Social entrepreneur and student leader Omar Cisse shared his story with Lea Gabay.
As a final word, I
would like to say that we are on a path to creating new ways of being in the
world because the future is not tomorrow, but today. Why focus so much on the
future when we can do so much now? I have a vision that we are going to create
the kind of world that we want to live in thanks to our incredible youth.
 |
| Omar Cisse |
I am an eternal
optimist. I believe that we, as human beings, are capable of bringing positive
change to the world. Whenever people see me, they can’t help but notice my smiling
face. You may wonder why I walk around,
exhibiting such a cheerful attitude. It’s because I have hope that we can
collectively solve social issues by sharing knowledge and supporting each
other; more importantly, I have faith in the youth of Senegal,for they have what
it takes to create a more just, peaceful, and eco-friendly society.
My
childhood
I was born on February
20th, 1996 in Ziguinchor, a town in the southern part of Senegal,
in a Muslim family. My parents are from two different ethnic groups: My mother
identifies as Mandingue, whereas my father was Saloum Saloum Wolof. My mother
was my father’s fourth wife and had four children. I am the youngest of my
siblings and my entire family. Growing up in a polygamous family has taught me
about the importance of maintaining harmonious relationships and resolving
conflicts in a peaceful manner. Moreover, I am blessed to have had such
supportive parents who ensured that I received an excellent education and
encouraged me to find my passion. Unfortunately, I did not have the chance to
share all of my achievements with my father because he tragically passed away
in 2014 at the age of 82 when I was only 18 years old. Even though we did not
have as much contact when he was working as an airline technical officer at
ASECNA, an international public institution in Senegal, I am grateful for the precious
moments that we had together. I also consider my mother to be the inspiration
for my foray into women’s rights activism. Indeed, she conveyed to me the importance
of respecting women, acknowledging their courage and strength,and being an ally
to them by demanding equal rights.
Thanks to my family’s
support and my own resolve to succeed, I worked hard in school and was able to
pursue my studies at Université Gaston Berger, considered to be the top
university in Senegal, where I am currently studying a Master 2 in
Entrepreneurship and Culture and in Literature and Cinema. To me, literature is
vital to promoting entrepreneurship in order to end unemployment and poverty.
Ready
for action
It was during my time
at the university that I started to develop greater awareness and concern for
the future of young people in Senegalese society. Indeed, I could no longer
ignore the fact that youth unemployment and poverty are social issues that are
continuing to plague my generation. I also noticed that women have few
opportunities to work outside of the home and little access to leadership
roles.
What moved me to action
was realizing that nobody but me could take charge of my life. I needed to
trust myself and acknowledge that I have the ability to effect change in my
community and to inspire others to be the solution to some of the world’s
toughest issues. Previously, when I felt
at a loss, I sought guidance from the words of my role model, Mohammed Yunus, a
Bangladeshi social entrepreneur and civil society leader. I recall a speech that
he gave wherein he advised young people to think creatively in order to create
jobs. Undoubtedly, young people need to be architects and builders. We should
no longer stay passive in the face of social issues. On the contrary, our
purpose is to build movements of positive change to transform the world and improve
living conditions worldwide.
From that moment on, I have
committed myself to ending poverty
by training people in personal development, i.e. leadership skills development
and social entrepreneurship. In so doing, I can help them to recognize their talents
and abilities, become more confident in seeking opportunities, and start their
own business. Moreover, I endeavor to collaborate more
with female students on campus and launch a movement that demands more rights
for women.
My achievements so far
Within the span of 3 years, I became active in a variety
of community-based and youth and women’s empowerment projects:
In 2017, I founded a
student movement called Empowering Women whose aim is to empower Senegalese
women in business. Creating such a movement has enabled me, along with my peers,
to promote women's creativity and skills and to engage them in entrepreneurship.
My goal is also to establish a space where we can discuss ways of fostering
greater gender equality and equity.
Besides, I am now the
CEO of Improve your English Speaking
(IES), an English language center for English language learners. Indeed, I
believe that providing more opportunities for English language learning can
facilitate greater access to jobs and connections in other countries for young
people. That is why I deemed it useful to offer courses focused on English for
Specific Purposes.
I am also currently the
country representative of Admission
Wahala, a platform that matches prospective international students with
opportunities offered by reputable foreign universities based on student’s
study-abroad interest, needs, preferences, and goals.I have been organizing
seminars about these topics in various cities in Senegal, such as Thies,
Saint-Louis, and Dakar.
However, the achievement that I am most proud
of is being selected as a 2019 Hult Prize Foundation volunteer Campus Director
in Senegal. In 2018, I
was responsible for organizing and implementing a quarterfinal round of the
Hult Prize Competition on my campus. This
included working with Université Gaston Berger, students, and members of my
community to sensitize about the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals
and emphasize social entrepreneurship.
Being a Hult Prize
Foundation Volunteer Campus Director was a rewarding experience, for it gave me
a chance to take on a leadership role and manage many aspects of this
competition on my own such as finding judges and volunteers to participate. Moreover, since the concept of social
entrepreneurship was fairly new to many of my peers, I had to actively raise
awareness about its importance and the very pressing social issue of youth
unemployment. After much campaigning and mobilizing, the competition ended up comprising
more than 23
student teams across campus, out of which 3 teams got selected to advance
directly to three of the Hult Prize's 25+ regional finals happening around the
globe: Team Water for All to Paris, Team Safa to San Francisco, Team For a
Better Life to Accra. Thanks to our collective effort, the first ever Hult
Prize Foundation competition at our university was a success and gained
international recognition.
You may think that I am
doing a lot, but this is just the tip of the iceberg!
My
vision
While there are times
when I am disappointed with the lack of motivation and engagement of some of my
peers, I refuse to give up. I really want to be a role model to them and show them
that they can also have a positive impact in their communities and can become
effective leaders if they put their minds to it. Indeed, many of my peers have
asked me how I have succeeded in what I am doing. I simply tell them that everything
that I have now is thanks to my dedication to volunteering and community
service. Thus, they should not be afraid of becoming changemakers in their own
community and elsewhere; more importantly, they should do it for the good of
everyone and not for their own benefit. In so doing, they will becontributing to
their country and community. So, I have urged
them to keep going and take risksbecause nobody is going to do it for them.
It's their own responsibility to showthe world that they can carve their own
future.
