3-day "productive break" with the whole team!  

A moment to breathe, to work in a different environment, to make progress on new projects. An opportunity to celebrate the first 5 years and write the next 5 together.

We return home with recharged batteries and concrete ideas - eager to put them into practice.

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On Thursday, October 2, Yojoa celebrated its five years of existence at an evening gathering the team, partners and young talent!
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The opportunity to celebrate the road travelled and the milestones shared since the creation in 2020. Five years of learning, evolving and building collectively around the values of inclusion and diversity that drive Yojoa.

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Our co-founder, Amanda El Amine, led a workshop on diversity and skin color in her son's elementary school class. The activity, aimed at children aged 5 to 6, was designed to help them discover differences in appearance, while highlighting what fundamentally unites them.

During the workshop, students created their own self-portraits, choosing colored pencils to match their skin color. This activity culminated in the creation of a collective fresco that will be displayed in their classroom - a lasting testimony to this shared experience.

Entreprise Romande magazine devotes an article to the Charte de l'inclusion des personnes réfugiées et migrantes en entreprise, launched in April 2025.

Yojoa is one of three Geneva-based associations co-founding this initiative, alongside the Découvrir association and SINGA Switzerland.

The Charter offers employers personalized support and concrete actions to encourage the professional integration of talented people from migrant backgrounds: training in unconscious bias, inclusive recruitment practices, mentoring, internships or the use of asylum seekers.

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For a week, Yojoa ran soft skills workshops in the canton of Vaud for talented young people from a migrant background, aspiring to a career in IT.
The program included building self-confidence, enhancing skills, optimizing CVs and preparing for job interviews in the IT sector.
This intervention is part of Powercoders' Futurecoders program, which trains young people aged 13 to 20 in digital professions and creates bridges between talent and professional opportunities.
An intense week which enabled the 10 participants to gain self-confidence and project themselves concretely into their professional future.

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The Qualife Foundation commissioned Yojoa to run a workshop on the theme of inclusive recruitment. Aimed at HR professionals, the workshop provided a practical approach to writing inclusive advertisements, conducting objective interviews and integrating new recruits. Participants left with practical tools and a better understanding of the issues involved in inclusive recruitment.

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As co-founding associations, Singa Switzerland, Yojoa and Association découvrir firmly believe that cultural diversity is a strength for business, and for society.

In this interview on the Forum program, two of the three initiators of the Charter project, Elody de Brito (SINGA Switzerland Foundation) and France Laurent (Association découvrir) present the Charter for the Inclusion of Refugees and Migrants in the Workplace.

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On this day, Yojoa accompanied a dozen young talents, coached and prepared in advance to take part in 15-minute express interviews with committed recruiting companies.

The aim is to create concrete opportunities for candidates by offering them a place to gain confidence through tailor-made coaching, understand the expectations of the job market, and meet recruiters who listen and offer advice.

Coach and Young Talent Program Manager: Manuel Lopez

On April 10, the Accueil de l'Enseignement Secondaire II (ACCESII) and Yojoa co-organized an event designed to raise the profile of young people from migrant backgrounds.
In front of some thirty companies, testimonials and discussions revealed the inspiring backgrounds, motivation and immense potential of these young players in tomorrow's professional inclusion.