On July 1, 2025, the Office for People with Disabilities attended the Mandela Washington Fellowship, which is the flagship program for the U.S. Government’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI).
Since 2014, over 7,000 young leaders from every country in Sub-Saharan Africa have participated in the Fellowship program. This year, Drexel University hosted 25 accomplished leaders who had established records of promoting innovation and making a positive impact in their communities and countries.
During this event, our office met directly with leaders and innovators from Uganda, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe, who wanted to increase their awareness and enact policy change for people with disabilities in their countries.
On July 21st, our office had a visitor from Nigeria who was a part of the Mandela Washington Fellows program. The Fellow, who is a deaf person, wanted to learn more about our work and how he could enact change and fight for the rights of people with disabilities in his country. During his visit, he marveled about the accessibility of Philadelphia’s transportation system, which he was able to easily navigate on his own. This type of accessibility is not currently achievable in Nigeria.
It was a wonderful opportunity for our office to engage with leaders from other countries and learn about their experiences and advocacy work for people with disabilities.
