2016 by World Peace Initiative Foundation among others.