Starr FM’s Sayida Maltiti Sadick has been selected for the 2021 Mandela Washington fellowship.
She’s the second fellow from the EIB Network after Deputy News Editor of GHOne TV Alice Aryeetey was selected.
Maltiti was expected to spend six weeks in the United States of America participating in professional development training in leadership in civic engagement.
However, due to the global coronavirus pandemic, the program will be done virtually.
She is the 1ST runner-up of the first edition of GHOne TV’s ‘The Next Tv Star’ and she was awarded the most promising journalist by the GJA Northern region chapter in 2019 as well as a media star medal by Hyperlink media awards the same year.
Maltiti is among 32 young Ghanaians selected from thousands of applicants who applied for the flagship program of the U.S government’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI).
The fellows, between the ages of 25 and 35, are accomplished leaders who have established records of promoting innovation and positive impact in their communities and countries.
The program is the brainchild of former US President, Barack Obama to nurture a generation of African leaders to push for economic growth, improve democracies and strengthen civil society structures that will make the continent a better place.
The young Ghanaians selected for the 2021 Mandela Washington Fellowship comprise young leaders from the business, public and private sectors, non-governmental organizations, and social entrepreneurs.
The Mandela Washington Fellowship connects young African leaders to leadership training opportunities at some of America’s top universities to expand their leadership skills and knowledge.
Sayida Maltiti Sadick’s foundation ‘Maltiti Care International’ has for the past three years provided free repair surgeries for women with fistula in the Northern part of the country, as a journalist she also highlights the plight of rural dwellers who lack basic amenities in the form of news stories to beckon duty bearers to improve their livelihoods.
She is currently a broadcast journalist with EIB Network’s GHOne Tv and Starr Fm and as part of her social work also conducts advocacy programs in the Northern region about fistula, and donation exercises aside from the provision of free repair surgeries for women with fistula working with volunteers.
Her foundation has partnered with National Youth Authority (NYA) in the Northern region in visiting rural senior high schools to have reproductive health and career guidance talks to empower young girls.
Upon completion of the fellowship, Maltiti targets using the knowledge and skills acquired to grow her organization and conduct more repair surgeries for women with fistula as well as an influence policy change in the health sector regarding maternal health and access to quality health care, also highlighting social issues using her influence as a journalist.
She intends to continue to equip women with fistula repaired and non-repaired with entrepreneurial skills to enable them to be self-reliant as women with fistula tend to be abandoned by their husbands and family due to their condition.
Sayida Maltiti Sadick was conferred the most promising journalist at the maiden Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) awards in the Northern region in 2019.
Also, she was awarded a media star medal by Hyperlink Media Awards in 2019 for her news report on health and education in the Northern region.
Maltiti holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communication Studies from the Ghana Institute of Journalism.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5fm
