Education is a high priority in many African countries. We will be hearing from three young professionals who are working to build and improve the education systems in their home countries. These professionals are part of The Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders - the flagship program of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). YALI was launched in 2010 to support young Africans as they spur growth and prosperity, strengthen democratic governance, and enhance peace and security across Africa. The Mandela Washington Fellowship, which began in 2014, brings young leaders to the United States for academic coursework and leadership training and creates unique opportunities in Africa for Fellows to put new skills to practical use in leading organizations, communities, and countries.
Pontso Gloria Tsoeunyane (Lesotho) has always envisioned herself mentoring and paying school-fees for the vulnerable children in her community. After her part-time job as a lecturer, she worked as an educational bursary administrator, where her role was to pay school-fees for orphans and vulnerable children in schools. She introduced new systems of collecting applications, which increased accessibility of communities to bursary program by 80 percent. She was eventually promoted to a Senior Child Welfare Officer position where she acted as Director-Operations and designed policy frameworks and coordinated implementation of programs for Disability, Children, Elderly and Community-Development for the vulnerable groups across 10 districts of Lesotho. Most recently, she was promoted to Manager of Social Development Services where her role is to coordinate, facilitate implementation, monitor and supervise the provision of social care services in the district.
Silomo Clarence Khumalo (South Africa) has spent most of his professional career fighting for the right to education for children with disabilities. He began working at Section 27, a public interest law institution, as a Law and Social Justice Fellow after completing his undergraduate law degree at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal. He was later promoted to a junior researcher, which led him to focus on a research interest of the right to access basic education for children with disabilities. He currently works as a law clerk for Justice Froneman in the Constitutional Court of South Africa. Being a person living with a disability himself and having experienced challenges throughout his education, it occurred to him that he could use the law as a vehicle to achieve social justice particularly for people with disabilities.
Magessa Deogratias George (Tanzania) is a teacher by profession, having bachelor's degree of education and Master of Science in Human Resource Management. Throughout his career, he has worked part time with different institutions that engage in improving quality of education. These include National Youth Information Center (2008-2010), Institute of Development Studies of Mzumbe University (2014- 2015) and Tanzed (2017). He also volunteers with FARAJA Trust Fund which works with young girls who dropped from school due to early pregnancy. Since 2007, he has worked as a permanent teacher at Tushikamane Secondary School and is the CEO and founder of Afrikanzuri, a non-profit organization that supports equal access to quality education in primary and secondary schools in Tanzania. He chose this work because he is passionate about creating a society where children can access equal. quality education despite differences in financial background.
**Please note that advance registration and pre-payment is required, and late registration cannot be accepted. All attendees will have a $25 charge for the special event meal cost, and registration ends Monday, July 16.
