The world is a large place filled with opportunities for those who are able to explore it. But for many youth in urban centers across our afro diaspora those opportunities are far from readily accessible due to a lack of networking and capital to travel.
Recently, a talented and promising young fashion designer, was gifted an opportunity of a lifetime to present his wares in Africa, Ethiopia in particular, at the United Nations Diaspora Fashion show in the capital city of Addis Ababa.
Jean Quijano, native and Caribbean descendant from the city of Colon, is one of Panama’s emerging fashion designers who has created a unique print style incorporating urban and indigenous images as his style signature. Jean’s opportunity to travel to the motherland to display his fashion designs and style with other African designers was the result of a casual encounter with Dr. Melida Harris Barrow that developed over the years into a rich mentoring relationship and eventually the sponsorship that made his journey possible through her networks.
In light of our continuously expanding global economies it is incumbent upon us who have access to these opportunities to create platforms and networks through which our youth can stretch their wings, expand their worldviews, and explore possibilities otherwise unimaginable around the world. By deliberately strengthening our networks and creating platforms through which funding can be provided to create these opportunities many of our youth can be participants in the shaping of our future world rather than watching events shaped by others from the outside looking in.
Dr. Barrows and Jean Quijano have demonstrated what can happen when intentionality and opportunity meet; the world is indeed a broader stage for Jean whose possibilities are truly endless and whose inspiration is as large as the mother continent itself.