Walking the Empowerment Walk

About US

JEREMIAH QUINONES DONALD

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Jeremiah Q. Donald was born on February 25th, 1994, in Harrisburg city Pennsylvania, as well as the location in which he was raised. Most of the Africans that grow up there, especially in places we refer to as the "inner city". Unfortunately, are places that many Africans are said to not make it out of alive, or to rise above the same system that strategically aims to keep Black people impoverished. However, he was the young African man who greeted typical expectations with ambition, and abnormality. Graduated from Harrisburg Highschool in 2012, which was not an easy task for him, knowing that he endured academic challenges, as well the general issues of being African in America. After highschool, Jeremiah was home for a while, helping his parents, and trying to find himself. Later in 2015, he attends a Historical Black College known as Arkansas Baptist College, in Little Rock Arkansas; his fields of study were Psychology, Criminal Justice, World Literature, and General studies. While Jeremiah was a student there, he was also apart of the track team, won Mr. Track for home coming, and most importantly grew alot more mentally than he arguably has ever before. This accomplishment meant alot to Jeremiah, being that highschool was very challenging, not that college isnt. But he graduated from this Historical Black College with and 3.78 GPA, all while being known for his awesome character, leadership abilities, and even as a young man having older authority look up to him. Once he returned home to Harrisburg after graduation, he spends his time home as the leading youth counselor at an alternative program known as Harrisburg Area Learning Academy. In such a profession, he was able to be a positive impact, and plant wisdom into the students for behavioral and general life guidance. Soon after two school years there, Jeremiah then decided to attend University of Central Florida and continue his studies in criminology and psychology. Although Jeremiah is on a successful academic path at University of Central Florida, he has been doing much thinking and growing for while, and decides to make an early conclusion to his collegiate journey. Normally, most of us would not do such a thing, but as stated he is abnormal in a good way, or as many would say .. fearless. It was perhaps that very moment, which Jeremiah truly stepped into the boundlessness of his subconscious and accepted the endless potential of the conciousness that he is. "I rather die on my feet as an African, than to live on my knees a coward"

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NAFSHIYAH NDAH

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Nafshiyah Ndah is a Rwandese blogger currently based in Rwanda. She relocated to Rwanda after spending several years within the corporate world working within the banking industry and more recently as an Operations Manager within the private and public sector in Paris, London and Brussels.

Nafshiyah grew up in Rwanda, Tanzania and Ivory Coast before pursuing her undergraduate and graduate studies in Montreal, Canada. She holds a Master's degree in Applied Finance. She has always had at heart to be able to give back to the African continent after seeing her home country Rwanda collapsing into the Genocide of the Tutsis in 1994 and also experiencing racism within the Western world as a young migrant.

When she is not writing or working on projects focusing on the betterment of the global black family she enjoys spending time with her family and friends, gardening and reconnecting with nature.

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LASHAWN RANEY

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Lashaun L Raney was born on May 9th, 1975 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Abandoned by her mother at the age of two, She grew up not knowing her father and later became displaced after the death of both of her grandparents by the age of ten. She spent most of her life growing up in foster care in and out of the Urban areas of Detroit Michigan. Life as a child was not by far the best for her, she was the oldest of seven children that shared two beds, growing up in foster care exposed to violence and abuse on a daily basis, while then becoming a young mother unwillingly at the age of fifteen.

Through her constant battles and struggles of growing up in such harsh conditions, school became her outlet. Lashaun seen school as a safe haven and the only environment in which she had control over in her life. She excelled exceptionally academically as well as athletically while remaining an honor student throughout elementary, middle, and on to High School. At the age of sixteen, Lashaun and her daughter were finally taken out of foster care and adopted.

Lashaun graduated at the top of her Senior class with honors in 1993 from Marion Harding High School in Marion, Ohio and later went on to acquire an Associates degree in Business Administration from DeVry University and her Bachelors from Michigan State University College of Law.

Lashaun later relocated to Columbus, Ohio in 1999 in which she raised her five children while working in Corporate America in the areas of Finance, Banking and Real Estate. After eight years of not feeling fulfilled, she decided to re-sign from Corporate America and stepped into the world of Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy. Lashaun started three companies in 2007 all with the focus on real estate investing, entertainment marketing and fashion.

For the last thirteen years, Lashaun's endeavors have included advocating on behalf of the homeless, abused and abandoned children, the disabled, the mentally challenged, and the elderly. In 2009 Lashawn was inducted into The National Coalition of 100 Black Women for her ongoing contributions, serving as a role model to help elevate the quality of life in others.

Her passion for helping the needy and less fortunate has always been her vision as a small girl and has now become her life mission. She is currently the C.O.O. of The Rebecca Project in Atlanta Georgia, an organization that oversees the placement of children who have fallen victim to child and sex trafficking.

In 2019 Lashaun launched Operation Storehouse, an initiative to provide food, clothing, and other essentials to those in need across the Nation and now in Africa. Currently, she oversees an orphanage of 100 children in Buiguri Uganda in which she adopted in 2016 by providing food and support on a monthly basis.

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JAMEILA COLEMAN

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Jameila Coleman was born and raised in Chicago IL until the age of 14. She moved to Milwaukee WI and had a chance to experience life around other cultures and nationalities of people. Although she had positive and negative experiences in this new environment; she quickly learned how the world viewed her and other Black people in America. She lost her only sibling to excessive force from a Milwaukee police officer; she and her family were evicted from an apartment building after living there for 2 months due to neighbors complaining about seeing Black people living in the complex and she was called a Nigger from a racist for the first time in her life and also dealt with Racism on the jobs.

KWESI ADEPA QUANSAH

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Kwesi Adepa Quansah lives in Ghana West Africa. He is a computer engineer by profession and also is passionate about house building while running his own company UNIVERSAL HEROTECH. His goals is to support Africa's engineering ecosystems through teaching youth in his community as a volunteer. He is interested in every  aspect of the African continent that is why he choose to join MAKING AFRICA RELOADED.