YALI Voices Podcast: Education changed his life. Now he’s giving back.

Fombah Kanneh poses with some of the children he is helping with his startup Gift 2 Change. (Courtesy of Fombah Kanneh)
 

Fombah Kanneh grew up in a makeshift house in the slums of Monrovia, Liberia, during the country’s civil war. As in many other cities, slum life in Monrovia is notoriously hard — plagued by drugs, poverty, hunger and peer pressure to engage in destructive behavior.

Speaking with the State Department’s Macon Phillips in a YALI Voices podcast, Kanneh said that, due to his circumstances, he faced “one solid wall” barring a successful future. But thanks to his mother’s sacrifices and determination, he also had “one narrow, slim opportunity” to improve his chances: education.

Kanneh, a 2015 Mandela Washington Fellow, founded the startup Gift 2 Change as a way to give back to his community by supporting single mothers and children who are facing the same challenges he did.

“It’s my responsibility to get somebody from somewhere, especially in the rural areas, in a slum community, to this stage, that one day too, they can have the opportunity to explain their success story,” he said.

“They are not just kids today. But they are the future leaders of tomorrow,” he said.
Gift 2 Change combines environmental sustainability with community building and education projects. Kanneh mobilizes young people from the streets to help him collect scrap materials, compost, bottles and other waste to sell to a friend who runs a recycling center. He uses the money to provide clothing, books, educational materials and training to Liberia’s most marginalized children.

Listen to the full podcast to learn how Kanneh found the inspiration to dedicate himself to his community, and like former South African President Nelson Mandela, has come to believe that education “is the most powerful weapon we can use to transform the world.”