Former U.S President Barack Obama has hailed the founder of Uganda’s Media Challenge Initiative Abaas Mpindi for championing informed development through professional journalism.
“People like Abaas Mpindi are doing the real hard to bring change in their communities. His Media Challenge Initiative is helping young people get the training they need to tell the stories that the world needs to know,” he acknowledged.
Obama was delivering the 16th Nelson Mandela annual in South Africa on the eve of the Icon’s 100th birthday.
“Every generation has the opportunity to remake the world. And I know that that young people, those hope carriers are gathering around the world,” he said.
He quoted Mandela’s words that “when young people are aroused, they are capable of bringing down the towers of oppression.” “Now is a good time to be aroused, to be fired up.”
Mpindi is currently attending a one-year leadership program by the Barack Obama Foundation that brings together over 200 emerging leaders from 44 African countries.