Mandela Washington Fellows- Sharing Love

Our Playhouse has been lucky enough the past two years to have a group of Mandela Washington Fellows volunteer with our Playhouse through UW-Madison.

The Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders is the flagship program of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) that empowers young people through academic coursework, leadership training, and networking. Each year, the Fellowship provides up to 700 outstanding young leaders from Sub-Saharan Africa with the opportunity to hone their skills at a U.S. higher education institutions with support for professional development after they return home.

As the world continues to navigate the impacts of COVID-19, we continue to see and experience incredible acts of kindness.  This past week, the group who volunteered with us reached out with the following note of kindness and encouragement:

“We, the 2019 Mandela Washington fellows at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, hereby express our concern for the safety and well-being of the people of the state of Wisconsin in general and the staff and kids at the GiGi’s playhouse in particular. We hope you are all at the top of your health in this trying moments of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Being part of GiGi’s Playhouse- Madison, and having had a life-changing experience by understanding Down Syndrome more, we know how helpful the playhouse is to the community and how this pandemic has affected the regular sessions at GiGi’s playhouse.

We thought about how the situation would affect Kids who use the playhouse and their families. While we thought about this uncertain situation, we are equally impressed to see how the situation was handled with virtual classes and sessions which some of our colleagues follow through emails. THANK YOU GIGI’S PLAYHOUSE.

All the way from our respective countries in Africa, we extend our love and well wishes to GiGi’s Playhouse. We hope and pray the world will find a solution to this pandemic and everything will be back to normal.

With lots of love and best regards from all the UW-Madison Mandela Washington fellows and volunteers of GiGi’s playhouse- Madison.

Sincerely, The 2019 Mandela Washington Fellows, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
2019  Mandela Washington Fellows”

We are beyond grateful for the time and talents they’ve shared with us and for their heartfelt concern and love for the entire Playhouse.