CorpsAfrica Fellows will be a diverse group of people – of all ages, income levels, types of expertise, etc.
Critical qualifications include:
• Humility – people who don’t think they have all the answers.
• Creativity – people who are constantly looking for new and better solutions.
• Resourcefulness – people who are able to find imaginative solutions to difficult situations.
• Flexibility – people who can go with the flow, change with the wind, bounce back from adversity.
• Curiosity – people who wonder, people who seek, and people who follow questions wherever they lead.
After being selected through a rigorous screening process and attending an intense training program (including on-site visits, seminars led by development partners, an internship at a local NGO, etc.), CorpsAfrica Fellows will move to their sites, where they will live with host families, learn local dialects, participate in day-to-day activities, and become trusted members of the community. They will lead change by engaging local people in conversations and facilitating community meetings to identify and address changing and complex local needs in education, health, small business development, urban planning and infrastructure, agriculture, the environment, and more.
The Fellows will help communities determine their priority needs, design and implement projects to address those needs (which will be supported by a special fund of the CorpsAfrica project), and then perform comprehensive impact evaluation analyses.
CorpsAfrica Fellows will benefit from the tremendous satisfaction that comes from helping others live better lives. They will also gain new skills, contacts, and experiences that can lead to careers in public service. CorpsAfrica will cultivate a new generation of civic leaders who could continue to work with their communities in different settings long after their service has been completed. The Fellows will also develop deep understanding of the people and of poverty in their countries.
Future Fellows?
