West African Women Speakers Forum WAWS February 2025

I’ll be honest when I take a trip like I just took to see the impact on our Bourse Jackie programs in West Africa, what I think of is how grateful I am for your support so that we can truly change the lives of such deserving and amazing young women. 

I am on my last day of a trip to see the finals of our newest Bourse Jackie program, WAWS, the West African Womens Speakers Forum which showcases the speaking talents of young women from West Africa and inspires others to use their voice for change. 

The final competition of WAWS, our 3rd Bourse Jackie program which we launched in September 2024, was held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso among the five best female French-speaking orators (from Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Niger And Togo) out of 150 original entries. Our Program Director is the amazing Aida Zeba, a former Bourse Jackie English-language Scholarship recipient and also Burkina National Champion  Female orator. There were at least three hundred at the final competition (including a number of Ambassadors) and the winner, a Malian woman, Oumou Coulibaly, was selected by a panel of professional judges. The US Embassy in Bamako, Mali has already reached out to me to invite Ms. Coulibaly to meet with them.  

With the success of this program, for next year’s WAWS, we will expand the number of Francophone countries and hold the 2026 finals in the winning country, Bamako, Mali. We will also inaugurate a WAWS speaking competition for female English speakers from the Anglophone countries in West Africa (Ghana, Gambia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia) in Accra, Ghana and will be looking for sponsors.