First of all let me introduce myself, My name is Aminata Kane Balde, I am a Senegalese who found it possible to identify first as African. I am a Project manager, HR manager, a lecturer at Cheikh anta Diop University of Dakar and a freelance translator and above all a great fan of sharing ideas and know-hows.

The Ignition Hour is a project that I initiated mainly as a result of my innate hunger for change….. In my early days as a professional, I used to be very critical of our African youth, not only for our propention to inaction but also our layback attitude towards having a positive impact on our communities.Well I grew tired of looking at the speck in someone else’s eye, failing to see the beam in my own. I therefore started focusing on my own inaction and started asking the question that every person who is like my old self : what am I doing to make that status quo change.

Of course as a university lecturer, I used to inspire my students to be the change they would wish to witness happen, but craved to do more about the commonly shared feeling of ‘’What for do’’.

During that long and boring period of laxity, I came across a great book called The Year of Yes by Shonda Rhymes and that was a game changer for me. I began saying yes to my ideas, giving them chances of having shape as I discovered that they were the most powerful devices known to men.

I began saying yes while growing this eagerness to see more young women and men saying yes to their brilliant and dormant ideas and daring to endeavour.

I decided to transcend the ordinary by getting out of my shell, my comfort zone and discovering my stretch zone that I happened to love.

My humble idea of fostering societal growth, by contributing towards stimulating the minds of young people through the recognition of youth as key agents for social change and change in general, is a drop in the ocean but when rightfully digested by our energetic, creative, future-oriented youth it will become a renewal of a unique sort.

This is the conception and birth of this Ignition Hour which, I hope, will ignite more than one young generation.

I cannot end without reminding this august assembly that we are eagerly fighting for parity, fast-paced economic buoyancy and swift ascent while there is every need to balance them carefully with social development, environmental sustainability and cultural preservation.

The choices we make today as citizens of Sierra Leone and of Africa will impact the future we are building, one of those choices is the preservation of the environment, of tropical forests and of our dear and sweet home: the Earth.

We would like the Youth to understand that societal justice does not need to be sacrificed on the altar of poverty and to stop finding excuses and start finding solutions. Sparse and shy efforts and initiatives will get us nowhere; rather, a synergy of life affirming solutions like the ones we are going to witness today can and will.

Life cycle consciousness is key to the future of environmental improvement, therefore, let us end the ‘’throw away culture’’ that includes no selection of waste types and start fostering/promoting sustainability.