Wenette Hope Foundation CEO Wendy Anna and 32 others selected for 2023 Mandela Washington Fellowship

• Posted on June 16, 2023June 16, 2023
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Founder of the Wenette Hope Foundation, Wendy Anna Egyirkoom is part of a total of 33 young leaders selected from Ghana for the 2023 cohort of the Washington Fellowship 2023.

She has been placed in the Business and Entrepreneurship track and will be having her training at the University of Nevada, Reno, in Nevada.

In addition to managing the not-for-profit organisation, Wendy is a passionate traveller with a focus on eco-tourism under the Destination Africa Project. She is also a dedicated philanthropist committed to empowering marginalized individuals within society.

The Wennette Hop Foundation’s core objective is to empower individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, enabling them to contribute to nation-building and leadership by tapping into their innate potential.

The 2023 cohort of the Mandela Washington Fellowship consists of thirty-three promising young Ghanaians who were chosen from a pool of nearly 3,000 competitive applicants from across Ghana.

Later this month, the fellows will embark on a 6 week academic and industry journey to USA. Each of them are placed in a University in the USA for an intensive program of professional development and leadership training.

The Mandela Washington Fellowship is the flagship initiative of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), providing approximately 700 young African leaders with leadership development and training opportunities in the United States every year. Since its inception in 2014, the Fellowship has welcomed over 5,000 young leaders from all countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Upon their return, the Ghanaian Mandela Washington Fellows will join the vibrant network of almost 3,000 alumni in Ghana, actively engaging with both U.S. and Ghanaian leaders to develop community-based solutions for public policy challenges, including health, education, human rights, women’s empowerment, and other critical areas.

The 2023 cohort comprises professionals from diverse fields and regions, focusing on a wide range of issues such as climate change, combatting gender-based violence and child labor, HIV/AIDS awareness, noncommunicable disease treatment, mental health, support for the agricultural sector, STEM education, and business sector strengthening. Moreover, this year’s group also includes an additional Ghanaian youth leader as part of the African Union’s cohort.