A CHAT WITH CYRILLE ZONGO — Co-Founder African Youth Initiative for Development (AYID)

I’m excited to be interviewing my Burkina Faso friend and fellow alumni of the YALI RLC; Cyrille Wendyanaba K. Zongo.

Who is Cyrille Wendyanaba K. Zongo?

I love to call myself an eternal learner. I believe that Knowledge is the one thing nobody can snatch from you even if you lost everything. I was lucky enough to go to school and to learn that our brains have no limit. I came to realize that the more we are open to learning, the better we become as a person and as a professional. So, I constantly challenge myself to learn different things including learning about people. How I do it is through reading and observation and meditation although I am quite not a silent type of person. However, I learned with COVID-19 that silence can be peaceful and can help you connect more with yourself, which every human being must often do.

I graduated with a Master of Business Administration from the Rochester Institute of Technology coupled with an Advanced Certificate in Project Management. As a Fulbright scholar and against all odds, I came to study in the United States so I could learn and be of better help to my community. I believe that every young person has a key role to play for the prosperity of the African Continent. This battle should be prepared now and should not be overstated. Hence, in 2018, I Co-Founded African Youth Initiative for Development (AYID) to help make a change in my community through investing in youth. AYID, has the goal of contributing to creating a positive and sustainable social change within the African communities through enabling youth to develop their full potential while participating in the development of their communities.

I love to give back and to enjoy good times with people that are dear to me. This is because many people that are passionate about change are so much dedicated that they forget who they are actually creating the change for. It is important to not only enjoy some time with ourselves but also with our loved ones. This is how we create love, and love makes peace, and peace brings prosperity.

What would you call your greatest achievement?

I achieved a lot in my short life, however, graduating with an MBA degree as a Fulbright Scholar is one of the greatest ones. Indeed, the Fulbright Program is one of the most prestigious scholarships in the world and financed by the US Department of State. Getting selected was a tough and extremely selective process. However, the hardest part is to survive the journey in the US. Although the experience is rewarding, the challenges are however extreme. Far from home and your comfort zone, you have to face a whole new world and most of the time, alone. Thanks to God and with the support of my family, friends and the wonderful people that adopted me here, I was able to make my way through with very satisfying results. This degree is an important milestone in my journey to success and I intend to use it to make a difference.

Have you ever failed at something, what was it?

I have failed many times. Actually, I fail every day. And this makes me so much good because I learn a lot from it. If you don’t fail, you don’t learn. There is no problem with failing but there is a problem is you do not rise up from that failure. I failed in my second year of university. I had to redo the year while my friends all moved up to the next class. There are many reasons that explain why I failed but the reasons for failure are not as important as what you make of that failure. I was only retaking a few classes. I used the spare time to engage in different extracurricular activities such as volunteering and taking various technical training. This setback gave me the opportunity to reevaluate my priorities and to better prepare to move forward. I could have flogged myself so hard or destroyed my life, but I saw in that an opportunity. For me, failing is just like flowing water; when the flow reaches the mountain and cannot go through, it goes around it. Here I am today! That failure did not stop me, instead, it gave me wings.

How have your relationships helped your journey?

One thing that is common knowledge in my culture and across Africa, in general, is that you never go on a journey alone — I was no exception. Throughout my journey, I have come across many people that have impacted my life in one way or the other. I believe that every single person that God brings to your way teaches you a valuable lesson that you can leverage to move forward — this life philosophy helps me see the good in every person, thus leading me to develop very good relationships and wonderful interactions with people.

My mentors helped me to grow professionally and as a human being. In fact, It is important for young folks to have mentors, people that can guide them, not to achieve their mentors’ vision but, to accomplish their own. I also have some friends, across the globe that believe in me and support me in different circumstances. Very recently, I received a big surprise from a group of friends across the UK and Burkina Faso, as a gift for my recent graduation. What touched me is not really the gift but the nice words, wishes and thoughts that came along with the gift. This came about at a challenging period of my life where I really needed that kind of mental support. Seeing how many people love you and believe in you is a powerful engine for a long, challenging but rewarding journey and I wish every young folk to have that kind of social support.

Finally, my family has been of great support to me. From my father who battled hard to provide I and my siblings a better life, to my mother who never stopped believing and praying for me, I have been very blessed. That said, family is not only a biological link, family is also the one you make with your friends, colleagues, mentors, mentees and partners.

What have you learnt living across various cultures?

I had the privilege to meet and interact with people from various cultures across the globe. I met people from India, Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, China, Japan, Korea, Columbia, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Laos, Myanmar and much more. What I have learned is that we do have different beliefs, opinions and processes but we share much more similarities. I love this quote from a former Ghanian ICS volunteer who said this “We may be different in a million ways, but our need for love, security and justice have made us similar in a billion ways we could never imagine.” In fact, what unites us is much more than what divides us. If we were humble and honest enough to acknowledge that, the world would be a much better place.

However, we should not lose hope in the middle of what we see on the news nowadays: a suffering world, a world that goes to war against itself. Instead, it should be a call that there is much more to do and everybody has a role to play in this quest for peace and justice.

How did you get into international networks?

If you do what you are passionate about, it takes you everywhere. I recently saw a movie called “The boy who harnessed the wind” a drama inspired by a real-life story written in a science book, where a 13-year-old William Kamkwamba built a wind turbine to save his Malawian village from famine. Kamkwamba was born in a family of relative poverty and relied primarily on farming to survive. After what we accomplished for his village, local farmers and journalists started investigating. His fame grew up to open him to multiple opportunities which resulted in him being covered by popular magazines such as the New York Times. Today, William is among under 30 that are changing the world.

Even Though I did not achieve what William was able to accomplish, my path was not so different. I was able to make a significant difference within my community including launching an Organization (African Youth Initiative for Development) with regard to what we have accomplished and the various awards and recognition is one of the most impactful in the country. What I am trying to say is that I did not seek to get into an international network, it came to me through constant determination and good work. From being a YALI fellow to becoming a Fulbright scholar, I have come a long way. Every single person can follow the same path as long as they truly invest themselves in what they know and like doing most.

What are some of the challenges you’ve faced with AYID?

Starting the NGO itself was a big challenge. It was my first time setting up an organization. It’s one thing to join an already working organization, and it’s another thing to create one from scratch and to lead its vision. When we founded AYID, I had 2 months left before I travel to the USA. I had to make sure I have a top team, trained, and ready to perform the vision that I had shared with them.

The second challenge pertained to developing the organizational strategies and processes. As a just born organization, we did not have any reference as to what our strategies and processes were. We decided to use the 2 years as a learning experience. We made a lot of mistakes, such as hiring a huge number of members, bigger than what we could manage. Quickly, we started having some dropouts and this impacted our velocity at some point. However, it was an opportunity to access our strengths and weaknesses, streamline our hiring processes, and improved our management strategy and technics. We had some ups and downs but we survived and now, we are stronger than ever.

How have you been getting funding?

Our main funding source is internal. One of our financial strategies is to be as autonomous as possible. This means, developing a better internal resource collection system, optimizing the delivery of our projects by leveraging our human capital to reduce project cost while providing the same value. That said, finances are still limited with regard to our future programs. We have high ambitions and big expectations for this organization, therefore, we are working to develop partnerships across the globe. We already have a few partners such as Aid and Save who believe in us, and I would like to thank them.

Do you think NGOs are helping Africans?

NGOs do bring several benefits to the population. They help release the pains and sufferings of the people at the bottom of the Pyramid. That said, the relief is for a short period, but the pain sustains. So, I personally believe that NG0s work can be redefined to meet the real needs of African people. Issues should be prioritized and approaches to solving those issues should be innovative. We are trying in our NGO to apply this concept.

What are the top 5 things you would recommend anyone starting an NGO to look out for?

• Have a clear vision, mission statement, and strategy
• Put together a great team. Don’t just look for skill-ready people, also look for those that need to grow and let all of them take ownership and identify themselves to the vision.
• Be flexible and ready to make tweaks. Consider your NGO as a startup.
• Reinforcement your ability to raise funds internally. Your very first years, you may not have any support and will depend on solely yourself. But work hard to prove partners they can trust you and you will succeed. Nobody will finance an organization that does not have any project records.
• Look for strategic partners and learn not to grow fast.

Give a piece of advice to teenagers in the 21st century

I will not claim to be wise but what I’ve learnt throughout my journey is that personal values are key to success. Values such as determination, hard work and integrity have described my entire life and reflect in everything I do. It is important for teenagers to identify a few values that will define them. People will know and respect you for who you are before they can respect what you do. That’s how they are going to be the ethical leaders that we desperately need nowadays in Corporate Business and in Politics.

What advice do you have for fellow millennials?

To my mates, I will say this: the world is changing fast. New technologies are being created and innovation has become the battle horse for all economic prosperity. It is important to constantly learn and train ourselves to stay abreast of the change. Unfortunately, many of my mates would prefer to be comfortable for fear of failure. When you refuse to update yourself, you quickly become obsolete while the community is still in need of your effective contribution. We have an important mission which is to transition the change we need onto the next generation and we should not fail.

Thank you so much Cyrille for sharing so much with us.