Born in Adjamé in Ivory Coast, Mariam SY Diawara is the founder of the Maison de Afrique-Mandingo Inc in North America and today of the Africa Web festival to be held in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on November 29, 30 and December 1, 2016 on the themes of: Agriculture, Education and Health. She is also known in the world of advertising in French-speaking Africa for having created the communication group called Groupe Univers, comprising various communication, publishing, research and tourism agencies in Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and Burkina Faso. Mariam SY Diawara is par excellence, the embodiment of the ideal fairer sex for Africa. This is why she is asking women to take part in digital education in order to be at the center of its advent in Africa.
These actions
She has represented Africa on the Board of Directors of the Mondial de la Publicité Francophone and has served on the Board of Directors of the Francophone Business Forum and the Local Development Center of Canada. She is at the basis of the creation of the first African Book Fair held in Abidjan and was president of the Association of Publishers in Côte d’Ivoire and has been an honorary member for life since 2016. She created the Abidjan International Leisure and Tourism Fair (SITLA) which was held for the first time in November 1998. She is the basis of the first youth cards in CI and of youth clubs in schools. She founded Univers Jeunes, the first youth newspaper in Côte d’Ivoire. It also supported the creation of the Association of Student Entrepreneur Clubs of Côte d’Ivoire in 2000.
Mariam Sy Diawara is a philanthropist who has made herself known in many causes that she supports, especially for young people in Ivory Coast and Africa. She is the initiator of the Afrikenous Prize which rewards the best image of Africa, the first prize of which was awarded at FESPACO.
The house of Africa founded by her in 2004 and which had its headquarters in 2009 in Canada. This space is a place for the integration of Africans living in Montreal, lovers of Africa, for the promotion of Africa. All the African ambassadors meet there with their community to show what Africa is beautiful. This is the case of the first North American exhibition on the theme ,“Africa’s gifts to the world where it has been shown that Africa is undoubtedly the cradle of humanity. This exhibition was the fruit of a collaboration between the Maison de l’Afrique Mandingo with the Dauphinois Museum in the city of Grenoble, in France, and the Imagine Institute in Ouagadougou, in Burkina Faso.
Its contribution to the development of youth
In the field of social entrepreneurship, she has created youth projects to help this population to take charge (magazines, youth club, youth cards, writers’ competitions), it has set up bookstores and educational spaces with the aim of helping teachers to better understand and use teaching tools in Côte d’Ivoire. In 2003, she created the Côte d’Ivoire Entrepreneurship Foundation with the support of Mesdames Suzie Harvey Director of the Quebec Entrepreneurship Contest and Micheline Locas, Founder of Student Entrepreneur Clubs.
his vision a dream
Mariam Sy Diawara projects a great project, that of founding other Houses of Africa in the United States, in Brazil: “and the dream is to make sure that Africans themselves take ownership of their history, Africans living in Africa… Because as the saying goes, if you don’t know where you are going, look where you come from… I am convinced that we have more to give our raw materials than to know how to be that we have …. my dream is that there is a better world and that through digital. And his dream came true with the birth of the Africa Web Festival.
Africa connected to digital
The Africa Web Festival, the first festival dedicated to Africa and digital, is a platform for information, discussion, training and exchange around digital. This platform is offered to Africa to enable it to succeed in its digital shift. This success goes hand in hand with the development of Africa. This implies that young Africans will no longer need to go into exile to sell their talent. Digital is the platform offered to young people to show their talent. It also allows self-employment. AWF is a training, digital education and development aid for the digital industry in Africa in general and in Côte d’Ivoire in particular.
The African youth having appropriated without complex tools of new technologies, it is placed at the heart of the vision of AWF which intends to accompany it in all the phases of its accomplishment: awareness, learning, generation of projects, organization entrepreneurial initiatives, etc. AWF also intends to be on the lookout for challenges and obstacles that could hinder the full realization of African youth involved in ICT throughout the year and to find answers.
The consent of the Ivorian government
“After having missed the agricultural, industrial, scientific, etc. revolutions for various reasons. our countries cannot afford to miss the digital revolution. Tomorrow’s growth in Africa will largely depend on the digital economy, provided that our countries create the ecosystem, the enabling environment, that which favors the appropriation of technology by the greatest number, right away. Africa Web Festival is a welcome contribution to this process, “said Minister of Digital Economy, Post and ICT, Bruno Koné.
Africa Web Festival 2016
The content and significance of the Africa Web Festival to the global digital ecosystem is a great victory for Africa. The AWF wants to be the necessary lever for Africa for the success of its digital shift. Certified at COP 21 in 2015, AWF announces a 3rd Pan-African edition where experts and engineers from the digital ecosystem will meet to exchange, buy, sell and network on the challenges of digital in Africa facing issues related to health, agriculture and education. For the 2016 edition, more than 6,500 participants from Africa, Europe, America and Asia are expected and will participate in: the AWF EXPO, a large exhibition fair specially dedicated to offers in the fields of technological innovation; at AWF FORUM, a platform for exchange through conferences and workshops led by experts recognized worldwide as Carlos Moreno and at AWF AWARDS, a major competition for technological innovations and audiovisual productions crowned with Prizes .
Communication Manager
Christian GUEHI Herve
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