Who is he? SIR ALEX FAVOUR DIVINE
What does he do? EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, YOUTH FOR CHANGE INCORPORATION (YCI)
Sir Alex is a young Liberian born December 4th in the 1980’s; an educator, with thirteen years experience as a youth developer in his Home country, entrepreneur and the executive director of youth for Change Incorporation. He has an associate degree in criminal justice at Smart Institute, Liberia, and a Bachelor’s degree (B.A) in Sociology at the University of Liberia in 2014.
As an adolescent, Alex was a good talker. Finding out who he was, he channeled this to a worthy cause by joining the debate team of his school while in high School. Soon after that, at smart institute, he found his passion for acting, joined the Liberia movie Industry which was at the time still trying to gain her footing, established The Liberia Acting school -a movie school where the rising and aspiring actors in the country attend to sharpen their skills – and became the first spoke person for the school.
Alex began the journey of discovery long ago before he got into the University of Liberia in 2005 but it was at this stage he started seeing his leadership ability vividly. At the University, he started event planning and was privileged to plan that year’s edition of Miss University of Liberia, a beauty pageant contest sponsored by the then President. This became a huge success and his leadership role got fully blown.
He took it upon himself to groom young high school students in dictions, debate and engage them in academically oriented activities. This continues until the Birth of Youth For Change Incorporation. YCI was conceived in 2013, during the Ebola outbreak which took away the lives of many and rendered some orphans, and widow basically to raise funds for the family of those affected. After a year of her subtle existence, The organization became officially established in 2014.
The youth for change Incorporation goes by the motto :”our present determines our future”. The initiative has three major segments which are: Education- this comprises the national debate championships organized to discover, nurture and launch potential leaders into their future, and a program called E-up designed to engage poor kids who are out of the school and with nothing to do in academic mixed with recreational activities; secondly, Mentorship programs adopted to transfer leadership skills into others as it is a strong believe at YCI that “ leadership is about you making many of your kind” and finally, Academic empowerment where scholarship opportunities be it local or international are awarded to students.
YCI has been a great initiative since inception gaining recognition not only in Liberia but Also in other countries. Started the national debate championship with 20 high schools in 2015 which steadily increased to 80 and 120 in 2016 and 2017 respectively. A significant record was set in the history of Liberia in 2017, courtesy of YCI when a representative of African Debate Championship from South Africa sent an invitation of participation for the year’s edition of the tournament and Liberia went home with third place and won the most outstanding team title in the entire tournament having won 5 out of 8 games which no first timer has ever got pass 2 games and best delegation from West Africa ahead of Ghana and Nigeria. Also about a year ago, 9 students from YCI went to The world high school debate championship held in Croatia as Representatives of Liberia with 63 other countries and their performance was a record breaker going from stage 0-8 out of ten stages.
Currently, there are four students who are beneficiary of the Scholarship opportunities. Two in University of Cadd Ayyad, Morocco and the other two in Wittenberg University, Ohio and China University of Mining and technology respectively.
The Youth for Change corporation believes in collaboration and has partnered and in partnership with various like minded institutions like
The Ministry of Education, Liberia, Ministry of Youth & Sport, Liberia, Orange Liberia, USAID, World BANK Group Liberia, Cummings Africa Foundation, Gbowee Africa Peace Foundation to mention but a few and several individuals.
Following his humanitarian services and Leadership abilities, Alex Divine has received various award of which among is the Global Goodwill ambassador, personality of the month by LIFT, Liberia and one of the top 50 change makers by Business insider, 2019 maiden edition.
All work and no play, make jack a dull boy they say. Sir Alex’s definition of fun is a lone time out in a serene environment and listening to music (with pat preference to jazz) is one of the ways he unwind. He is a huge fan of tekno (can you believe that?)
“For Some reasons, I like his style of music. Tekno’s songs are powerful” -Sir Alex D.
He also loves listening to songs by KCW, Sarkodie among others.
In his opinion, Sir Alex recommended that to create the Africa of our dream we must invest in grooming our mindsets because the ability to think about others birth a more concerned leadership.
“We are rich in natural resources but poor in the mind and poverty in the mind is poverty in the Nation…first off, train the mind to know that leadership is more of giving than taking…”
