A group from the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders visited Parole Project in July as part of the U.S. government’s Young African Leaders Initiative. Established in 2014, the fellowship has brought nearly 6,500 young leaders from every country in Sub-Saharan Africa to the United States for academic and leadership training. The fellows, between the ages of 25 and 35, are accomplished innovators and leaders who have had a positive impact in their communities and countries. Visiting Parole Project and speaking with staff and clients were fellows from Togo, Senegal, Burundi, South Africa, Mauritius, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Ghana, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and the Congo.
The 2024 fellow cohort hosted by LSU is part of a group of 700 Mandela Washington Fellows at 28 educational institutions across the United States. As part of this program, the fellows complete a focus project, which is an action plan they will use to identify and address a need in their business/organization/community to implement upon returning to their home country.
Parole Project Social Worker Meagan Snedigar and Reentry Manager Christi Cheramie served as focus project coaches for Apatsa and Karim, who are working to change the prison systems in their home countries of Malawi and Mauritania, respectively. Meagan and Christi met with them three times during the program and helped develop their plans with insight into prison and reentry experiences our organization addresses. They were able to engage on the topics of community development, advocacy and social change, leadership, and collaboration across boundaries of difference.
“Parole Project is the model,” Karim said. “I want to show the detainees [in Mauritania] that if these people were in prison for 20 or 30 years but are now employed and living good lives, you can too.”
“It’s such an inspiration to see such a big organization being run by people who experienced prison,” Apatsa said. “We don’t have something similar back home, but I hope to bring a little bit of it with me.”
