Community reception kicks off 2017 Mandela Washington Fellowship

Business, government and civic leaders joined University faculty and staff for a welcome reception for the 2017 Mandela Washington Fellows. They got the chance to speak to 50 young African leaders age 25-35 who are working to improve their sub-Saharan African nations. At the reception, fellows had the opportunity to talk one-on-one with guests to explain what they are working on back home. Gail Knight, a long-time Phoenix civic leader, was impressed.

"It's really motivating to meet these young people and learn what they are doing," said Knight, who ran Community Excellence Project, a nonprofit that helped improve a blighted area of South Phoenix. "I had to try so hard not to have tears because what these people are doing is just wonderful."

The 50 young African leaders are part of U.S. State Department program that helps developing leaders improve their knowledge and skills. ASU is one of 20 American universities involved in the Young African Leaders Initiative. The College of Public Service and Community Solutions is hosting two groups of 25 leaders. One group is learning about civic leadership. The other, public management.

Labran Alio Maidoukia Alihossi Reine is chemical safety engineer from Niger who traces his country's history to Phoenix.

"When my country gained its independence from France in 1960, one of the first things our president did was come to Phoenix because he wanted to learn how to build a country in a desert," said Reine. "So, 57 years later I'm here to learn from you again."

A chemical engineer by training, Reine is the head of a bomb squad and a fire captain in charge of safety at a uranium plant. Niger is the world's third-largest producer of the radioactive material and an occasional target of terrorists.

"I hope to learn policy-making here," Reine said. "I spent my life studying chemistry and physics, so I want to learn about public administration to help my country."

Hawanatu Assanatu Mansaray is a medical doctor from Sierra Leone. She founded an organization while in school aimed at encouraging more girls to pursue higher education and careers in science.

"I want to improve my leadership skills to help my association improve women's education and leadership, "said Dr. Mansaray. "We want girls to know that they can be what they want to be- there's no limit."

As a member of the public management cohort, Dr. Mansaray is looking to take home practical solutions to improve the delivery of medicine in Sierra Lione. She's already come across one idea from another Mandela Fellow.

"I spoke to one of my fellows who was talking about mobile health clinics that she's working on as a part of her company," Dr, Mansaray said. "That is something that we need in Sierra Leone and can be part of our solution because we have smaller hospitals and not everybody can get to them."

One of the goals of the reception was to introduce fellows to community members who can serve as peer collaborators such as Gail Knight, who devoted her life to public service after meeting Martin Luther King, Jr. as a teenager. 

"I'm hoping there will be some opportunities to have more conversations," Knight said. "I want to connect as many of them as I can to people in their field."