Philanthropist, actress and brand ambassador, Nomzamo Mbatha will be returning to The States once again for next weekend's Global First Ladies Alliance Summit, under the theme: The Future Of Women and Defining Leadership For A New Era.
Mbatha will be joined by 22-year-old Zingisa Socikwa and 16-year-old Amonge Sinxoto, the socially and economically aware founders of Black Board Africa, an organization aimed at building a platform where African youth can develop a unified voice.
In fact, it was Socikwa and Sinxoto who invited Mbatha to the summit as they have been working with her for the past few months. The pair have also been working with her ahead of her first dialogue summit, to take place in Durban (27 September 2017), under the theme of: A Socially Safe Environment Conducive To Mutual Acceptance.
Amonge and Zingisa have been an empowering and learning experience for me, with their incredible strides as young black women. Their passion and awareness truly speak to the theme of this year’s GFLA summit: The Future Of Women and Defining Leadership For A New Era. They are audacious, strong and forward thinking and I know that I am accompanying young women who will truly represent our continent, by not only exporting their ideas but also importing some to implement back home,” said Mbatha.
“Nomzamo adopted us as her little sisters, which is in line with one of Black Board’s successful initiatives, 'Little Sister. Big Sister.' It has been just over a year of taking Black Board to the youth and she has been of tremendous help to take us under her wing and has helped us to enhance our vision. We are all on the mission to celebrate and build up African youth,” explained Socikwa in a statement.
In the last year, Black Board Afica’s focus has been, through its monthly gatherings, to create stimulating dialogues that encourage young people to share their stories in pursuit of enhancing change amongst each other. Their mission has been to cultivate and stimulate the voice of the youth of Africa, theme that resonates and is in line with Nomzamo Mbatha’s upcoming nationwide Youth Summit Dialogues.
“Black Board Africa’s main aim is to build a global network, from which all young Africans can engage on the common cause of redefining the leadership of the continent. We want to represent ourselves as we are, an informed youth. A youth that is aware of its citizenry in the world and to unify across the globe by influencing not just the progression on a beautiful continent, but the world at large. It is a huge honor to be invited to such a momentous event” added Sinxoto.
The event is scheduled to take place on 21 September 2017, in Manhattan, New York. The event is co-hosted by the United Nations Assembly, Facebook, MAC AIDS FUND and Okay Africa.
Main image credit: Supplied
