The Obama Foundation recently issued a call for applications for its Fellowship Programme, which aims to support outstanding civic leaders and innovators from around the world. With over 20,000 applications from 191 countries, 20 fellows representing 11 countries (including Mali and South Africa) were selected.
According to President Barack Obama, these [selected] fellows are tackling some of the toughest challenges in their communities. They are doing the hard work — not for recognition, often without enough resources — because they have a vision of the world as it should be: a little more just, less isolated, more connected.”
The two African – Obama Foundation Fellows are Moussa Kondo from Mali and Koketso Moeti from South Africa, who along with their cohort, will receive two years of training, resources, and leadership development to amplify their work. Through this Fellowship they will also become part of a global network of civic leaders and change makers working to build a more just world.
For more information about what they do, read below and check out the links provided.
Moussa Kondo, Country Representative, Accountability Lab
Moussa is the Country Representative of Accountability Lab in Mali and a journalist who is passionate about community development activities to support African youth. After receiving his Master’s degree from The University of Bamako, he founded the weekly print newspaper L’Express de Bamako.
He then became President of local non-profit organization, Giving Back Mali, which educates young people in leadership and promotes the use of renewable energy in Mali. In 2015, he was selected as one of the top 500 young African leaders to participate in the Mandela Washington Fellowship. He spent six months helping manage projects at Accountability Lab Liberia. He saw a great need for similar creative, youth-led accountability efforts in his country, and is now helping to bring Accountability Lab to Mali by launching Integrity Idol Mali.
Koketso Moeti, Founder and Executive Director, amandla.mobi
Koketso is the founding executive director of amandla.mobi, a movement of over 200,000 people in South Africa. She has a long background in civic activism and has for over a decade worked at the intersection of governance, communication and citizen action. She is also the Deputy Chairperson of the SOS Coalition, which is committed to and campaigning for public broadcasting in the public interest. She was also a 2017 Aspen Institute New Voices fellow.
When she’s not working, Koketso can be found writing and has been published by The Guardian, Al Jazeera, City Press and the Mail & Guardian among others.
Sources:
https://www.obama.org/fellowship/2018-fellows/