December 23, 2014

Mandela Washington Fellows Find Solutions for Africa’s Toughest Challenges

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Young woman teaching a class of younger girls. One mentoring project, "Building Resilience, Inspiring Change in Rural Zambia," aims to equip 24 young girls living in marginalized rural areas with the tools to become positive role models for over 500 young people in their schools and communities.
Mandela Washington Fellowship alumni are crowdfunding on RocketHub to support innovative public service projects that address Africa’s toughest challenges. Their crowdfunding campaigns launched on November 17 and will end on December 31, 2014.
 
The Mandela Washington Fellowship is the flagship program of President Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). Bringing 500 young African leaders to the United States for six week academic and leadership programs, the Fellowship embodies the President’s commitment to invest in the future of Africa. The first class of Mandela Washington Fellows arrived in June 2014 to study business and entrepreneurship, civic leadership, or public management at a U.S. campus, followed by a Presidential Summit in Washington, D.C.  
 
Mandela Washington Fellow alumni participating in this crowdfunding campaign will seek alternative funding and investment options beyond the U.S. government to maximize their projects’ potential to tell their stories, build the capacity of their organizations, engage local communities, and develop sustainable solutions through RocketHub’s crowdfunding platform, a space where large numbers of people can donate small amounts of money to projects that are promoted online. 
 
The campaign ends on December 31, 2014.