Ghana’s Grace Amey-Obeng, one of West Africa’s most successful businesswomen, made her fortune promoting products which emphasised the beauty of the black skin, at a time when many of her competitors were selling dangerous skin-bleaching formulas.
The business empire she started a quarter of a century ago with around $100 (£63) now has an annual turnover of between $8m and $10m. Her FC Group of Companies – which includes a beauty clinic, a firm that supplies salon equipment and cosmetics, and a college – has eight branches in Ghana and exports to Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Togo, Ivory Coast, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Mrs Amey-Obeng has won dozens of accolades and industry awards for her skincare beauty products and marketing. But one of the things that make her especially proud is her FC Beauty College which, since its opening in 1999, has trained more than 5,000 young people, mostly women.
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In the three years since a massive 7.0 magnitude earthquake shook up Haiti, the recovery process is still ongoing and today the Timberland clothing company is at the forefront.
In partnership with a local non-governmental organization, the Smallholder Farmers Alliance, Timberland supports an agroforestry program to train Haitian farmers to improve crop yields and has planted 2.2 million trees along the way. According to Forbes.com, An additional 1 million trees will be planted this year as well as in 2014 and 2015.
The project will help improve the environmental, economic and social conditions in the Gonaives region. Timberland and Smallholder Farmers Alliance are helping local farmers learn how to improve crop yields, develop eight community tree nurseries and support agricultural training centers in the region.
article via thegrio.com
South African billionaire, Patrice Motsepe (PHOTO CREDIT: Forbes.com)
Joining Bill Gates’ and Warren Buffett’s Giving Pledge, South African billionaire, Patrice Motsepe, announced that he will be donating half of his company’s assets to combat South Africa’s poverty, advancing women, and reforming education, health and unemployment, reports Forbes.com.
“[My wife] Precious and I will contribute at least half of the funds generated by our family assets to the Motsepe Foundation to be used during our lifetime and beyond to improve the lifestyles and living conditions of the poor, disabled, unemployed, women, youth, workers and marginalised South Africans, Africans and people around the world.”
With a Forbe’s estimated net worth of $2.65 billion, Motsepe is South Africa’s richest Black man. His announcement Wednesday was attended by King Goodwill Zwelithini of the Zulu nation, South Africa’s Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga and Rabbi Warren Goldstein, among others.
Ms. Margarida Matsinhe (left) has worked in vaccine delivery in Mozambique for more than 30 years.
Sixty-four-year-old Margarida Matsinhe has won the 2013 Gates Vaccine Innovation Award for her “instrumental” work in overhauling the vaccine system in her native Mozambique.
Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, made the announcement on Wednesday in his annual letter. The award recognizes “revolutionary ways” for immunizing the world’s poorest children. Nominees are assessed on innovation and creativity, impact and scale.
Matsinhe, a field officer with the non-profit Village Reach, has worked in vaccine delivery in Mozambique for more than 30 years, including during the country’s civil war and post-war reconstruction period. She currently serves on the government’s Committee of Experts on Immunisation and advises leaders on vaccine quality and distribution strategies.
Partly as a result of her work, Mozambique has achieved vaccine coverage of 95 percent, but Matsinhe says her goal is no less than 100 percent.
Phiona Mutesi relishes her first victory at the 2010 Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia
(CNN) — She grew up in one of the poorest spots on earth. She couldn’t read or write. As a child, she scrounged for food each day for herself, her mother, and her brother. But a chance encounter with a chess coach turned her into a rising international chess star, the subject of a book — and the protagonist in a future Disney movie.
Ugandan teenager Phiona Mutesi is “the ultimate underdog,” her biographer says. Those who work with her believe she’s 16. But since her birthday is unclear, she might still only be 15, they say. Her father died from AIDS when Mutesi was around 3. “I thought the life I was living, that everyone was living that life,” the teenager told CNN, describing her childhood in Katwe, a slum in the Ugandan capital of Kampala.
“I was living a hard life, where I was sleeping on the streets, and you couldn’t have anything to eat at the streets. So that’s when I decided for my brother to get a cup of porridge.”
Robert Katende, a missionary and refugee of Uganda’s civil war, had started a chess program in Katwe. He offered a bowl of porridge to any child who would show up and learn.
Last summer Howard University in Washington, D.C., mounted a major campaign to spruce up its residence halls. Walls were painted, new carpet installed, and bathroom fixtures renovated. In addition, the university replaced more than 2,000 mattresses and added new room and lounge furniture in the residence halls.
As a result of these upgrades, Howard donated 184,000 pounds of bed frames, book cases, desks, chairs, dressers, and other furniture to schools in the United States and Central America. Working with the Institution Recycling Network and the international charity Food for the Poor, Howard packed up nearly 2,300 pieces of furniture for shipments to 12 different sites. Most of the furniture was shipped to schools in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador.
article via jbhe.com
As a 12-year-old girl emigrating to America from Ghana, Sandra Appiah’s (pictured) background was certainly vulnerable to xenophobia.
And when she began high school, such attacks did come her way. But not from whom one might expect. “A lot of the comments I was receiving were from African Americans or a lot of the discrimination [came] from African Americans,” the 23-year-old noted about her teenage years in the Bronx.
“Every time we did something wrong, it was, ‘Oh, go back to Africa,’ or, ‘Oh, go back to the jungle.’ ‘You’re an African booty scratcher,’ or, ‘You stink,’ or, ‘You live in trees,’ or things like that. I had no idea where these ideas were coming from, because I remember in Africa I was a very happy child growing up.”
Eventually, Appiah discovered the reason for all the animosity from people she shared skin colors with. “CNN, PBS, all these documentaries, this is how they portray Africa,” Appiah continues. “So in their [African-Americans’] mind-set, this is the only way they know Africa to be.”
Rather than just accept this, though, Appiah knew she had to take action, co-founding a company called “Face 2 Face Africa” in March 2011.
Yuri Arcurs/Shutterstock.com
Ever hear of Kate Henshaw-Nuttal? How about Genevieve Nnaji? You might soon. They are two of Nollywood’s top actresses. Nollywood (Nigeria’s film industry) is continuing to give Hollywood a run for its money… with help from moviegoers. The Nigerian film industry is now an $800-million industry, reports Forbes. And it’s becoming more global. In fact, even the Dish Network has recognized the power of Nollywood. It has just announced it will launch Africa Box Office (ABO), an Afro-Caribbean movie channel. ABO is broadcasts films exclusively from Nollywood, the prolific Nigerian film industry. It also airs films from other major African and Caribbean motion picture houses.
According to a press release, ABO is the largest Afro-Caribbean content aggregator for television in North America, broadcasting over 150 new movies per year, eight movies every day, and three premieres every week. It has a catalog of more than 1,500 African and Caribbean movies, leveraging the Afrotainment Family of Channels.
The Way-C tablet (courtesy of VMK website)
Congolese technology company, VMK, is attempting to break into the smart phone and tablet market by unveiling the first homegrown devices specifically geared towards Africans.
VMK announced the launch of the new Way-C tablet and Elikia smart phone earlier this week. To market the devices as authentically African, the budding tech company chose the names Way-C, which means “the light of the stars” and Elikia, which translates to “hope,” in the local Lingala language.
“Only Africans know what Africa needs.” says Congolese entrepreneur and founder, Verone Mankou. “Apple is huge in the US, Samsung is huge in Asia, and we want VMK to be huge in Africa.”
Colin Salmon attends the Royal World Premiere of ‘Skyfall’ at the Royal Albert Hall on October 23, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Eamonn McCormack/Getty Images)
Black British actors are taking Hollywood by storm. In recent years more and more have been cast in on-screen roles, not just in big budget U.S. films but also on American television. In fact, nowadays it is highly likely a Brit will be found starring in a major Hollywood movie or hit TV series. Currently, U.S. television boasts several black British actors who are regular cast members in popular shows like Homeland and Game of Thrones.
“I love British actors,” says Brooks Jackson Colyar, a Los Angeles-based agent who represents actors and comedians. “I am fascinated they can take that accent and turn it into everyday American English,” she adds. Black British actor David Oyelowo, 36, is a classic example. Born in the Oxford to Nigerian parents, Oyelowo was best known in the UK for playing an intelligence officer in the television drama series Spooks.