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International Fellowships Program

The Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program (IFP) provides higher education fellowships for emerging leaders from underrepresented communities outside the United States.


Meet Some IFP Fellows

Hear IFP fellows from Kenya tell their stories. Each shares how he or she overcame adversity and how the valuable new insights, perspectives and knowledge gained from the education experience will benefit their communities.

 

Kulamo Bullo

Kulamo Bullo is an editor of children's books and school texts at the Kenya Literature Bureau in Nairobi. Born into a nomadic community where education was a luxury and marriage was the norm for teenage girls, Kulamo defied the odds. She attended Kenyatta University and later earned a scholarship to the University of Nevada in Las Vegas.

Kulamo Bullo

Kulamo Bullo is an editor of children's books and school texts at the Kenya Literature Bureau in Nairobi. Born into a nomadic community where education was a luxury and marriage was the norm for teenage girls, Kulamo defied the odds. She attended Kenyatta University and later earned a scholarship to the University of Nevada in Las Vegas.

Mohamed Hussein Shally

Mohamed Hussein Shally grew up in a strict Muslim family in a remote Kenyan village on the border with Somalia. City life proved a culture shock, but Mohamed went on to study in London at the Institute of Education at London University. Now he's contemplating whether to enter a doctoral program.

Dennitah Ngati

Dennitah Ngati runs the Education Centre for the Advancement of Women, a community-based women's rights organization in Kenya. When they were teenagers, Dennitah and her older sister were removed from the family home by her mother to protect them from ritual circumcision and early marriage.

Christine Pekeshe

Christine Pekeshe walked barefoot to school every day, in a village that had no clean tap water, electricity or paved roads. The daughter of a school teacher, she excelled academically and earned a scholarship to study at Florida State University. Today she travels through malaria endemic areas, organizing events and encouraging young people to challenge their leaders to do more to prevent the spread of the disease.


About the IFP Program

Launched in 2001, IFP is the largest single program ever supported by the Ford Foundation. We have committed $355 million to the program for higher education opportunities. The initiative builds on a half century of support for higher education and underscores our belief that education enables people to improve their own lives and assist others in the common pursuit of more equitable and just societies.

IFP fellows come from historically disadvantaged groups, including racial, ethnic and religious minorities, and people with disabilities. Roughly half of the fellows are women; more than two-thirds come from outside major cities; more than 90 percent are the first in their communities to earn advanced degrees. By 2014, IFP will have selected approximately 4,300 fellows from 22 countries.