Haramaya University College of Law is going to be represented at Mandela Washington Fellowship in the US.

Mandela Washington Fellowship is a flagship program of the United States that recruits young African  leaders to provide them with advanced leadership training in the US. Ms.Gebreala, a staff member of  college of law is selected as participant at the fellowship. The fellowship was initiated by former president Barack Obama. The program has four tracks. Trainees apply to public management, civic leadership, business and entrepreneurship track and energy management track. Ms.Gebreala will be participating in the civic leadership track. The fellowship will begin the coming June 16 in the US in 25 different universities that will be hosting 1000 young Africans. Each university will host a mix of young  African leaders from different countries and from different backgrounds. Ms.Gebreala is allotted in  University of Lincoln.

Mandela Washington Fellowship is a very competitive program Ms. Gebreala says. Participants have to go through a rigorous selection process to join the program. The selection starts with an online application  and those who are shortlisted are interviewed at the Embassy of the United States in Ethiopia. Ms. Gebreala added that there were 4000 applicants this year of which 150 were shortlisted and 50 were selected from the interview. Ms. Gebreala is engaged in community services on women rights issues. She volunteered with a local non-governmental organization to work on a research titled assessment of violence against women in Addis Ababa in 2013. Later she joined Ethiopian women lawyers association as regular volunteer at the association. She is working as legal advisor and community outreach program officer. She is engaged in providing legal aid services to women and mediates family disputes. She also initiated community outreach services to train young high school students on gender based violence. Ms.
Gebreala is also online volunteer to an organization called Safety First for Girls based in Zambia.

Ms.Gebreala mentioned community services are essential in a capital constrained country like Ethiopia. She added it’s a means for young professionals to pay it forward to their communities. The fellowship in this regard is a milestone in ones leadership endeavors. It enables young leaders to get acquainted with advanced technical skills and to network with professionals and other young leaders. Though Ms.Gebreala was selected in the civic leadership track she said the public management track, energy track and the entrepreneurship track are available to leaders who are interested in public affairs, energy management and businesses respectively. Ms.Gebreala said she encourages staff members and students to apply for Mandela Washington Fellowship program as well as to Young African Leadership Initiative Regional Leadership Center (YALI RLC) which is another leadership initiative designed and funded by the United States and is centered in Nairobi, Kenya. We would like to congratulate Ms. Gebreala on her selection to the program and here by provide the links she suggested readers visit to apply for the next round of YALI RLC and Mandela Washington Fellowship.
https://yali.state.gov/washington-fellowship
www.yalieastafrica.org