Fifteen young South Sudanese academicians, leaders and entrepreneurs posed for a photo with the US Charge de Affairs. |26th May 2022| Photo credit: Yar Ajak.

Fifteen South Sudanese who traveled for the Mandela Washington fellowship started coming back to Juba after attending a six-week fellowship program in the United States.

The young leaders and entrepreneurs were assigned to different states to learn skills in various fields after being selected by the U.S Embassy in Juba.

Public Affairs Officer at the US Embassy, Berkana Moulik believed the alumni will become accomplished people contributing to the community in different fields.

“I have great expectation for this team that are particularly brilliant group of young people am sure in 10-15 years 20 years, they will probably be prominent leaders in the government civil society,” he said.

“So, I just expect them to share whatever inspiration or ideas and energy they learned from my country, that they can come back here to south Sudan and share this with others because not everyone can travel to the United States.”

In May this year, the 15 young professionals were nominated for the learning opportunity with US-funded Mandela Washington Fellowship program.

They joined nearly a thousand other remarkable young leaders selected from across the Sub-Saharan Africa to build their careers at various American universities and colleges.

Yoal Gatkuoth, a peace and human rights activist, is among the first group that landed in Juba last week upon completion of their fellowship.

“I got a lot of inspiration based on leadership structure and the system and the engagement between the community and the leadership specially the government,” said Gatkouth.

Before he nailed the fellowship opportunity, he ran his youth-ed organization focusing on peace building and good governance.

Speaking Eye Radio, he said the YALI experience is transformative.

“Its transformative mentally and a self-development for me and also being in a culturally diverse place was incredible because when I reached there were a lot of folks from everywhere it opens my mind.”

“Through the small grants I got from the surrounding I will be able to continue doing what I was doing before traveling.”

The Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders is the flagship program of the U.S. Government’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI).

Each year, selected fellows participate in six-week Leadership Institutes, studying Business, Civic Engagement, or Public Management at U.S. colleges or universities.

“It was such an amazing  opportunity I did not expect Jackson state university to be the way so over whelmed  the Southern hospitality  we met people from Nigeria different part of Africa,” said Ann Maria, a Teaching Assistant in the University of Juba.

She is also a business owner and does a lot of mentor-ship for girls who have dropped out of school.

Maria was also an Alumi of the 2021 YALI fellowship, which was done virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She finally got the chance to attend the program in person this year.

“I made connections, and volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, working towards revitalizing the neighborhood through giving them a decent place to live,”she said narrating her US experience.

“We have a possibility of establishing habitat for humanity in South Sudan, because they have over 150 organizations within the US and all over the world they have branch they office.”

Application for the next group of YALI students has just closed this week.