Mahmud Johnson is Liberian and a rising junior student at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampsire, USA studying Economics and Government. He is also an alumnus of the Business Bridge Program at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. From 2008 to 2009 Mahmud worked as a Public Affairs Intern in the Liberian Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs, where he – among other tasks – researched and developed content for “Lift Liberia”, a grassroots radio show that colloquially interpreted the Liberian government’s Poverty Reduction Strategy to citizens across the country. Johnson also co-hosted “Let’s Talk About Sex” radio show, the mass-media component of Population Services International’s (PSI) SMARTChoice program in Liberia that promotes responsible sexual behavior among youth to prevent HIV and unintended pregnancies. In the summer of 2010 he worked as Country Representative Intern at PSI/Liberia.

 

In 2010 Johnson founded the iMHere! Project, which provides educational and recreational opportunities to out-of-school young men between the ages of 12-18 in low-income communities in Monrovia, Liberia. The project runs a life skills/ conflict management program for the young men, many of whom had hitherto either never been to school before or had dropped out of school. Additionally, iMHere! currently provides academic scholarships for 24 of these young men and runs an afterschool tutoring and mentorship program for them. In addition to working directly with young men, the project works with the young men’s parents to help them start or scale up business ventures, so as to empower parents finance their children’s basic needs and keep them in school.

 

Johnson was one of five British Council Global Changemakers invited to speak on several panels at the 2010 World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where he had the opportunity to test his project’s concept in the WEF’s IdeasLab. Johnson maintains that is immeasurably humbled by the many opportunities he has had to work as an agent for change in his community.

 

Publication:

http://www.psi.org/impact-magazine/2011/01/global-changemaker-mahmud-johnson

www.imhereliberia.org

http://www.conversationsforabetterworld.com/2010/01/youth-in-liberia-cope-with-aftermath-of-civil-war/

www.theseareourrights.org

http://www.global-changemakers.net/education/speakers-corner-sankofa

 

Production:

"Let's Talk About Sex" - UNMIL Radio 91.5 FM, Liberia

"About Us" - Truth FM 96.1, Liberia

"Let's Talk About It" - Radio Veritas 97.8FM, Liberia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGSL97kkoGA