New Trustees Bring Additional Experience and Expertise to Ashinaga UK
We are excited to announce four new trustees have joined the board of Ashinaga UK:
- Kimeshan Naidoo, Chief Technical Officer at BX and Co-Founder of Unibuddy
- Pablo Pérez Abella, a Managing Director at Karson Management Bermuda Ltd
- Nashina Asaria, Chief Product & Marketing Officer for Nanthealth
- Jordan McFarlane, Managing Director of Ashinaga UK
Each brings valuable new perspectives and knowledge, adding to the expertise already in the Ashinaga UK Board of Trustees, which includes British academics, members of Ashinaga Foundation in Japan, and an Ashinaga Africa Initiative graduate.
The Board of Trustees plays an integral role in steering Ashinaga UK’s work to cultivate talented future leaders from across the African continent, through the Ashinaga Africa Initiative (AAI) scholarship.
Ashinaga’s work began in Japan in 1963 with a mission to support orphaned youth through education. Ashinaga UK, founded in 2017, offers scholarships to academically excellent students from across the African continent. These scholarships include full funding for undergraduate study at either the University of York or the University of Warwick, as well as supplementary leadership development training, internships, research proposals, and conferences.
Our goal is to empower talented youth from disadvantaged backgrounds with educational opportunities to instigate change in their communities, from the ground up. Since 2017, we have supported 53 students, from 24 countries.
With the help of the new Board of Trustees, Ashinaga UK can make an even bigger impact. Together, we can create opportunities for many future Ashinaga Scholars.
About the New Trustees
“I am honored to join Ashinaga UK as a trustee because their mission of supporting African orphans with outstanding educational opportunities deeply resonates with me. Having grown up in South Africa and founded an EdTech company dedicated to helping students make informed decisions about their education, I am passionate about empowering the next generation to return home and address critical issues on the African continent.”
“I am very pleased to have been asked to join Ashinaga UK as a Trustee, as I firmly believe in its mission of propelling disadvantaged youth to reach their maximum potential through the power of education. I am looking forward to working with fellow Trustees of the Board and management to further Ashinaga’s goals and aspirations.”
“The opportunity to work with an amazing team of trustees and operational leadership at Ashinaga is very significant to me as I have personally experienced the power of further education to achieve success in both career and in impact to humanity.”
“I was first attracted to the AAI’s mission because of its emphasis on empowering young African changemakers to pay forward the investment they have received in the way they see needed, in their own communities. I am honoured to continue to play my part in achieving that objective, as part of a dedicated team of trustees at Ashinaga UK.”
Join Our Movement
Becoming a trustee is not the only way to help cultivate talent that transforms communities! Our regular and one-off donors are also integral to our work, helping us support the Scholars already in the UK, and expand to supporting more Scholars in the future.
We want to empower many more future African leaders with opportunities to develop solutions and drive change. To do that, we need your help.
If you also believe in access to education and investing in brilliant but disadvantaged youth with a dream of making the world a better place, please consider supporting us with a regular or one-off gift.
