Stay tuned for updates here at the GYPA website as Team Uganda participates in the Inaugural Female Homeless World Cup in Melbourne, Australia from November 30 - December 7, 2009.

The Global Youth Partnership for Africa (GYPA)recently hosted it's first Immersion here in the United States. We hosted youth leaders from Cameroon who previously participated in the US/Cameroon Immersion in Cameroon in June 2007. GYPA participants included: Jeremy Goldberg, Pat Wu, Annelisa Lindsay, and Karen Hopkins. Special thanks to GYPA Alumni: Jaime Alvis, Anna Phillips and David Post who also helped us to facilitate meetings here in Washington, D.C.

Also, special thanks to Saul Garlick, Vanessa Carter, and Julie Michelle-Waltz of SMRC, and Jerual Mackey and Sophie Waskow who are members of the Starting Bloc Institute D.C. Alumni Chapter.

The Cameroon delegation included: MS. ELVIRA LEINYUY, MR. GEORGE NJIFAW, MR. ELVIS BESSINGI, MS. BARI FANSO and MS. PATIENCE ELANGO of the Cameroon Youths and Students Forum for Peace (CAMYOSFOP) in Washington, D.C. November 8 – 14, 2008. These CAMYOSFOP Youth participated in the US/Cameroon Youth Immersion that was held in Cameroon from June 10 – 26, 2007. The Washington, D.C. program served as a platform for further dialogue, potential collaboration and interaction between U.S. and Cameroon Youth.

View photos here

The Washington D.C. Forum discussed ideas, strategies and action items for potential future US/Cameroon collaboration; consisted of meetings on youth development and participation in decision making with youth, NGOs, university students, academics, foundations and other civil societies group. The meetings attended were:

• Amnesty International – Ilona Kelly, Individuals at Risk Campaigner for Africa
• Search for Common Ground – Felix Unogwu, Specialist Children and Youth, Institutional Learning Team
• One Campaign – Josh Lozman, Health Policy Manager
• Ashoka – Simon Stumpf, Africa Division
• National Endowment for Democracy, Dave Peterson, Africa Department Director
• Embassy of Cameroon - Naomie BEGALA MIKEL, Second Counselor
• Washington, D.C. for Obama - Adam Barr, Founder

The participants also presented about their programs and expertise in the following speaking engagements:

• Starting Bloc Institute - Roundtable Discussion on Social Entrepreneurship
• Center for Strategic and International Studies - Next America Fellows Roundtable: US/Cameroon Discussion
• Georgetown University – Student Movement for Real Change Student Chapter Roundtable:“Youth perspectives on the development challenges in the 21st century”

Additionally, the participants participated in cultural tours of Washington, D.C. that included visits and site-seeing to the George Washington University Campus, American University Washington College of Law, Georgetown University Campus, the U.S. Holocaust Museum, Union Station, the Washington National Cathedral, the U.S. Capital Building, the Washington, D.C. National Mall, the White House, the Washington Monument, the Abraham Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts

We are grateful to all of the organizations and individuals who helped to make this a reality and specifically thank the US Embassy in Cameroon and Embassy of Cameroon in Washington, D.C. for their support of this exchange. Finally, a BIG thank you to our friends and partners in development and peace building in Cameroon!