Distinguished company, companions, academics, college students, mother and father, and all our alumni of U.S. authorities trade packages. It is an honor be part of you right this moment to commemorate Nelson Mandela Day—a day to rejoice service, justice, and hope.
The United States of America is proud to have honored the legacy of Nelson Mandela after we launched our premier management coaching program for younger African leaders – the Mandela Washington Fellowship—in 2014. The program symbolizes the legacy of two historic leaders, Nelson Mandela and America’s founding father and first President George Washington.
The management coaching accomplished by way of the Fellowship at U.S. universities is designed to equip leaders of the future with the abilities that served each Nelson Mandela and George Washington, as they solid new beginnings for their nations. And right this moment we’re proud to see so many alumni of this program give again to their communities in the spirit of those two leaders.
This is strictly what the Mandela Washington Fellowship program is about, for younger African leaders, to study as a lot as they’ll about management, forge partnerships and collaborations whereas in the United States, and are available again to their home nations and make them higher. Each 12 months we ship about 28 leaders from Uganda amongst the 650 or so leaders from throughout Africa, to U.S. universities as part of this program. The impacts of the trade should not solely felt in the United States, but additionally in what our alumni do after they return home.
In this spirit, I would love to commend the Mandela Washington Fellowship Alumni Network of Uganda in addition to the U.S. Exchange Alumni community of Uganda (USEA) on residing up to the promise of servant leaders giving again to your neighborhood. You have put the imaginative and prescient of this program into follow right here right this moment. Congratulations Don Patrick and your colleagues!
Today, at this nice establishment, the Kampala School for the Physically Handicapped, we’re reminded that hope will not be summary. It is alive. It is tangible. It takes the form of kids studying to learn, communities welcoming folks of all skills, and people refusing to hand over on themselves or others.
Today’s theme “Building Hope: One Future at a Time”—couldn’t be extra becoming. Because hope will not be inbuilt slogans. It is inbuilt school rooms. It is inbuilt the brave hearts of kids who dream past their circumstances, and in the fingers of academics, caregivers, and communities who refuse to allow them to dream alone.
Thus right this moment we additionally honor your legacy—college students, academics, mother and father—of perseverance and imaginative and prescient. I’ve seen the outcomes of the work that this college does in the efforts of your graduates, together with Victo Nalule who isn’t just an alumna of the Mandela Washington Fellowship, however a grantee of the Embassy as she works to advance accessibility throughout Uganda.
This day additionally reminds us that constructing a future—particularly one constructed on dignity—will not be the work of 1 particular person. It is a shared endeavor. That’s why right this moment’s celebration is greater than symbolic. It is collaborative.
We are proud to stand right here with so many dedicated companions in assist of this college and the significance of accessibility in schooling. In specific, I need to acknowledge Pepsi for representing the lengthy custom of U.S. firms and types supporting the communities they work in.
And I particularly need to admire the U.S. Exchange Alumni Network and all the U.S. Exchange program alumni-led organizations current, for
their dedication as leaders to give again to Ugandan communities with their perception, expertise, and coronary heart. As former contributors in U.S. government-funded trade actions, you make us pleased with your continued contributions to a safer, safer and extra affluent future.
For all of the stakeholders current, you’ll by no means go incorrect working with alumni of U.S. authorities trade packages. As the U.S. Mission, they don’t seem to be simply alumni to us, they’re our companions and so they have confirmed that they’re stand out leaders of their totally different fields. If you ever want trusted companions, look in the direction of our alumni.
This celebration is a testomony to what we will obtain when public, non-public, and civic sectors unite behind a typical objective: the empowerment of each child—no matter incapacity.
Nelson Mandela emphasised that to change the world, we should first change the manner we see one another. When we select to see the potential in each child right here right this moment, after we present alternatives the place others see limitation, after we construct ramps as a substitute of boundaries—we’re not simply serving to somebody stroll right into a classroom. We are serving to them advance into their future.
As we transfer ahead—one future at a time—could this present day encourage every of us to serve, to advocate, and above all, to imagine in the promise of each child.
Thank you and congratulations!
The submit Remarks by U.S. Ambassador to Uganda William W. Popp to Mandela Washington Fellow’s at the Kampala School for the Physically Handicapped appeared first on U.S. Embassy in Uganda.
