“BIRTHRIGHT AFRICA” NON-PROFIT PROVIDES FREE EDUCATIONAL AFRICA TRIPS FOR YOUNG BLACKS

BIRTHRIGHT AFRICA

[“Birthright Africa”\Free Education Trips To Africa]
Birthright AFRICA inspires youth and young adults of African descent ages 13 – 30 to explore their cultural roots and legacy of innovation within the United States and select nations in Africa as a birthright through travel and project-based learning.
Photo: Birthright AFRICA

Birthright AFRICA inspires youth and young adults of African descent ages 13 – 30 to explore their cultural roots and legacy of innovation within the United States and select nations in Africa as a birthright.

Through travel and project-based learning in collaboration with our partners, we aim to instill pride, enhance confidence, and spark the creativity of our Scholars to fulfill their leadership and entrepreneurial aspirations.

Formed in 2015, by co-founders Walla Elsheikh and Diallo Shabazz, Birthright AFRICA is creating the next generation of global leaders and entrepreneurs that are proud of their African heritage, confident in their innovative aspirations, and connected to the continent. BirthrightAFRICA commemorated 2019 as the “Year of Return” in Ghana, marking the 400-year anniversary of the first ship of enslaved Africans arriving in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. As of 2019, the organization has sent 61 Scholars in collaboration with partners including the City University of New York and sponsors like HBO.

On February 3rd, Birthright AFRICA was featured on CNN TRAVEL article entitled: “Young Black-Americans who want to explore their roots can take a free birthright trip to Africa. Here’s How.”  The article highlights how the organization brings an education that you cannot find in a local classroom but with travel and storytelling.

“The goal is to build caravan of young people that connect and learn from their African culture and history, broadening an understanding of self while in community with their peers within the U.S. and on the continent,” said Walla Elsheikh, CEO of Birthright AFRICA. “Having CNN endorse us at the start of Black History Month will elevate the mission and affirm the narrative of Africa as an aspirational place for travel, cultural exchange, and future opportunity as well as fun.” 

Birthright AFRICA scholar Shaina Louis, a 23-year-old Haitian student raised in New York, described, to CNN, the positive impact her 2018 birthright trip to Ghana had on her:

“Prior to Birthright Africa, I had a lot of pent up resentment and antagonism due to a history that I felt my people had no say in. For those of us in the diaspora, our history, according to the textbooks, starts with slavery. I was doubtful and kind of cynical about what the future holds not only for me as an individual but also for Black people as a whole. There is a sense of inner peace and ease I now have, that wasn’t there before. I can move forward with my life, with the intention behind everything I do.”

Kareem Williams, a 26-year-old scholar of Jamaican descent who went to Ghana on his birthright trip in 2019 told CNN “There’s so much prejudice and microaggressions [in the U.S.] that I didn’t feel in Ghana. I felt so connected to my ancestors for the first time. When I came back to the US, I realized how much it changed me. Like my life will never be the same.”

“National Black History Month often focuses on the past, but this is about creating an infrastructure so that we can help people transform their futures,” Birthright AFRICA co-founder Diallo Shabazz told CNN. The organization is working to scale and partner with high schools, colleges, and community-based organizations throughout the U.S. and is expanding in 2020 to serve youth and young adults of African descent in Washington, D.C.

For more information on Birthright AFRICA or to donate please visit www.birthrightafrica.org.

About Birthright AFRICA

Birthright AFRICA inspires youth and young adults of African descent ages 13 – 30 to explore their cultural roots and legacy of innovation within the United States and select nations in Africa as a birthright. Through travel and project-based learning in collaboration with our partners, we aim to instill pride, enhance confidence, and spark the creativity of our Scholars to fulfill their leadership and entrepreneurial aspirations.

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