My journey at Choose Yourself starts with a Twitter DM to Judicaelle our founder. I was and I am
still in awe of everything she does and has done even beyond CY. We had been interacting on the
Timeline and I had expressed interest in launching Girl Talk in Kenya which we eventually did, then
Uganda then Burundi. The Fellowship was still an idea at this point towards the end of 2018 we
launch the Grow With Us Fellowship, we start accepting applications.
There’s an overwhelming amount of response with 162 applications barely a few weeks after the
launch. It takes the team a few weeks to select 15 of the best.
Surviving in a patriarchal society is no joke. Here women and gender non-conforming persons are
most marginalized and this worsens if one is visibly queer, gay, and trans. Through this Fellowship,
we seek to avail a space for these marginalized communities to be equipped with skills to start and
run enterprises social or otherwise. The goal is to in one way or another lessen the inequity gaps
and promote economic justice. Our Fellows are matched with various Industry experts who partake
in a year-long knowledge exchange program through a carefully curated curriculum.
We have successfully managed to graduate a total of 25 from around 17 African countries Fellows
in the last two Cohorts that we have had.
Looking back in the midst of receiving new applications, the journey has been enriching and
rewarding- seeing young women full of hope, zeal, and plans to better Africa and to watch them
build-up to it is amazing. The young women I have met in this Fellowship have been inspiring,
witnessing the sisterhood they form, the solidarity they express with each other the understanding
that we are all in this together has been eye-opening. It continues to be such an honor to witness
this part of their growth.
We remotely hold our Fellowship to make it more accessible for everyone on the Continent and after
months of remote learning we hold a BootCamp to meet, interact, and hopefully fund one of our
Fellows to kickstart or continue their work. This year we hold our very first Bootcamp in Zambia
for our First and Second Cohort.
Currently, we are accepting applications for the 3rd Cohort all of you are welcome to apply here
Organizations seeking to partner with us are also welcome to send us an email either through our
website or directly to carole@chooseyourself.website.
Always looking forward to hearing, learning, and unlearning with you,
For GWU Fellowship
Caroline Mumbe
Program Manager
Jan, 2021
