Collaborating for Impact: One Scholar’s Journey

Mastercard Foundation Scholar Writing in Advance of Baobab Summit 2018 in Africa

The 2018 Baobab Summit’s themes are collaboration and innovation. We asked Scholars to share their ideas, in essays or poetry, on how youth can collaborate and innovate to fuel Africa’s social and economic transformation.

Over the years, I have had the opportunity to work in different teams consisting of people from different cultural settings, and sometimes teams of people from different parts of the world. I enjoy working in teams, in part, because I believe that our destinies are intertwined. Most importantly, I love working in teams because the solution that comes out of team effort or in the impact of a team usually transcends that of individual effort.

You might have heard the statement “two heads are better than one”. What this shows is the power of collaboration. That when we come together as people, with a collective goal to achieve, and work together harmoniously, we can do even things we considered impossible in the beginning.

Today, I have stories to tell you. Stories about how I used collaboration to create more impact.

Over the years, education in my hometown of Gunjur in western Gambia has been marred by high teacher-student ratios, inadequate learning materials, and poor infrastructure. These problems have led to a situation where students in my hometown find it difficult to understand the content of the school’s curriculum, and eventually perform poorly in national exams. I was confronted with these problems as an individual who grew up in this community, and wanted to do something about it.

I assisted a few students, but obviously could not make the impact I wanted to. So, I joined an alumni association in my community that seeks to address this issue. Guess what? We have reached out to over 500 students since 2015 by organizing study classes and rewarding the most hard-working students with materials that will assist them in their academic endeavors. As we worked together, we did not just stop at helping students with their studies, we organized yearly seminars to ignite conversations in the community about how to move our community and country forward. This is the power of collaboration.

Another story. In 2017, a realization dawned on me that youth in my community are shying away from agriculture. In Gambia, the problem was dramatic and led to a reduction in national food production. I wanted to do something about it. Initially, I used the skills and the little resources I had to get started. When I realized that I was getting overwhelmed by the issue, I got some of my friends on board and we created a venture called GamFruits.

Based in our hometown in Gambia, this venture seeks to dispel the notion that agriculture is for the poor and the destitute of our communities. Within a span of three months in the summer of 2017, we were able to make a documentary about GamFruits and issued a clarion call for youth to consider agriculture. Aside from the documentary, the team was also able to produce food for the community by engaging in farming. I never expected such success within that small period of time. What is even more exciting about GamFruits is that its unique value proposition of the venture come from the brainstorming we did as a team. This is the power of collaboration.

I will end on this story: from an early age my parents impressed on me the values of integrity and service to community. And so, I have always wanted to do something about the lack of integrity in my community’s high schools, where exam malpractice that has become the order of the day. But I could not do anything about it. However, when I joined a campus project that teaches junior high school students about integrity through design thinking, I was astounded by what we were able to accomplish. We convened students from about five junior high schools in Ghana and imparted them with skills that will help them deal with integrity issues in their schools. Isn’t that phenomenal?  This is the power of collaboration.

See, there is magic in collaboration. Don’t even take my words for it. In an article in the New York Times titled What Google Learned From its Quest to Build the Perfect Team, Charles Duhigg says that “studies show that groups tend to innovate faster, see mistakes more quickly, and find better solutions to problems. Studies also show that people working in teams tend to achieve better results and report higher job satisfaction.”

So, if you are looking forward to making a tremendous impact in your community, your country, or wherever you may find yourself, then collaboration is an indispensable tool

Wuyeh Jobe is a Mastercard Scholar pursuing his studies in computer science at Ashesi University College.