Thank you.
Let me approach this question by describing the subject to citizen program of the Africa Alliance of the YMCA. I would describe it as both a philosophy regarding youth empowerment and a specific program with designated initiatives. The term "subject to citizen" reflects the goal of the Africa Alliance of the YMCA, which believes its mission is to empower young people to move forward toward an African renaissance, which is a way of talking about the renewal of Africa as designed by Africans themselves.
The challenge has been that the colonization process within Africa has often left young people feeling like they don't have a sense of agency. They have a mindset that sees themselves more as subjects to the conditions in which they exist. Poverty might contribute to that, as might a lack of jobs, and so on. The philosophy is that the work needs to begin with changing the mindset from that of being a subject to that of being a citizen, and a citizen being a young person who has a sense of agency, who believes that they can make a contribution to the community, that they can have a life of hope and contribution, education, jobs, and so on.
The specific initiatives within that fall into leadership development programming for young people, men and women, where they explore with each other through a peer-to-peer methodology and in those conversations with each other come to see and understand their context in some different ways. They also benefit from some adult partners who are working with them, positive role models. Some of the young people are working in communities where there have not been positive role models for leadership by adults, so there are leadership development initiatives.
There are economic initiatives. There is a whole range of initiatives trying to encourage entrepreneurship, financial savings, and so on, but within that economic portfolio is an interesting initiative, to speak to your point regarding the private sector. Generally speaking, I can say that the YMCA works with all development actors, so that includes the private sector. In this particular case, Rio Tinto approached the Madagascar YMCA regarding its youth work, and they have developed a partnership over a period of time where Rio Tinto is funding and providing support to the youth programming at the Madagascar YMCA, including job training and offering opportunities for young people. It's part of their business strategy or corporate responsibility strategy, so that's a concrete example.
Do young people get jobs out of those opportunities? In some cases, yes. In some cases, what they leave with is that sense of agency, hope and possibility, and feeling that they have the skills to move forward. Certainly in that particular example, there are various kinds of internships, I believe, with Rio Tinto.