LéO @ 5: Announcing the Magnus Mchunguzi Certificate for outstanding Leadership by a Fellow

As we celebrate the five years of the Institute’s existence through 2018, the Institute will on 27th January, 2018 convene at Lake Victoria Serena Golf Resort & Spa in graduating the first cohort of twenty individuals of the Young and Emerging Leaders Project fellowship. This is a major milestone on the journey to build a community of thousands of young and emerging change leaders on the continent over the next ten years. The YELP was launched in 2016, and inducted its first participants in early 2017.

At the graduation ceremony, which will be part of the final seminar for the 2017 class, Alinaitwe Cleofash will be crowned as the inaugural recipient of the Magnus Mchunguzi Certificate of Outstanding Leadership by a Fellow.

‘The YELP has been a really good experience. When I finally got a chance to meet all the fellows, I realised this was a high caliber of people with whom I had to work and it has brought out the best in me.’ ~ Alinaitwe Cleofash, inaugural recipient of the @mmchunguzi certificate. pic.twitter.com/EhFNbAGJ3k

— LéO Africa Institute (@LeoAfricaInst) January 26, 2018

In preparing for presentation of the Award, we added an extra veneration to Cleofash’s recognition with a Distinction, because of the demonstrated confidence and respect his fellow YELPees attached to his selection.

Over course of a year, the fellows of the YELP program undertake study in thought leadership, leadership skills and engage in leadership conversation with leaders who have managed and succeeded in addressing outstanding challenges in their leadership journey (Careers, entrepreneurship, social engagements, public service roles).

The fellows are selected from among an impressive pool of young and emerging leaders who are already leaders in their own right, advancing or championing progressive social causes, personal careers, and businesses with significant impact on societies they live in.
By investing in these young champions, we are building a community of change agents who will emerge as the key drivers of politics, media, economy and foreign engagements with the rest of the world.

It is in this breadth that we recognize an outstanding African leader, Magnus Mchunguzi, with the establishment of the certificate to recognize outstanding leadership by a fellow.

The story between Myself, Magnus and birth of the Institute as we know it today, is one of inspiration, comradeship, fellowship and how two humans can meet and connect over a powerful idea which could change society.

It is of faith, trust, and friendship which will continue to inspire our community with the demonstrated power of networks, and concern for our collective good.

Magnus, in his unwavering faith in Africa, its potential of its people, and his commitment to ideals of building a good society, believed in the idea that established the foundation from which the institute stands today. In his generosity, he contributed a great deal of moral encouragement, with the belief that what we were setting off to achieve was possible, and demonstrated this faith with donation of a generous gift that became the grant on which it was built.

The value we add in lives of hundreds of young Africans, contributing to achieving their success, and guiding them to living significant lives is what makes all the contributions everyone makes much more worthwhile.

Ten or twenty years from today, the seed that was planted in a café in Johannesburg South Africa in late 2011, and all the sacrifices so many have made, makes the Institute what is. Years from now we shall all look back and feel privileged to have had the opportunity, and foresight to do what we are doing today.

We salute Magnus Mchunguzi and his family, for their generosity, and having faith in young Africans, in their quest to transform their lives and their communities for the better. We are proud to honor this spirit with establishing this certificate in his honor.

On behalf of the whole LéO Africa community, I am very proud to announce this news to our network and to congratulate Cleofash Alinaitwe on his selection by his peers as a worthy recipient.