Uganda, February 7th, 2023: In August 2022, Z Zurich Foundation announced a three-year partnership with JA Worldwide and JA Africa that will enable thousands of youth across Uganda to access JA programs that will set them on the path to success, not just as individuals but as leaders who influence positive change within their communities.

Today, JA Uganda, a member of JA Worldwide, is proud to officially launch the beginning of learning experiences in Uganda under this partnership. Implemented as three-day boot camps culminating in three months of mentorship and coaching by industry leaders for the winning teams, this Social Equity Project will reach 10,000 youth in Uganda across four districts (Kampala, Mbale, Jinja, Gulu) this year, in partnership with community centers, vocational training institutions and ICT Hubs. Interested youth can register here and will be placed at a community center or partnering institute, or hub near them.

The Programme will also ensure that mental well-being is incorporated as a priority for human development.

The Z Zurich Foundation – JA Uganda partnership is set to empower young people in Uganda to succeed as both innovative job creators and well-qualified job seekers, following the path best suited to their economic realities.

“Gone are the days when we used to study for the purpose of passing; the question now is what is the child able to do with their own hands”says George Muteekanga, the Assistant commissioner in charge of private school and institutions of higher learning-Ministry of Education and Sports.

About JA Uganda

Junior Achievement (JAU) Uganda —a member of JA Worldwide—is one of Uganda`s largest and most-impactful youth-serving NGOs. JA Uganda has a presence in 17 operating regions in the country and has reached over 200,000 youth since its inception in 2008. It reaches youth through entrepreneurship, work readiness, and financial health training.  Visit https://jauganda.org/ for details.

About Z Zurich Foundation

The Z Zurich Foundation works alongside Zurich Insurance Group employees and other stakeholders as well as with governments and NGOs in pursuit of a future where people can thrive in the face of increasing climate hazards, where those of us feeling the stresses of life are empowered to speak up, and where the marginalized in our society can reach their full potential.

The Z Zurich Foundation is a Swiss-based charitable foundation established by members of the Zurich Insurance Group. It is the main vehicle by which Zurich Insurance Group delivers on its global community investment strategy. Visit Z Zurich Foundation’s website to learn more about its work: https://zurich.foundation.

Media Enquiries:

Carol Kisukye Ndilima

JA Uganda

Social Equity Project Lead

[email protected]

+256 782370669 / +256 709370669

[Accra, Ghana], August 2, 2022 — Fast Company today announced its fourth annual Best Workplaces for Innovators list, honoring organizations and businesses that demonstrate a steadfast commitment to encouraging innovation at all levels. JA Worldwide enters the top-100 list for the first time, earning the #1 spot for nonprofits.

Developed in collaboration with Accenture, the 2022 Best Workplaces for Innovators ranks 100 winners from a variety of industries, including computer science, biotech, consumer packaged goods, nonprofit, education, financial services, cybersecurity, engineering, diversity, sustainability, B2B, and consumer products and services. Fast Company editors and Accenture researchers worked together to score nearly 1,500 applications, and a panel of eight eminent judges reviewed and endorsed the top 100 organizations. The 2022 awards feature workplaces from around the world.

According to Asheesh Advani, CEO of JA Worldwide, “the JA network of teams has built a workplace culture that embraces innovation, digital transformation, and generous sharing of resources and talent. Throughout the world, we’ve collaborated on several projects, including JA Labs, JA Worldwide Fellows, Youth Voices, and so much more.” Also, Simi Nwogugu, CEO of JA Africa said “I am so proud to work for such an incredible organization with a rich history of developing young people to make change happen across the world. If you are an innovator looking for a great place to work, I highly recommend JA.”

“This year’s list of the Best Workplaces for Innovators recognizes organizations that have demonstrated a deep commitment to cultivating creativity across the board,” says Brendan Vaughan, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “In the face of powerful headwinds, these leaders and teams continue to spur innovation.”

To see the complete list, go to: https://www.fastcompany.com/best-workplaces-for-innovators/list

Fast Company‘sBest Workplaces for Innovators issue (September 2022) is available online now, and the print issue will be on newsstands beginning August 16, 2022. Join the Best Workplaces for Innovators conversation using #FCBestWorkplaces.

About JA Worldwide

As one of the world’s largest and most impactful youth-serving NGOs, JA Worldwide delivers hands-on, immersive learning in work readiness, financial health, entrepreneurship, sustainability, STEM, economics, citizenship, ethics, and more. Reaching more than 12 million young people each year through nearly half a million teachers and business volunteers, JA Worldwide is one of few organizations with the scale, experience, and passion to build a brighter future for the next generation of innovators, entrepreneurs, and leaders. Visit us at jaworldwide.org.

About JA Africa

JA Africa has a presence in 13 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and collectively we reach more than 300,000 youth in more than 3,000 schools each year. JA Africa Works in Côte d’Ivoire, Eswatini, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Visit us at ja-africa.org

About Fast Company

Fast Company is the only media brand fully dedicated to the vital intersection of business, innovation, and design, engaging the most influential leaders, companies, and thinkers on the future of business. Headquartered in New York City, Fast Company is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with our sister publication Inc., and can be found online at fastcompany.com.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global professional services company with leading capabilities in digital, cloud, and security. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries, we offer Strategy and Consulting, Technology and Operations Services, and Accenture Song — all powered by the world’s largest network of Advanced Technology and Intelligent Operations centers. Our 710,000 people deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity every day, serving clients in more than 120 countries. We embrace the power of change to create value and shared success for our clients, people, shareholders, partners, and communities. Visit us at accenture.com.

With climate change being one of the most urgent challenges facing society, BASF has launched a partnership with JA Worldwide and eight JA member nations to encourage young people to contribute to a just transition and a sustainable future. Today, young people make up over 40% of the world’s population.  With a profound shift toward a greater emphasis on building sustainability in all facets of life: the economy, the environment, and society, we are obligated to actively engage young people in this dynamic transformation. Through this collaboration, BASF joins JA in its abiding belief that youth must play a central role now as we build a just and sustainable future. 

Thanks to this new global partnership, JA Worldwide and BASF aim to raise awareness among young people about climate change-induced consequences for their communities and the need for climate adaptation and a just transition. Through their participation in Young Voices for a Sustainable Future, and thanks to the support of more than 40 BASF volunteers from around the world, 800 students from Brazil, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Uganda, and Vietnam will ideate and innovate creative solutions to ensure a more just and sustainable future for the planet.

Dr Christoph Jaekel, Vice President Corporate Sustainability of BASF said that “it is a great honour to team up with a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, to help amplify the voice and power of the youth and the role they play in sustainable development. We are convinced that by offering such opportunities to young people, we will help contribute to building better communities throughout the world”. 

Asheesh Advani, CEO of JA Worldwide, praised the partnership and said, “Young people want to be part of tomorrow’s solutions, especially when it comes to global challenges such as sustainability. We are delighted that BASF wants to hear their voice, involve them in finding solutions to shared issues, and give them an opportunity to contribute to sustainable development.”

Junior Achievement Uganda

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ABOUT JA WORLDWIDE

As one of the world’s largest youth-serving NGOs, JA Worldwide prepares young people for employment and entrepreneurship. As one of the world’s largest and most impactful youth-serving NGOs, JA delivers hands-on, immersive learning in work readiness, financial health, entrepreneurship, sustainability, STEM, economics, citizenship, ethics, and more. 

Reaching more than 12 million young people each year through nearly half a million teachers and business volunteers, JA Worldwide is one of few organizations with the scale, experience, and passion to build a brighter future for the next generation of innovators, entrepreneurs, and leaders.

The impact of JA’s learning experiences goes beyond the lives of individual students. For over 100 years, JA has operated all over the world, even in areas of political instability, violence, and war, ready to help students through the unemployment, poverty, and hopelessness that stem from such conditions. 

By helping youth develop the employment and entrepreneurial tools to find meaningful work and start sustainable companies, JA serves as a conduit for peace and prosperity. Through JA, young people are equipped with the skillset and mindset to build thriving communities.

Our network of 500,000 business mentors and teachers deliver economic empowerment to youth at scale: Every year through JA, millions of young people, ages 5 to 25, are equipped with the mindset and skillset to build thriving communities.

Media Contact:
T: +233 577 680 373
[email protected]

February 21, 2022, Accra – JA Africa’s Company of the Year Competition (COY) returns for the 11^th edition from February 24 – 26, 2022, bringing together Africa’s most impressive high school entrepreneurs for this contest of business skills, ingenuity, and innovation. COY 2021 will be hosted virtually by JA Mauritius under the theme ‘Innovating with Grit.’ The theme is inspired by students who have demonstrated resilience and adaptability in overcoming setbacks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses that have survived the pandemic are those that were able to innovate and adapt quickly to new systems and processes that enabled them to continue serving customers despite school closures and other challenges.

The competition, organized annually, is the culminating event of the JA Company Program, which is a 16 week-long business training program that equips young people with entrepreneurial and employability skills needed for career success. Working in teams, the students develop their business skills by starting their own companies while in school. They design, produce, market, and sell their products and services, giving them real-world exposure to the world of business.

“We are grateful to our headline sponsors FedEx and Citi Foundation, who have supported this competition from inception eleven years ago,” said Simi Nwogugu, CEO of JA Africa. “Our partners from PMIEF and Tomorrow Foundation have enhanced the Company Program by infusing it with project management principles and digital skills training to better prepare our beneficiaries for the future of work.”

Nine teams have emerged as finalists from Côte d’Ivoire, Eswatini, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and will battle to impress JA Africa’s panel of judges comprising global business professionals to earn the coveted title of Company of the Year and the prizes that come with it. The highest among the prizes at stake will be the opportunity to represent the Africa region at the Ralph de la Vega Global Entrepreneurship Competition which will bring together COY winners from the six regions where JA Worldwide operates to compete for awards, $15,000, educational opportunities, and more.

For information on how to watch COY 2021 online, visit www.ja-africa.org/coy2021.

JA Africa:

Junior Achievement (JA) Africa equips young Africans with the employability and entrepreneurial skills and mindset they need to build thriving communities. Through the delivery of financial literacy, work readiness, and entrepreneurship training and in collaboration with schools, technical/ vocational centers and other partners, JA Africa works in 13 countries reaching over 250,000 youth each year. Learn more about us at www.ja-africa.org.

FedEx Corp:

FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) provides customers and businesses worldwide with a broad portfolio of transportation, e-commerce and business services. With annual revenue of $90 billion, the company offers integrated business solutions through operating companies competing collectively, operating collaboratively and innovating digitally under the respected FedEx brand. Consistently ranked among the world’s most admired and trusted employers, FedEx inspires its 600,000 team members to remain focused on safety, the highest ethical and professional standards and the needs of their customers and communities. FedEx is committed to connecting people and possibilities around the world responsibly and resourcefully, with a goal to achieve carbon-neutral operations by 2040. To learn more, please visit about.fedex.com.

Citi Foundation:
The Citi Foundation works to promote economic progress and improve the lives of people in low-income communities around the world. We invest in efforts that increase financial inclusion, catalyze job opportunities for youth, and reimagine approaches to building economically vibrant communities. The Citi Foundation’s “More than Philanthropy” approach deploys the enormous expertise of Citi and its people to fulfill our mission and drive thought leadership and innovation.

Tomorrow Foundation:

Tomorrow Foundation supports African development. They harness technology and bring the most useful techniques and technologies affordably to all Africans to improve their living standards and boost the economies of African countries.

Junior Achievement (JA) Uganda and Ray of Hope Medical Missions are proud to announce a strategic partnership that will result into a cutting-edge, experiential and inspirational learning opportunity for at least 100 youths in villages around the Hope Centre, in Bigando, Rakai District.

The partnership brings together both organizations whose missions are largely similar when it comes to youth development. Tailoring JA’s tested and proven practical entrepreneurship, financial literacy plus skills for employability model–The JA Company Program. JA shall involve an innovative approach that blends the acquisition of technical skills with an entrepreneurial perspective at the same time cultivating positive attitudes and other salient soft skills that will enable the youth in Rakai to learn to work and win with others in society.

JA Uganda and Ray of Hope will pilot this program in 2022 among under privileged young people in Rakai between the ages of 18-35. We shall involve an innovative approach that blends the acquisition of technical skills with an entrepreneurial perspective at the same time cultivating positive attitudes and other salient soft skills that will enable the youth learn to work and win with others in society.

This learning by doing practical methodology delivered in small groups  deep-dives them into the economic world putting them at the Centre stage of the learning process, evoking knowledge, ability to do, eagerness to act (i.e. utilizing knowledge and skill acquired) to enable them stand up and be counted plus live together in fair and economically able livelihoods.

The Learning Concepts will Include; Self-awareness, Exploration of own environment, skills, abilities and resources for business idea generation, Business plan, Capitalization, Company structure, Entrepreneurial facts, myths, and traits, Financial tools, Launch a business venture, Leadership, Marketing, Personal action plan, Pitch, Product development process, Product and service evaluation, Quality control, Sales techniques, Supply chain, SWOT analysis, Annual reporting, Liquidation etc. Participants shall be inspired to form and register formally group venture to benefit from available youth, women and many more government prosperity/empowerment initiatives.

The outcomes of the proposed project will be empowered youth in the community with Entrepreneurial skills and knowledge that is necessary for them to establish and effectively manage businesses enterprise.

5 of the trained youth will receive additional training so they can mentor both other youth for sustainability purposes.

About JA Uganda:

Junior Achievement (JA) is one of the largest global NGOs dedicated to addressing fundamental social and economic challenges of young people by educating and empowering them to transform their future and own their economic success.

Through the delivery of cutting-edge, experiential learning in financial literacy, work readiness, and entrepreneurship, we effectively broaden the canvas of possibility for young people and enrich their ability to both engage in their own economic development and contribute to the strength of their families, communities, and economies.

Junior Achievement Uganda (JA) is a non-profit organization established in 2008 in Uganda as a member nation of JA Worldwide operating mainly in schools & for the last 3 years, involving out of school youth impacting over 130000 learners with the JA flagship program—the JA Company Program to date.

About Ray of Hope Medical Missions:

Ray of Hope Medical Missions is a 501c (3) non-profit organization on a mission to catalyze positive change among underprivileged communities. Since its beginnings in 2012, the organization has been striving to make a global impact by sharing Christ’s love, facilitating life-changing surgeries for children of underdeveloped countries, reducing infant mortality by providing a modern birthplace; and providing mission opportunities both internationally and in the home.

Media Contact:

T: +256 703 105136

[email protected]