SINA (Social Innovation Academy) pioneers regenerative communities for a freesponsible world. Every individual can rise to their fullest potentials regardless of background. Our changemaker-maker model empowers Africa’s youth, especially those from challenging backgrounds, to become the change they want to see in the world. With SINAs sprouting across Africa through a self-organized replication approach, the role of disadvantaged youth is reversed from passive recipients of aid to active drivers of their own future, one community at a time. By taking on responsibilities and roles to run SINA, youth create their own curriculum, gain relevant skills, and create social enterprises while leveraging existing strengths to turn challenges into opportunities. An entire generation takes purpose-aligned action and creates a future for themselves in Africa.
The Social Problem
Unemployment stands at the heart of hopelessness amongst youth in Africa. With the youth population expected to double by 2050, young people lack opportunities and prospects, which fuels instability and perpetuates poverty. In Uganda alone, an estimated 700,000 new entrants join the labor market each year to compete for only 12.000 available formal jobs and it is not uncommon that one formal job announcement attracts over 2.000 applicants. The lack of economic opportunity, together with violent conflicts and effects of the climate crises have led to 44 million refugees and displaced people in Africa (see: UNHCR).
Our Solution
“When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.”
―Alexander den Heijer
SINA transforms disadvantaged youth into social entrepreneurs through a cost-effective and freesponsible community approach. SINA unleashes and nurtures the intrinsic drive within each of its “scholars.” Tailor-made empowerment stages and self-management processes support scholars to define their own path and put the power of education in their own hands. Enabled as changemakers, scholars often turn challenges into opportunities to make a sustainable living out of what they are passionate about.
The SINA model is creating resilient and self-reliant communities establishing their own solutions instead of waiting for support from the outside. Since the solutions become social enterprises, they are independent of donations and often tackle challenges at their roots.
Scaling SINA
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” ―R. Buckminster Fuller
SINA is living the world we want to see around us. We are setting examples of a different system where everyone is powerful and can pursue their dreams and create a prosperous and dignified life. The SINA model is becoming a movement beyond empowerment and makes everyone a leader and follower at the same time. It intrinsically motivates all members with full ownership of their destinies. The results are remarkable if we let people create their own solutions and distribute power into their own hands and lead to jobs created and a pathway to self-reliance through social entrepreneurship.
SINA’s model fosters systemic change as the roles of disadvantaged youth and communities change from dependency to self-reliance. Through a self-organized replication approach, we scale the impact and reverse the role of disadvantaged youth from passive recipients of aid to active drivers of their own future from 12 SINAs in 2023 to 1.000 SINAs in 2033.
Join us
Shape the future and empower Africa’s youth to transform challenges into opportunities, one community at a time.