About me
BUILDING INDIVIDUALS AND INSTITUTIONS
Amarachi has over 3 years experience in Strategy consulting, organizational development and instructional design, focusing on Strategic planning, organizational structuring and skills development.
She is the Executive Director, iThrive Network, a strategy consulting firm where she works with young people to develop strategies for designing and deploying early-stage ventures, project design and implementation, and organizational systems and structure that ensure high impact, and income creation, while executing and building sustainable projects and enterprises.
Through iThrive Network, Amarachi currently provides a contemporary co-working space, The iThrive Network Co-working Space, for innovators, entrepreneurs, changemakers, techpreneurs and visionaries to network, collaborate and implement innovative solutions to pressing societal challenges. Through iThrive Network, she also organizes training and workshops for young leaders and entrepreneurs on skills development, strategic planning and business/nonprofit leadership and management. She is the creator of the highly instructive online course “Institute Your Passion” which equips driven changemakers with the skills, steps and strategies required to build thriving, sustainable institutions out of their passion, core interests, beliefs and values.
As a Certified Strategy Professional, Amarachi currently provides strategy development, concept development, and organizational structuring for executives, businesses and nonprofits. She works with forward thinking individuals, and visionaries to develop appropriate models for building impactful and profitable institutions, as well as strategies and systems to ensure their organizations align with global best practices.
Amarachi Igwe Kalu is an award-winning Infant Health, Wellbeing and Development Advocate who has over 9 years experience in Infant Health, and Development advocacy focusing on infant health promotion, early childhood development, and health systems strengthening. She is also the Founder and current CEO of Thriving Up Initiative, a highly impactful nonprofit with a vision to end preventable newborn deaths.
As Chief Executive Officer of Thriving Up Initiative, Amarachi works to provide a holistic approach to ending preventable newborn deaths and ensuring the health, wellbeing, development and survival of newborns, infants and young children in underserved communities. She leads a team that works with international, local and financial institutions including the US Embassy, Vitamin Angels International, Healthlearn USA, S.C.C Nigeria Ltd, JCI and Access Bank, to implement high impact interventions that save newborn lives and improve health and development outcomes of newborns and infants, ensuring that they thrive and are provided with an enriched environment that fosters early childhood development.
Her high impact intervention projects include the construction of fully functional Primary Healthcare Centers in 2 different underserved and hard-to reach communities, provision of life saving prenatal Vitamins, and Vitamin A supplements, to over 600 mothers and babies up to six months in severely underserved communities respectively and organization of capacity building workshops on essential newborn care, for over 200 community health workers across 20 communities and 3 LGAs. Her interventions have saved over 2000 newborn lives and continues to provide access to healthcare for over 6500 people.
Amarachi has been featured on various TV and Radio programs as well as reputable platforms like Eloy awards, Leading Ladies Africa and Arise News.
She is a Certified Strategy Professional, has a certification for improving newborn survival and a background in Civic Engagement from the University of Georgia Athens USA. She is a Fellow of the President Obama YALI RLC (2017), recipient of the NYSC FCT Honorary Award (2018), and recipient of the prestigious US Embassy Ambassadorial Grant Award (2018). In 2020, she was selected by the US Government as one of Africa’s most promising young leaders and a Mandela Washington Fellow.
She has spoken and hosted panels at local and International conferences and is a member of the International Leadership Association. In 2022, she was named one of Africa’s top 60 women in Development by Donors for Africa and one of Africa’s 50 rising social impact transformers by Gemstone in 2021. She was one of 16 Nigerians selected by the U.S Department of State in 2022, to participate in the MWF Alumni Enrichment Institute in Washington DC and Drexel University, Philadelphia.
Amarachi is passionately driven to human capital development as well as enterprise development and believes that individuals and organizations must be provided with opportunities, environments and resources that enable them maximize and fulfill their highest potential.