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Fellowship Program Builds the Capacity of Developing Countries to Benefit People with Intellectual Disabilities
Special Olympics officially welcomed the first class of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver (EKS) Fellowship Program this week at its Washington, DC headquarters. These five professionals have been selected to participate in a three month professional development opportunity in the United States based on their interest in non-governmental and governmental efforts benefiting people with intellectual disabilities. The EKS Fellowship Program aims to change attitudes about intellectual disability by training emerging leaders in the field from a wide range of developing countries. The program is funded by the U.S. Department of State through the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs under the authority of the Fulbright-Hays Act of 1961.
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Left-right: Darcie Mersereau, Senior Manager, Research and Evaluation, Special Olympics; Kelly Vaughn, Senior Vice President of Sports Operations, Special Olympics North Carolina; Kelly Coffey, Vice President of Communciations, Special Olympics Texas; EKS Fellow Herlin Suherlan, Executive Assistant, Mattel Indonesia; Kathy McClain, Vice President of Shared Services, Special Olympics Texas; EKS Fellow Mariya Belikova, Public Relations Manager, Special Olympics Kazakhstan; EKS Fellow Nalin Kumar, Physiotherapist, Lakita Roy Memorial Foundation, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India; Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver; EKS Fellow Millie Rono, Fundraising Director, Special Olympics Kenya; EKS Fellow Simon Munayi, Coordinator, Sports and Games, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya; Lisa Dietz, EKS Fellowship Program Specialist; Chris Miner, Managing Director, Professional and Cultural Exchanges, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State; and Margaret Larsen, Executive Director, Special Olympics Texas. Others who participated in the orientation at Special Olympics headquarters and who will work with the EKS Fellows, but are not pictured above, are Marc Edenzon, President/CEO of Special Olympics New Jersey, and Michelle LeMay Santiago, Regional Director, Special Olympics New York City. |
“Special Olympics reaches athletes in more than 180 countries, but we constantly strive to expand our movement in developing areas,” said Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver. “We are thrilled to have these five Fellows, each with unique talents and experiences, join us in advocating for change for persons with intellectual disabilities, while also furthering my mother’s ground-breaking work and message of unity, acceptance, inclusion, strength, and courage for this population across diverse cultures and landscapes.”
EKS Fellows will spend their first week at Orientation in Washington, D.C., where they will receive an intensive instruction focusing on the Special Olympics global movement, leadership training and cross-cultural adaptation. From Orientation, they will travel to their placements in U.S. Special Olympics Programs (located in New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, and Texas) where they will work alongside U.S. Program leaders and with Special Olympics athletes and volunteers on important projects happening in each state.
An individualized curriculum, developed over a period of several months in cooperation with Special Olympics headquarters, the participating U.S. Special Olympics Programs, and Fellows’ home country Special Olympics National Programs, will ensure that each Fellow gains precisely the kind of experiences and knowledge in the U.S. that will be relevant and transferrable back home. Part of the individualized curriculum is the Volunteer Fellowship Project, to be completed by each Fellow upon his/her return home for six months. The Fellowship Project represents the intersection of a Fellows’ interests and the home country Special Olympics Program’s needs and will serve as a direct way for Fellows to put their education in the U.S. to immediate use.
“The Fellowship Project will ensure that our Fellows are able to put their newly acquired skills and knowledge to work for the direct benefit of their home country Special Olympics Program and its constituents,” said Stephen B. Corbin, D.D.S., M.P.H., Special Olympics Senior Vice President of Constituent Services and Support. “Through the cultivation of new and existing partnerships with our Special Olympics Programs in the U.S. and abroad, Fellows’ efforts will create a valuable bridge, to broaden the greater global Special Olympics movement for the benefit of people with intellectual disabilities in developing nations.”
The five EKS Fellows are:
Mariya “Masha” Belikova of Kazakhstan, a public relations manager for Special Olympics Kazakhstan, brings her interest in using technology to advance the Special Olympics movement across different populations and sectors. In particular, she would like to utilize the Internet to build understanding about people with intellectual disabilities across rural parts of her country. Belikova’s fellowship placement is with Special Olympics Texas.
Nalin Kumar of India, a physiotherapist in Dehradun, a rural area approximately six hours outside of New Delhi, is particularly interested in health, developing cooperative games and sub- Program development at the grassroots level. He is employed by the Lakita Roy Foundation, which provides education and therapy for children with disabilities, family support and awareness, and advocacy in the local community. Kumar’s fellowship placement is with Special Olympics North Carolina.
Simon Munayi of Kenya, Director of Sports and Games for Kenyatta University’s department of Sports Science and Physical Education, an institution with more than 30,000 students in Nairobi, Kenya, is working to create a partnership with Special Olympics Kenya in areas of research, volunteer training, and development. His fellowship placement is with Special Olympics New Jersey.
Millie Rono of Kenya, Fundraising Director for Special Olympics Kenya, hopes to create an aggressive publicity campaign to raise awareness by targeting different diverse groups of people according to their own languages and customs for Special Olympics Kenya. Her fellowship placement is with Special Olympics New Jersey.
Herlin Suherlan of Indonesia, an employee of Mattel Indonesia and part of Special Olympics Global Partner Team Mattel, would like to develop her skills in communication, project management, leadership, and fundraising. Her fellowship placement is with Special Olympics New York in the New York City office.
The Eunice Kennedy Shriver (EKS) Fellowship Program, funded by the U.S. Department of State through the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs under the authority of the Fulbright-Hays Act of 1961, serves as a powerful mechanism to create a cadre of professionals to lead Special Olympics Programs in developing nations, as well as to collaborate with Special Olympics on cross-sector initiatives to raise the status of people with intellectual disabilities. The EKS Fellowship Program is a professional development opportunity for mid-career individuals interested in non-governmental organizational efforts benefiting people with intellectual disabilities. |
