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Giving Back for Tomorrow

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Founded in 2008, Giving Back for Tomorrow is a nonprofit organization that seeks to help orphans and permanently displaced children in Conakry, Guinea find safe shelter, enroll in school and change their lives for the better. The organization directs and manages two initiatives to achieve its goals:

- The Empowerment Program held during Women’s History Month (March) and a major component of the annual Miss Guinea USA Pageant. The pageant features eight college-aged Guinean girls, each of whom selects an issue facing the people of Guinea and then develops a platform presentation with possible solutions for the issue.

- The A2Z Project, an outreach effort that collects clothes, school supplies and canned foods to donate to a school in Guinea.  

EMPOWERMENT PROGRAM:

1.     Beauty & Brain Conference: A panel discussion featuring professionals from a variety of areas: business leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, pageant directors and former winning contestants, journalists, diplomats and young community leaders. Current contestants participate in a dialogue that affords them the opportunity to learn how to become independent leaders of tomorrow. The discussion centers on how “beauty” and “brain” are defined and how the two are interconnected.

2.    Leadership: We conduct a workshop in which the contestants meet with political leaders, community leaders or CEOs to teach them leadership skills. In March 2015, the contestants met with Bronx Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson and the Permanent Representative of Guinea to the United Nations.

3.    Platform: One of the contestants’ responsibilities is to research and develop a platform presentation that offers possible solutions to a problem facing the people of Guinea. The platform must include clearly defined goals for for solving the problem as well as establishing a course of study that will enable them to pursue their career goals as well as tackle their selected issue. Each contestant presents their individual platform during the pageant final.

4.    Dance Workshop: Professional dancers are hired to train the participants.

5.    Runway Training: Miss Guinea USA hires a professional pageant choreographer to train the contestants. Founder and CEO Fatima Diallo sometimes leads the training sessions herself.

6.    Talent Workshop: The contestants work on developing the specific talent that they have decided to perform during the pageant final. The talents include acting, dancing, poetry/ spoken word, singing, and painting/ sculpting.

7.    Scholarship: Following the pageant, the top three finalists each receive a scholarship that will be utilized specifically for the individual platforms. In 2015, the Seventh Annual Miss Guinea USA Pageant was able to provide the winner with a $2,000 scholarship, the first runner up with an $800 scholarship and the second runner up with a $500 scholarship thanks to the generosity and support of the Permanent Representative of Guinea to the United Nations.

8.    Success: After the show, some of the contestants form their own organizations to tackle the issues they chose to work on as part of their platforms. We have listed some of the highlights of the success of our organization as well as some past contestants below.

9.    Giving Back: The winner travels to Guinea for a 20-day trip to her ancestral village on behalf of Giving Back for Tomorrow. The winner’s responsibilities include leading the A2Z Project The winner is also asked to work with nongovernmental organizations and others within the Guinean and African community as well as serve as a guest speaker at conferences and community events. She will use her scholarship to work on her platform and achieve the goals of Giving Back for Tomorrow.

A2Z PROJECT:

Due to Guinea’s socioeconomic issues, many of the people face extreme poverty and the constant threat of food insecurity. These issues affect children the most profoundly, as many families become permanently displaced. Once displaced, these children often drop out of school.

Miss Guinea USA has been tackling these issues, working to reintegrate these children back into society, first, by providing them with their basic needs: food, shelter and then supporting their re-entry in school along with career development. We cannot continue to be successful without your support and generosity that keeps this initiative going and children off the streets.

When MGUSA was established, an integral part of this effort was encapsulated in the ABC drive which worked to obtain supplies for children in Guinea and sponsored children. In 2012, the initiative was re – branded the A2Z Project. The A2Z Project seeks to raise a minimum of 10,000 units of school supplies, canned foods and clothes, including baby clothes. The winner of Miss Guinea USA as well as the organization’s board members then take these items to the Conakary, Guinea for distribution.

ORANIZATION HIGHLIGHTS:

2015 — The Miss Guinea USA Giving Back for Tomorrow Project was well represented in Guinea by the 2nd Runner Up of Miss Guinea USA 2015 and volunteers. The organization supplied more than 3000 units of school supplies to the Bountouraby Sylla Community School in Dubreka in the Guinean capital Conakry that has 30 orphans. Many of these orphans were children of victims of the recent Ebola outbreak.

2014   We held the Giving Back for Tomorrow Eid Dinner and Fundraiser. Please visit the following link to see highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3qF2LeqKcg.

2013 — The members and contestants of Miss Guinea USA participated in the New York City AIDS Walk.

2011 — The organization held a school supplies drive led by Bernadette Sylla Miss Guinea USA 2010, raising up to 2500 units including pens, pencils, books, erasers, book bags, mini black boards and snacks. Miss Bernadette then travelled to Guinea and distributed the items in Gangan an elementary school located in Kindia.  Ms. Bernadette also met school girls to educate them about child abuse, and empowerment.

2010 —  The Giving Back for Tomorrow sent Mouminatou Diallo (Miss Guinea USA 2009 participant) to Ghana for the Miss ECOWAS competition, where she competed representing Guinea.

2009 — Giving Back for Tomorrow held a clothing and educational drive, raising 5,000 clothing items and school supplies. The school supplies were then shipped to Guinea and taken to an elementary school in Guinea.

In addition to these positive efforts our past contestants and winners have started or supported initiatives of their own:

- Oumou Cherif, Miss Guinea Massachusetts, participated in the Miss Guinea USA 2011 Pageant. She later founded an organization called “Guinea Youth Alliance.”, with a focus on child education, Ms. Cherif is very passionate about giving Guinean youth the opportunity to study by providing them with school supplies, remodeling classrooms and supplying classroom furnishings.

- The winner of Miss Guinea USA 2010 Bernadette Sylla founded an organization named “The Bee Project” that provides diapers and infant clothing in hospitals targeting new mothers. 

- Fatima Balde, the first runner up of the first annual Miss Guinea USA 2008 became a staff member of Miss Guinea USA, working side by side with Fatima Diallo the founder. She believes the organization has a lot to offer and we are happy to say today she is one of the founders of Giving Back for Tomorrow.

Organizer

Madina Toure
Organizer
New York, NY

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