Joseph Nyamwange is truly a renaissance man in every sense of the term. The New Jersey native born & raised in Jersey City, has dedicated his life to helping and serving others in his community for many years. Now although he was born here to Kenyan parents, it was clear that their household was built on the values & culture of his parents who grew up in Kenya. Family first, education, community engagement, fellowship and giving back was instilled in him from an early age which has truly shaped him into the man that he is today. Joseph watched his father do a lot of philanthropy in his own way as he continuously returned home to Kenya to help people achieve what we call the American dream. Growing up his home was almost like a college dorm due to his parents helping to house family, friends and other other natives from their village who would come to the states to ultimately get a better education and take advantage of opportunities that could truly change their lives. As professors his parents made it very clear that education was key, so it only made sense that Joseph would ultimately want to give back to the youth through education, financial literacy, health and overall wellness.

Over the years his passion for giving back to the youth truly became a mission for him which ultimately led to creating the Nyawmange Foundation in 2016, when he financially was able to make more of an impact within his community. Once that opened up his resources, he realized that he would no longer wait on other institutions to help make the change he wanted to see. Joseph’s belief is that Education is a key component to our children’s success. Therefore, part of our initiative is to provide a scholarship for students who attend Jersey City, Baltimore, and Washington D.C. Public Schools and demonstrate a growth mindset. He truly wanted to help the African American community who were struggling, but with limited resources he had to start small. So he decided to develop a leadership academy were he put together a curriculum and program to teach kids to become leaders as well as offer then a scholarship. But within the program he saw the necessity to teach them about the community at large and Financial literacy, Financial freedom and purpose. Now if that wasn’t enough he also saw that this generation more than ever needed to learn more about their roots which can be traced back to Africa, so what better way to do that then to let 8th grade students apply for the opportunity to study with the leadership academy which ultimately would give them the opportunity to visit Africa during their senior year of High School. As of now 4 students out of 14 in the academy have made the trip to Kenya where they were allowed to visit a school Joseph’s family built as well as visited a children’s orphanage during their voyage of Kenya in which you can see more in detail in the video included in this piece.

Within the first year the students get to meet and work with their local officials to learn about advocacy on the local level. The second year they take a trip to DC to visit the National Museum of African American Culture to learn how to be more of an advocate in the U.S. at home. The third year they will put their focus on becoming a global citizen how to truly make an impact as they get ready to ultimately become adults and step out into the real world. Now with that being said education, financial literacy and advocacy is truly something that will help this generation, but Joseph also wanted to highlight the arts as well as there are so many talented artist within the community as well. He decided to team up with some of music finest including Eric Hall who is also New Jersey native who is truly making an impact in music and entertainment. They decide to release the single ‘Hue‘ as he teamed up with Indigo Blu to share a message of hope for our people. Within time of putting together the single and video it became clear that a full length music project would be the perfect addition to go along with the foundation as they continue to strive towards celebrating excellence within the community.

Ultimately Joseph’s 10 year vision for his organization is to be able to have over 1000 kids to be apart of his leadership academy. Within that time he would like to give 60 kids scholarships and 50 students the opportunity to travel on their BirthRight Afrika Trip as a result of all their hard work and dedication in the program. Through a 12-day transformational trip to Kenya, African American youth and young adults learn about the rich history of Africa, the contributions made to the world stage, and the prospect of a very bright and vibrant future. He and his wife already committed to donating 100,000 towards the cost, but ultimately needs the help of the community at large to donate to the foundation which is sure to be life changing for many kids who deserve a chance to thrive in every way possible. Joseph recently stopped by Bronx Nets OPEN to talk with Rhina Valentin about his foundation & so much more. Watch his exclusive interview below as he gears up for his upcoming Scholarship Gala in support of his foundation which is set to take place on June 6th. Tickets for the special event will be available soon via his website Nyamwange.Org

Keep Up to Date with the Joseph Nyamwange and his foundation
Instagram : @jnyamwangem
Twitter : @jnyamwan
Facebook : The Nyamwange Foundation
Website : nyamwange.org

BirthRight Afrika Trip from Joseph Nyamwange on Vimeo.