The Obama Foundation Leaders Africa program seeks to build a growing network of innovative and values-based changemakers who will drive positive change in their communities, the continent, and the world. Selected as part of the Class of 2023 are Zimbabweans Chipo Zhou and Prechard Mhako.
The 2023 Leaders Africa program will be a six-month, non-residential, virtual journey for 35 emerging leaders from across the continent.
The 2023 program will focus on honing leadership skills, building deep relationships with fellow leaders, and exploring how to drive, scale, and make sustainable change. Upon graduation, this group of Leaders will join a pan-African community of like-minded changemakers and will become part of a lifelong Obama Foundation community with access to a deep network.
The virtual Leaders Africa program seeks to identify exceptional leaders in government, civil society, and the private sector who have a clear issue-focus and who can illustrate the impact of their work. Our objective is to build a network of values-driven leaders, who create positive, innovative change in their communities, throughout Africa, and across the globe.
The program will run from February 2023 through July 2023. Leaders will participate in three core elements of the program: Weekly Virtual Calls, Monthly Community Groups, and Individualized Leadership Coaching.
Prechard Mhako is co-founder and managing partner at Abiyedu Kin Consulting, a strategy consulting firm that supports innovative entrepreneurship. He is also the co-founder and chief commercial officer at Energyneering Zimbabwe, a company providing underserved communities with affordable renewable electricity and safe drinking water.
Prechard has partnered with international development partners to deliver innovative solutions, such as a water container that purifies contaminated water using solar energy. He learned about entrepreneurship at a young age from his father, who owned a rural business that provided many impactful jobs in the community. Prechard’s personal goal is to help create 10,000 sustainable jobs.
Chipo Zhou is the founder and CEO of Opihc, a communications strategy company based in South Africa. She is an entrepreneur and film festival curator with over 15 years of experience in the arts industry. Chipo is motivated by her need for an open-minded, equitable, and inclusive society. As a result, she advocated for the transformation of the film industry in Zimbabwe early in her career at the International Images Film Festival for Women, and more recently in South Africa through her work at the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF).
She delivered five consecutive iterations of the DIFF and increased African and LGBTQ+ representation from 20 percent to more than 50 percent during that time. Over the years, she has created various platforms to develop local South African films by providing support for zero-budget filmmakers. She owns Mupfuti Garden’s Restaurant and Outdoor Venue, which she now uses for arts-related events and initiatives in Mashonaland West, Zimbabwe.
(Source: Obama.org)
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