Alfredo de Pina is doing his best to improve conditions for young adults and the poor in his native Cape Verde.
Pina is a founding member and the leader of WeDoCare, a local nonprofit operating on several fronts – from donating books to more than 200 schoolchildren, to delivering donated clothing and food to victims of Fogo Island’s volcano eruption in 2014. He is developing a mentorship program for male juvenile delinquents that will include leadership and professional training. The group’s main interest is promoting cultural, sports, academic and recreational activities, as well as raising funds to help the needy.
“We started WeDoCare because we felt like it was our duty to give back to the community, to our city, to our country. We felt that we had to help those in need, because young people have an important role in the development of our country. We started it in May of 2011,” explains Pina, who still maintains a full-time job while trying to expand his charitable organization. “We are all employed and manage time between our work and the charity. It’s a challenge, but we make it work. For example, we don’t meet unless it’s extremely necessary and we do virtual meetings. Another challenge is the resources.”
At 28, Pina was one of four Cape Verdean youth selected in 2014 to participate in the Obama Administration’s outreach to Africa through The Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), when 500 young Africans were invited to the Untied States as Nelson Mandela Fellows. During his fellowship, he was mentored by Vernon Jordan, U.S. civil rights and a close advisor to President Bill Clinton during the Clinton administration.
Pina clearly meets the criteria for leadership. In addition to his work with WeDoCare, he is the director of human resources at the Cape Verde Public Administration, working with youth on public employment opportunities; serves as the coordinator of the Public Administration Professional Internship Program; manages the Qualifications and Employment Pool, an online platform for labor demand and supply, awarded by the African Union with the 2012 African Public Sector Innovation Award; is a professor of Public Policy at the Law and Social Sciences Institute; owns a menswear store called Executive Line; and is the founder of the Power of Youth, a group dedicated to empowering youth through lectures and conferences in universities and high schools focused on sharing good examples and motivation.
Getting the necessary resources WeDoCare may be a major hurdle, he says, but “we don’t go out and ask for money. Our purpose is to organize activities that bring people and companies together and make them feel part of the process. For example, we did an all-night Aerobic Marathon and with the right partnerships, people came to exercise and all we asked was that they bring 1 kilo of food. For this, they got free aerobic classes and a health check up. We also do soccer and basketball tournaments, and fundraising dinners.”
Pina’s goal is to take the nonprofit to all of the 10 islands in the Cape Verde archipelago. And he is not waiting. “Our philosophy is: Don’t wait for the government; raise funds and help those in need. Let’s get together and help.”
(This article was written exclusively for TNJ.com where it originally appeared. Read the original article at TNJ.com.)
