ATLANTA — As the 2024 Mandela Washington Fellows enjoy their final week of learning at Georgia State University’s Leadership in Public Management Institute, they and the institute’s partners are being encouraged to find ways to collaborate on projects in sub-Saharan Africa funded by IREX’s Reciprocal Exchange program.
“Reciprocal Exchange projects have given us the opportunity to follow up on the work we started with the Mandela Washington Fellows and sustain our relationships with these professionals,” said Sharon Hill, academic director of the program for the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies (AYSPS). “The fellowship is not a one-time experience. It’s about building and sustaining these relationships.”
The Reciprocal Exchange helps fellowship alumni and U.S. partners build upon strategic partnerships and professional connections they developed during their time in the U.S. It encourages U.S. experts and leaders to collaborate with Mandela Washington Fellows on critical issues in Africa — such as promoting peace, stability and economic prosperity — while contributing to U.S. public diplomacy efforts and strengthening mutual understanding among the United States and countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The program is explained in detail on its website.
Hill has had several opportunities to engage in work on the continent through Reciprocal Exchanges and because of her work with the Mandela Washington Fellowship. She received her first award in 2020 to design and implement a virtual women and girls empowerment conference held in 2021. It included almost 400 attendees from African and other countries.
In 2022, IREX invited Hill to facilitate two leadership sessions at a conference in Boksburg, South Africa, for Mandela Washington Fellowship alumni, with faculty and staff Kimberly Hoyt, Paul Benson and Amanda Gutwirth joining her. In 2023, Hill, in partnership with two alumni from Ghana, conducted leadership training in Accra for more than 100 medical professionals. As a result, she has been invited to continue to participate in the U.S. Speaker Program for the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
“Part of Georgia State’s strategy is global, doing leadership training around the world,” Hill said. “The work has been so important in this global footprint we’re building. I expect to continue working with them in some capacity, having opportunities through IREX to do these Reciprocal Exchanges.”
Tamlin Hall, from left, Nicholas Griffin and Sharon Hill.
Georgia State’s 2024 Mandela Washington Fellows witnessed the impact of this program at the film screening, Reel Hope Presents: Films Across the Diaspora, at the Plaza Theatre in Atlanta June 29. The third film screened, “A Woman Like Me,” produced by award-winning documentarian Tamlin Hall, was filmed in Kenya by fellowship alumni and partially funded by the Reciprocal Exchange. The fellows also judged entries for Reel Hope’s Hope Film Challenge, a student film competition, and presented the awards after the screening.
Hall met his first group of Mandela Washington Fellows at Georgia State during their 2018 screening of his feature “Holden On.” Hall based it on a true story about a friend who grew up in small-town Georgia and issues around mental health, substance abuse and suicide. After the screening, the fellows shared their experiences in a Q&A, talking about what was happening in their countries and cultures, and challenges with access to care.
“There were a lot of tears,” Hall said. “It was like a group hug. I won’t forget the feeling I had in the room that day. I felt ‘something is going to happen.’”
It did when Jasper Sembie from Sierra Leone, a 2018 fellowship alumnus, approached Hall with his desire to do a documentary on the addiction issues of young people and the mental health crisis in his country. Their conversation led to a partnership and a film supported with private foundation funding, which is still in production.
During the 2019 screening of “Holden On,” Hall met Mandela Washington Fellow Anne Mootian, who had an interest in filming a story about female genital mutilation (FGM). Mootian had founded a nonprofit in Kenya for female empowerment and gender equality, and part of the training centered on FGM. She and Hall began talking. Her nonprofit was working in Narok, Masai territory, and they decided to do a film on the topic.
“At that time, I didn’t know what a Reciprocal Exchange program was,” Hall said. “Sharon took a meeting with everybody, told us a grant was available and encouraged us to submit for it.”
They received a grant to fund some of the costs of the filming, then COVID-19 happened, and the project was put on hold. Eventually, IREX decided to continue the project. They needed additional help in Kenya and found 2017 fellowship alumnus Mark Wambui, a storyteller, content creator and communications specialist, through a fellowship networking app.
The film tells the story of FGM through Selina, who is two weeks away from having her first baby when the audience meets her. By the end, after the tragic loss of her mother, Selina encourages her baby girl to make her own decisions about her body.
“We wanted to tell Selina’s story,” Hall said. “We wanted to make it poetic, to invoke a feeling that was empathetic rather than horrific. Selina’s so charismatic. She lights up the frame. She could do that for the audience.”
The Mandela Washington Fellowship held an Alumni Symposium in South African at which they invited Hall to speak about his film, all expenses paid. He received another Reciprocal Exchange grant that will allow him to tour Kenya with Wambui and the film. They’ll lead educational conversations about it in universities and colleges and where Selina lives. Its screening at the Plaza Theatre was funded by a Mandela Washington Fellowship American Impact Award.
“When you talk about opportunity, if you’re service-oriented and have a passion about getting involved with fellowship alumni and African leaders, get more involved in the program,” Hall said. “To me, it’s a no-brainer.”
“The Reciprocal Exchange collaboration that brought Tamlin and our Mandela Washington Fellows together has been invaluable,” Hill said. “We encourage all of our fellowship partners to look into potential ways they can work together through this program.”
To learn more about the Reciprocal Exchange program, go to https://www.mandelawashingtonfellowship.org/reciprocal-exchanges/. To learn more about the Mandela Washington Fellowship Leadership Institute and ways to partner with Georgia State, go to icepp.gsu.edu/what-we-do/mandela-washington-fellowship/ or contact Sharon Hill at [email protected].
The Mandela Washington Fellowship is a program of the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. government and administered by IREX. For more information, visit mandelawashingtonfellowship.org and join the conversation at #YALI2024.
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