July 7th 2014, the first day of the 2nd half of the academic institute for the Washington fellows!
There have been moments of joy, creation of friendships, establishment of contacts, and sharing of the visions and passions for the development of our nations and continent. It has been an amazing journey so far with a promise of even better days ahead, even if the day of departure is now imminent. We are grateful to the faculty at UD for the great efforts, going out of their way to make our stay comfortable and the academic sessions productive! Our engagement leaders have been remarkable, too, providing us with resident support as needed!
We have discussed political organizing, good governance, and advocacy as they relate to civic leadership. During the academic sessions, the presenters have provided insightful information on the issues and given an opportunity for the fellows to ask and interact to get more information. Processes of learning, relearning, and unlearning have been evident during these sessions. I must admit that not all sessions have been completely relevant to the work that each one of us does, but they have set the pace for a greater urge in us to get interested in issues affecting our continent beyond our working parameters. Change must begin with the acquisition of knowledge. Knowledge will then give us the authority to drive the change that we need and help others drive their change agendas. The availability of the UD Library to us has also provided further resources for our knowledge acquisition processes!
We have also visited organizations, such as AIDS Delaware, TeenSHARP, and Easter Seals Disability Services. During those visits, we had real life experiences of how organizations work in the US and how they offer their services. All the organizations visited, despite operating in different thematic areas, have shown that it is possible to make changes in our communities if we are visionaries and professional. The organizations have challenges like our organizations and are trying as hard as we are to address them. The only difference is clearly that the US federal government has invested heavily in ensuring that it supports organizations providing social services to its citizens. The partnerships and linkages with the government and its departments and institutions are one clear distinction of the work here from that in Africa and one that must be emulated. The strong spirit of volunteerism here must be replicated in Africa to improve our service delivery capacities, too. These visits, like the lectures, laid the foundation for future collaboration with these organizations on common themes with the fellows.
Other milestones in the fellowship are the meetings with Senator Coons and Governor Markell. These meetings accentuate the commitment of the US government at different levels to the program. The commitment of these leaders to driving social change in their communities and in Africa must be emulated.
Cultural activities have also been part of our journey with visits to museums, Philadelphia, and New York among others, indulging in life’s pleasures and treasures.
Today, was one of the busy days with five sessions!
First we had a session on media framing of political issues that discussed the influence that media has on people and how people form opinions around issues. In the middle of this session, ten fellows left the room to be part of a conference call with the office of First Lady Michelle Obama to discuss adolescent girls’ education and empowerment. The call was to set the pace for a virtual discussion in the coming weeks that will culminate with a meeting with President and Mrs. Obama during the Washington Summit.
During lunch, fellows had an opportunity to discuss with Professor Maloba issues that affect Africa and how young people can increase their effectiveness in the social change processes among other issues. The group then planned the presentation requisition by the Washington team on challenges facing Africa and recommendations for tackling them at different levels. The group concluded to present lack of transparency and accountability as a challenge and a draft presentation was done. Further refinements will be done before submission. The last session of the day was on the historic preservation of photos in Africa and beyond.