YALI alumnus João Vembane

In 2016 I returned from my Mandela Washington Fellowship at Duquesne University’s Leadership in Civic Engagement Institute. This fellowship is part of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), which brings African civic, business, and community leaders aged 25–35 to U.S. universities for six weeks of academic coursework, leadership training and networking. Going into the fellowship, I had a clear vision of what I wanted to accomplish in my home country of Mozambique: I would help develop and pass legislation to protect disability rights and promote social inclusion. As a disability rights advocate, I already work towards this goal. I have led initiatives that build capacity among local disabled organizations (DPO), supported skills-building programs for persons with disabilities, and conducted evidence-based research for disability inclusion programs.

During my fellowship at Duquesne University and through professional development experience at Community Living and Support Services (CLASS) in Pittsburgh, I established relationships with American institutions and advocacy networks promoting disability rights through the American with Disabilities Act (ADA). Through meetings with advocates of the ADA, such as the State Department’s former Special Advisor for International Disability Rights, Ms. Judy Heumann and the CEO of CLASS, Dr. Al Condeluci, I gained a deeper understanding of how a concise policy like the ADA is necessary to develop a more inclusive and accessible society.

João poses for a group photo at Maputo at the Mozambique National Parliament.

After my Mandela Washington Fellowship experience, I traveled to Botswana on a grant sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Mozambique. I participated in a two-day disability rights seminar organized by Dr. David Gordon, an ADA advocate for special education, and Botswanan Mandela Washington Fellowship Alumni. The experience helped strengthen the network of YALI disability rights advocates across the sub-Saharan region. During this trip, I also conducted a two-day follow-up visit focused on special education programs in Botswana. I had the opportunity to meet with government officials and to visit schools that have implemented special education programs in Gaborone.

These international experiences greatly inspired my work in Mozambique as a disability rights advocate. In July 2017, Haley Kimmett, a contact I met through the Mandela Washington Fellowship Summit, and I were awarded a Reciprocal Exchange grant to conduct a series of stakeholder meetings and a workshop in Maputo. The goal of these meetings was to develop ground-breaking legislation for disability rights in Mozambique. The grant also supported a month-long broadcast news series by Mozambique’s TV Surdo (Deaf TV), raising awareness about the work and lives of people living with disabilities in Mozambique. Following the workshop, myself and other advocates formed a civil society group, led by the Mozambique Forum of Disabled People Associations (FAMOD), to work on developing the bill of rights for Mozambicans with disabilities. The group continues to lobby Mozambican government leaders to pass this momentous legislation.

João poses for a group photo at an Inclusive Education Workshop on July 5th, 2019 with YALIs from the SADC region, Education Sector Specialists, NGOs and DPOs and Dr David Gordon (from Wagner College, NY, US).

In 2016 I returned from my Mandela Washington Fellowship at Duquesne University’s Leadership in Civic Engagement Institute. This fellowship is part of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), which brings African civic, business, and community leaders aged 25–35 to U.S. universities for six weeks of academic coursework, leadership training and networking. Going into the fellowship, I had a clear vision of what I wanted to accomplish in my home country of Mozambique: I would help develop and pass legislation to protect disability rights and promote social inclusion. As a disability rights advocate, I already work towards this goal. I have led initiatives that build capacity among local disabled organizations (DPO), supported skills-building programs for persons with disabilities, and conducted evidence-based research for disability inclusion programs.

During my fellowship at Duquesne University and through professional development experience at Community Living and Support Services (CLASS) in Pittsburgh, I established relationships with American institutions and advocacy networks promoting disability rights through the American with Disabilities Act (ADA). Through meetings with advocates of the ADA, such as the State Department’s former Special Advisor for International Disability Rights, Ms. Judy Heumann and the CEO of CLASS, Dr. Al Condeluci, I gained a deeper understanding of how a concise policy like the ADA is necessary to develop a more inclusive and accessible society.

After my Mandela Washington Fellowship experience, I traveled to Botswana on a grant sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Mozambique. I participated in a two-day disability rights seminar organized by Dr. David Gordon, an ADA advocate for special education, and Botswanan Mandela Washington Fellowship Alumni. The experience helped strengthen the network of YALI disability rights advocates across the sub-Saharan region. During this trip, I also conducted a two-day follow-up visit focused on special education programs in Botswana. I had the opportunity to meet with government officials and to visit schools that have implemented special education programs in Gaborone.

These international experiences greatly inspired my work in Mozambique as a disability rights advocate. In July 2017, Haley Kimmett, a contact I met through the Mandela Washington Fellowship Summit, and I were awarded a Reciprocal Exchange grant to conduct a series of stakeholder meetings and a workshop in Maputo. The goal of these meetings was to develop ground-breaking legislation for disability rights in Mozambique. The grant also supported a month-long broadcast news series by Mozambique’s TV Surdo (Deaf TV), raising awareness about the work and lives of people living with disabilities in Mozambique. Following the workshop, myself and other advocates formed a civil society group, led by the Mozambique Forum of Disabled People Associations (FAMOD), to work on developing the bill of rights for Mozambicans with disabilities. The group continues to lobby Mozambican government leaders to pass this momentous legislation.

João poses for a group photo at an Inclusive Education Workshop on July 5th, 2019 with YALIs from the SADC region, Education Sector Specialists, NGOs and DPOs and Dr David Gordon (from Wagner College, NY, US).

In 2018, I received a YALI Alumni Engagement for Innovation Fund Grant to implement a week-long disability rights study tour in Mozambique. The tour brought YALI alumni and international stakeholders together to evaluate inclusiveness in education programs. This initiative, implemented in Beira in 2019, has been a crucial milestone in further developing the YALI disability rights network in Southern Africa and strengthening ties with U.S. counterparts. The study tour included YALI participants from Mozambique, Zambia, Botswana, South Africa, and Namibia. The group of advocates also formed a partnership with Light for the World; together, they will collaborate on inclusive education projects in the Southern Africa region.

In recognition of my work in disability rights advocacy, I was invited by the Mechanism of Civil Society Strengthening (MASC) to join a team of two other consultants to conduct research on the political economy of the disability sector in Mozambique. The project is funded by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development and was officially launched in March 2019 in Maputo.

This year marks two momentous milestones - the 30th anniversary celebration in which the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law on July 26th, to ensure the rights of people with disabilities, and the 10th anniversary of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). Since 2010, YALI has graduated over 18,000 alumni between the Mandela Washington Fellowship and Regional Leadership Centers (RLCs) located on the continent. Membership in the online YALI Network community exceeds 650,000 and is growing. You too can join the conversation by sharing your story on social media by following/using the hashtags #AccessforAll and #YALI10.

About the Author: João Vembane is a YALI 2016 Mandela Washington Fellowship Alumnus

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Did you miss our latest MentorTalks episode with Aliza "Alice" Napartivaumnuay, co-founder of the award-winning social enterprise, Socialgiver? You can catch up here.

Alice, an alumna of the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) and the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI), talks about how she went from working two jobs to taking the leap as a social impact entrepreneur, how Socialgiver is revolutionizing fundraising in Thailand, the impact of her exchange program experiences, creating partnerships, and using technology for change and sustainability.

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Aliza "Alice" Napartivaumnuay
Co-founder, Socialgiver

Alice is the co-founder of the award-winning social enterprise, Socialgiver, an innovative solution that helps consumers, businesses, and social projects to work together to create positive social impact. She is revolutionizing fundraising by tapping into consumer spending power with the vision of turning the world’s spare capacity into social progress.

Alice’s interest in creating social impact projects stems from her previous roles in the corporate sector managing new project developments for top retailers from a supply chain and distribution perspective for more than nine years. Combining with her passion to create a positive change to the community and the environment, Alice works with the philosophy that in order to create sustainable change, it must be done through public participation.

Socialgiver has won awards such as Thailand’s Social Enterprise Award, The Venture Thailand, and the Global Social Venture Competition for Southeast Asia, among others.

• Read more about MentorTalks: Revolutionizing Fundraising

Arts Envoy and community muralist Phillip Martin was recently invited to the community of Standpipe in Kingston, Jamaica, where he managed to create a work of art that made a big impact.

How did he do it? By including every member of the Standpipe community.

Can you see the word "Standpipe" in the mural? Martin says, "it's kind of hidden in plain sight."

Here's his first person account of his "amazing experience" in Jamaica:

Any time of the year is a good time to go to Jamaica and I'm happy to put a paintbrush in the hands of any volunteer for a community mural, anywhere in the world. Recently, in Kingston, Jamaica, I joined up with the U.S. Embassy, community volunteers, and artists from the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts. Together, we created a large community mural in Standpipe, a neighborhood across the street from the embassy.

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It was wonderful to include the talents of college students from Edna Manley, but everyone in the community was welcome to participate. No talent or experience was needed. Volunteers only needed to want to help their community.

To begin, members of the community gave input to what they would like in the mural. Then, I created a "paint by number" project that worked for participants of all ages.

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The mural was so very well received in the Standpipe. It was in a location that had a lot of foot traffic. There was much conversation, but it was usually in Jamaican Patois. You can listen to it, and it is lovely, but you will never understand enough to make heads or tails of it.

So, when my local contact in the community wanted to really communicate with me, it had to be in English. He said that there had been a lot of talk about me and the mural. And, he came to one conclusion: "You should move to Jamaica." I don't think he could have given me a higher compliment.

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Sarah Endline, during a recent visit to the Office of Alumni Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.

Sarah Endline doesn’t believe in branding.

For the Entrepreneur in Residence at Harvard Innovation Lab and Harvard Business School, building your company is about mission and values.

Endline, an alumna of the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Program (CBYX) 1991 and the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) 2019, joined us on Tuesday, January 14 to talk about “The Myth of Branding.” She shared advice on why to eliminate the word “brand,” what works to attract partners and your audience, and how to stand out in a crowded marketplace. Watch her interview on Facebook to learn more.

Endline is “a social entrepreneur and a self-proclaimed ‘hippie capitalist'" who joined us on MentorTalks on Tuesday, January 14, 2020. She started sweetriot, an activist candy company, as “a sweet movement to fix the world!” Prior to starting sweetriot, she launched products and created brands at Yahoo!, Microsoft, the World Bank, AIESEC, and The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE).

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Sarah Endline in Turkey, on a speaking tour for the U.S. Embassy, December 2019.

Endline has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor with Distinction from The University of Michigan. She has worked and traveled in over 85 countries, including Turkey, where she recently did a speaking tour for the U.S. Embassy there.

• Read more about MentorTalks: Sweet Success & The Myth of Branding

In early November, 30 exchange program alumni from across South and Central Asia came together for the Alumni Thematic International Exchange Seminar (TIES), “Women in Media: Creating Networks for Social Change” in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

At the seminar, the #ExchangeAlumni - men and women, journalists, producers, vloggers, and filmmakers, from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan - talked about the common challenges women face in media, how #medialiteracy can be used to tackle disinformation and misinformation - including the way women are portrayed by the media, and came up with innovative ways of empowering women to develop partnerships for community action.

During the seminar, the alumni also got a chance to meet local journalists who are using new ways to reach audiences, as well as visit the American Center in Almaty, where they heard from Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) Aleisha Woodward of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA).

“Journalists are the gatekeepers. Journalists also need to be responsible and be the arbiters of truth,” said DAS Woodward, adding, "We have seen how disinformation can impact society. In a pluralistic society, we need ways to talk to each other, even when we don’t agree."

We’d like to thank our exchange alumni who came together across various exchange programs and countries to develop creative solutions to the issues women face in media. We can't wait to receive their grant project proposals and learn about the ways in which they plan to make an impact!

• Read more about “Journalists are the Gatekeepers”

Chef, arts envoy, storyteller, and social impact entrepreneur Nasser Jaber is on a mission, and he’s using food to accomplish his goals. Watch Nasser talk about the power of food, building communities, and cultural exchange.

As the co-founder of Komeeda, a unique business that uses cooking and dining experiences as a way to build communities and encourage cultural exchange, Nasser has helped organize the Refugee Food Festival in New York, the Displaced Kitchens series to support displaced people, and a Veteran’s Supper, featuring the cuisine and stories of American veterans.

One of the dinner series that Nasser runs through Komeeda is the world-renowned Displaced Kitchens, which allowed refugees to cook, share their stories, earn a living, and escape poverty. The dinner series pop-up went across the country and lifted families out of poverty, and now it’s being replicated through gastro-diplomacy efforts in Turkey and Sweden.

Earlier this year, Nasser was invited to Morocco as part of the U.S. Speakers program run by ECA at State. Get a taste of his tour during U.S.-Morocco Food Week in this video from the U.S. Embassy Rabat:

• Read more about MentorTalks: Cooking for Change

Congratulations to the three #ExchangeAlumni of the Professional Fellows Program -- Alicia Ng, Chit Aein Thu, and Manel Bargaoui -- for winning the 2019 Professional Fellows Alumni Impact Awards! Representing the nations of Malaysia, Myanmar, and Tunisia, these inspiring exchange alumnae made impressive and positive impacts in their communities.

They will be recognized at the 2019 Professional Fellows Congress, hosted in Washington, DC from November 20-21, 2019. The Congress gives them the opportunity to share their inspiring stories while networking with nearly 300 Professional Fellows who have completed fellowships across diverse settings within government entities, civil society organizations, and business across the United States.

Explore their bios below to learn more about these spectacular #ExchangeAlumni and their achievements!
 

Koh Chang “Alicia” Ng

Kuching, Malaysia

Alicia Ng is a strong environmental advocate. At the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Malaysia, she supports local indigenous communities to build sustainable businesses, such as organic farming and ecotourism. In 2017, she spent six weeks in Arkansas with Little Rock Urban Farming, a community-based food enterprise producing fresh produce for local markets. This international exchange experience helped expand her work within WWF Malaysia and in her volunteer and business ventures. Alicia has helped establish various partnerships throughout Malaysia, including one with the Alliance of Indigenous Peoples of the Highlands of Borneo (Formadat). Together, they push for sustainable development in the region under the “Heart of Borneo” initiative that improves the welfare of those living on the island and minimizes deforestation and loss of biodiversity.

Alicia is a certified mediator for the Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil and the author of a coffee table book, Highland Tales in the Heart of Borneo, featuring the Borneo community’s past, present, and future, intertwined with their natural surroundings. In 2016, Alicia co-founded Artinsia, a social enterprise, aiming to train underprivileged women living in remote villages in artisanal skills to supplement their income. In addition, Alicia established "Artinsia for Paws," an artisan program that supports healthcare and rescue for stray animals. Every item is uniquely hand-crafted by female artisans who developed their skills through Artinsia’s training programs.
 

Chit Aein Thu

Yangon, Myanmar

Chit Aein Thu, founder of CCEducare in Myanmar, increases educational opportunities for students in regions with a lack of schools and qualified teachers. Prior to her four-week fellowship (2017) with NextThought in Oklahoma, Chit worked at a technology software company which inspired her to innovate the traditional education system in Myanmar. Her host organization, NextThought, specializes in educational technology and collaborative learning – the perfect place for Chit to bolster her leadership abilities and build partnerships that launched CCEducare.

Chit’s vision is to provide equal access to educational opportunities for all young people in Myanmar through online platforms with a goal to launch an online university. Through CCEducare, Chit is unlocking students’ potential by helping them develop professional and lifelong learning skills, equipping them to pursue higher education and be change-makers in their communities. CCEducare developed multiple training centers in Myanmar, collaborating with one of Myanmar’s largest NGOs, Proximity, which uses CCEducare platforms to educate farmers and agricultural staff. CCEducare Myanmar was awarded the Mekong Innovative Seed grant in 2017, and the YSEALI Seeds for the Future grant in 2018.

She is also a consultant in multiple youth empowerment projects beyond her home country, and founded WomenLead, an organization aimed at helping underprivileged women sell their artisanal products through fair trade, providing them with a dependable income.
 

Manel Bargaoui

Ben Arous, Tunisia

Manel Bargaoui is an author, teacher, mobile app manager, and pioneer advocate for the deaf and hard of hearing in Tunisia. Following her fellowship with the National Association of the Deaf in Silver Spring, Maryland, an organization that promotes the rights of deaf people in the United States, Manel taught English with Tunisian Sign Language. Her participation in the PFP inspired her to author Let's Handspeak English, an English-student book designed for the deaf and hard of hearing community in her home country. Beyond her teaching and authorship, Manel is the creator of the LET’S (Learning English Through Signs) mobile application. In addition, she is the head organizer of the Let’s Handspeak Weekend Studies, which brings together deaf and hearing communities to learn entrepreneurship and leadership skills together.

Not only does Manel work on improving the educational system for deaf people, she is an international advocate for their rights as well. Her project in Tunisia was selected among the 24 best initiatives in an international competition organized by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights and she recently presented at the United Nations in Geneva as a Tunisian Human Rights Ambassador. She is also an advocate through public speaking, having hosted both a TEDx and AMENDS Talk in 2018. Manel is also a member of the Tunisian Fulbright Society.

• Read more about Congratulations to the Fall 2019 Alumni Impact Award Winners!

Congratulations to Fulbright alumnae Stacy Jupiter and Saidiya Hartman, and current Fulbright scholar Andrea Dutton, for their selection as 2019 MacArthur Fellows! The MacArthur Fellowship awards accomplished professionals the opportunity to pursue research that inspire advancements in their respective fields. Stacy and Saidiya join the ranks of 96 international exchange alumni who have been honored as recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship.

Stacy Jupiter, a 2002 Fulbright U.S. Student to Australia, is receiving a MacArthur Fellowship for her transformative work as a marine scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society. Since earning a Bachelor of Arts (BA) from Harvard in 1997 and a PhD from the University of California Santa Cruz in 2006, Stacy has dedicated her life to developing conservation strategies that consider the cultural impacts of natural resource management across regions. Her work seeks to establish creative solutions to protect ecosystem biodiversity and the well-being of coastal communities in the Melanesia region, which includes Fiji, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea.

Saidiya Hartman, a literary scholar and cultural historian, is receiving the MacArthur Fellowship for her devotion to exploring the pervasive impacts of slavery in modern American society and promoting narratives that have been historically erased from archives. After graduating with a BA from Wesleyan University in 1984 and a PhD from Yale University in 1992, Saidiya advanced her research as a 1997 Fulbright U.S. Scholar to Ghana. Since completing her exchange experience, she has authored multiple books, including: Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America (1997), Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route (2007), and Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments (2019). Saidiya currently works as a professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.

The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs also congratulates current Fulbright U.S. Scholar, Andrea Dutton, a future exchange alumna, who is also a 2019 MacArthur Fellow. As a geochemist and paleoclimatologist on faculty with the University of Wisconsin - Madison, Andrea’s research seeks to inform a greater understanding of the impacts of sea level rise.

• Read more about Marine Scientist, Literary Scholar, Geochemist Win 2019 MacArthur Fellowships