With a network of over 1,400 leaders from 115 countries, the Atlas Corps Community is growing every day. It is time to look back and to showcase the achievements of amazing network and share stories on the global impact of our Alumni, Fellows, and Scholars.
Today we speak with Atlas Corps Scholar Aléré (Cohort 8, Côte d’Ivoire) from our Atlas Corps: Côte d’Ivoire Emerging Leaders Initiative. Aléré is the Founder and CEO of ALeREAI (Aid and Leadership for Rural Education Access Initiative), a nongovernment organization dedicated to supporting quality education, entrepreneurship and professional integration of youth.
Aléré, we are grateful for your impressive work towards creating educational opportunities for youth in Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, and Algeria. Thank you for sharing with us your global impact, as well as your personal and professional growth. We wish you the best with this impactful work!
Name: Aléré Venceslas Kouame, KOUAKOU Home Country: Côte d’Ivoire Current Organization: ALeREAI Role at current organization: Founder and CEO Social Issues that you have worked with: Quality education; Industry, innovation and infrastructure; Partnerships for the goals |
Tell us about projects you have worked on?
As the Founder of ALeREAI, an NGO and a social startup in quality education, I implement innovative projects towards education in Africa. As far as any projects are concerned, I have worked as a technopreneur where I implement graduate training on phone repairing projects to anyone interested in pursuing this type of job. I am also supporting and helping other countries, like Burkina Faso and Algeria, to implement this graduate training.
Why is it important for you to work towards quality education?
Ever since I have been working as an education development practitioner, I’ve noticed the bridge between education and job title. For example, there are no official training centers for training technicians in phone repair. To me, this is a necessary social issue in the world of technopreneurships and so I worked to sort out this issue by initiating graduate training in the phone repairing sector in order for others to be official skilled technicians.
How has Atlas Corps contributed to your professional and personal accomplishments?
Atlas Corps has been helpful in both my professional and personal accomplishments. I have built a huge network with Scholars and Fellows, which will forever help me in my career development. As a matter of fact, I have learned a lot about the different social issue that our world is facing and have acquired the skills and knowledge for creating and leading a team. Also, I appreciate the “lessons learned” meetings in any stage of the project implementation.
What is your favorite Atlas Corps memory?
My favorite Atlas Corps memory is the peer coaching period because it enables us to talk with other Fellows. Thanks to Atlas Corps, I met other like-minded people in education. I had discussions with and advice from different captains in education issues.
Even more, I liked the impact of technology which brings us together knowing that all of us live far away from one another.
What advice do you have for applicants and current Scholars?
I would like to tell any applicants that the importance of any change in social issues is in the networking that you build. If they want to grow socially and professionally, Atlas Corps is the corner stone as far as networking is concerned.
Also, for the Fellows and Scholars, I advise them to put in practice the skills that they acquire from the trainings and to continue learning through the networking and the connections we made because education has no limit.
What message would you like to send to individuals who support Atlas Corps?
I would like to thank all individuals (Volunteers, Donors, and the Board of Directors) who support Atlas Corps. Because of them, both Atlas Corps and its Scholars and Fellows have gained respectively support and training. So, as leaders, we have to give back to the new generation what we leaders from these individuals financially, professionally, and socially. Otherwise, I urge them on helping and supporting Atlas Corps and its Scholars and Fellows.
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Photos from Aléré‘s personal archive