The gems I brought back from America

When a friend sent Mildred Apenyo a link to an application for the Young African Leaders Initiative, now Mandela Leadership Fellowship for Young African Leaders last year, Apenyo’s big idea was just that. An idea bouncing around in her head of starting a women’s gym through which she would promote fitness and self-defence among the women in Uganda.

The then 24-year-old applied anyway and was called a few months later for semi final interviews. She went on to become one of the 19 Ugandans who were part of the 500 young people from all over Africa who qualified for President Obama’s YALI fellowship 2014.

In June, she arrived in Indiana, the US state that would be her home for six weeks as she took a course in business management at the University of Notre Dame. She was later one of only five Ugandans selected for two-month internship placements in Washington DC.

MY YALI EXPERIENCE

Before Apenyo left, she had quit her job as a copy writer at an advertising firm and started Fit Clique 256, a women’s gym.
Back for several weeks now, she is ready to set her dream in motion in a big way and the fellowship gave her the tools to do so. “I left Uganda a journalist, a story teller, maybe a social activist with a fledgling business.

“I did not know how to run a business. I knew nothing. I now know it was not because of some great stupidity. During YALI, we interacted with many successful business owners and realised the start is always hard. Knowing I was not alone in facing these challenges to get my idea up and running taught me a lot,” she says. Apenyo adds that the leadership trainings taught her to examine herself.

To see her weaknesses, face them and see how she can avoid those standing in her way. To her surprise and delight, her business course at Notre Dame was designed by a Ugandan professor, Peter John Opio. “My greatest realisation then was that I had to come back home, train my team, share that knowledge so we can move forward together,” says Apenyo of the course she says gave her a road map. She left Fit Clique in the hands of her two 24-year-old managers, Sharon Laker and Phillipa Olwol while she was away at the fellowship.

“The gym did pretty well even when I was away, that is how I know this is a great business idea here to last, it can stand alone even when you are not there,” she says.

Embracing the bigger picture
Those few months of learning also helped her change, rather adjust some of her plans and embrace the bigger picture. For instance, she was looking forward to bringing back a fitness curriculum by the end of her fellowship.

“I now want to develop a fitness curriculum from home. One based on the realities of life here to suit the women I know and come across every day.
“I want to base it on the needs of the average Ugandan woman. The market woman who has to be on the road in the wee hours of the morning like my Aunt Sherry.
“The university girl who does not know the first thing about self-defence yet she just got into this whole new world, of bars freedom and predatory men. I want to make this part of every orientation for girls in every university in Uganda,” she says.

The Fit Clique dream also expanded beyond Uganda’s borders, losing the 256 tag to become Fit Clique Africa. When she wasn’t busy gathering the tools and contacts to make her business succeed, she had time to experience America rather than think she knows it from watching series.

“The welcome was very warm at the various institutions we went to and they went out of their way to make us feel at home. We were treated very well and were very busy.It certainly helped keep home sickness at bay. It only caught up with me after about three months, by then we were about two weeks from going home,” she says.

Comparing the US and Uganda
Apenyo could still not help making comparisons between her host country and with home. From little things like how the oranges tasted ( gleefully she gave Uganda one over the U.S), to landscape which as it turned out was almost a draw between Uganda and the US.

“My first reaction was that Indiana is not very different from Uganda. It is farming country so it is green. I wondered how visitors from America say Uganda is so green yet in their own country at least the corner of it I was in was pretty green,” she shares of her first moments arrival.

And she came to more conclusions on the super power. “The perception people usually have of America is a performance. I think this puts Americans under pressure to perform. It has working systems and is definitely leagues ahead of what we are used to here in Uganda but it is also nothing like you see in the movies. It is just real people doing their best. The struggle is real everywhere,” she says.

She explains that for instance while a lot of systems definitely work efficiently, sometimes the difference was in the similarity. Like the speed at which things happen in government offices even there. “I noticed the processes would still take some time for a simple approval. For instance, it took me two weeks to get access to a computer at my internship placement,” she says.

A wider network
YALI fellows were drawn from 27 African countries and each was chosen for their inspiring projects in various fields in their communities, from ingenious business projects to those inspiring social change. Apenyo got to interact with these fellow dreamers from all over Africa during her fellowship.

“I met brilliant young people doing amazing things in their countries. My network is much bigger now, all over Africa. I found we can collaborate as fellows even from Uganda to achieve our different goals,” she says.
And it does not end at work. After three months away her family tree sprouted several more branches that reach to the corners of the continent. “I bonded with those fellows I lived with are my family now. ”

WHAT IS YALI?
The Young African Leaders Initiative is a United States government programme that seeks to mentor the next generation of future African leaders by offering skills training, networking opportunities and leadership training at various prestigious institutions in the U.S and for a chosen few, internship placements in Washington. In July this year, the initiative was renamed the Mandela Washington Fellowship in honour of Nelson Mandela.

The highlight

If you who have heard of YALI then you probably remember the summit, where the 500 fellows met the President Obama and when a section of them met the First Lady, Michelle Obama. Despite knowing from the get go that the Obama meeting would happen, for Apenyo, it was still one of the highlights of the entire journey.

“Everything seemed pretty normal until I sat in the auditorium listening to him tell us how we are the next generation of change in Africa and he is very proud of us that it all became very real. Like it was really happening. I was in the same room with the president of the United States of America, and he was saying how he was proud of what we were each doing in our different countries. It was a very powerful moment,” she says.

“I did not realise how much I needed to hear it before then. And not just from the president of the United States of America. Just to hear someone recognise your efforts and say they are proud of what you are doing,” she says.
She can now laugh at how she could barely get a word out when she finally got close to and hugged Michelle Obama.

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