grantees » Ange David Emmanuel Baimey

Ange is a young man from the Ivory Coast who wants to bring positive change to the lives of those in his local community. “Their poverty is a source of motivation to do work that restores hope and life to our communities.”  He became an advocate for the protection of the environment after a catastrophic attack on the health of his city in 2006, where he and his family were very gravely ill, all due to toxic pollution in his area. Already a leader from a young age, he is now the executive Director of Young Volunteers for the Environment (JVE) – Ivory Coast. His dedication is unfaltering, especially as Abidjan is sensitive to political instability and the resulting insecurity.

Ange used the JWH initiative grant to complete an internship with ENDA Tiers Monde in Dakar, Senegal. Much of his work centered on research in the mangrove region of Joal Fadiouth, both on environmental issues and evaluating a women’s organization. His analysis taught him about the need for a formal framework to ensure efficacy and transparency of international funding, but through the experience he also learnt a lot: “[I] was very close to the team ENDA AfricaAdapt, working on the sharing of knowledge on adaptation to climate change, [and I] learned a lot about the management of this task force […] and many environmental issues about which I did not have a great knowledge of”.  He also realized that there is more work to be done on journalistic and technological communication competencies, an area he is looking to improve on. Ange used part of his JWH initiative grant to follow English lessons to that effect, overcoming the severe disruption to class schedule due to the political conflict in Abidjan.

Ange feels there was many a lesson learnt from his experience. For one, “the good working atmosphere at the [ENDA] office, with a sprit of solidarity and family, is an example to replicate”. Overall, “the JWH initiative scholarship helped the acquisition of valuable knowledge for my work and has inspired a dynamic that will benefit my organization and civil society in Ivory Coast in general”. He continues to work for the continual building of his personal capacities, especially in civil society, in order “to help resolve the basic problems of our population”.

In future, Ange hopes to continue to have international work experiences in the example of his internship so he can gain new knowledge, especially with new media, which he can then use in his work at JVE Ivory Coast.