Sacramento, CA - Dorah Caroline Mafabi is currently in Sacramento, California on the U.S. State Department’s Community Solutions Program. For four-months Dorah, an emerging international leader on social issues, is working with American counterparts at the League of Women Voters of California Education Fund (LWVCEF), collaborating on projects that will provide skills and ideas for creating lasting change in her home country.

Dorah will work on the Easy Voter Guide (EVG) project, which provides new voters and busy voters with nonpartisan information for statewide elections in California. She will also work to organize and promote National Voter Registration Day, as well as coordinate voter registration and education activities with local Leagues across California. She hopes to acquire best practices for reaching voters and develop ways to present election and voter education materials in an unbiased format. Dorah is a lawyer and Managing Partner at the Center for Social and Economic Rights Protection. Her work on civic and political participation has empowered grassroots communities with information on their civic and political rights and strengthened their participation in local governance. As a result, communities have become more aware and civically engaged, in addition to challenging their leaders on issues of good governance, transparency, and accountability. She also works on issues of access to justice, civic and political engagement, trafficking in persons, sexual and gender based violence, and the rule of law.

Started in 2010, the Community Solutions Program is a professional development program for global community leaders working in the fields of transparency and accountability, tolerance and conflict resolution, environmental issues, and women’s issues.  During their fellowships, the emerging leaders spend up to 400 hours learning leadership and organizational skills through training courses and more than 600 hours at their U.S. host organizations. The fellows also design community development projects that they implement upon returning to their home countries.

The State Department places fellows in cooperation with partner IREX.  Community Solutions has consistently identified engaged leaders who are committed to the ideal that individual efforts can fight poverty and discrimination, correct inequalities, cultivate peace, and develop new approaches to environmental issues.  Previous fellows have initiated projects such as creating libraries and introducing inclusive education into curriculum.  They have received awards for their humanitarian efforts and been named international emerging leaders by organizations that include National Geographic.

“We are incredibly fortunate to have Dorah join the LWVCEF team,” stated Melissa Breach, Executive Director of LWVCEF. “Her background and amazing talents is a wonderful asset to engage diverse voters from across the state for the November 2014 election.”

For press inquiries please contact:

Elizabeth Leslie, Communications Manager, LWVCEF: 916-442-7215, eleslie [at] lwvc.org

Taunya Atwood, Senior Program Officer, IREX: 202-628-8188, tatwood [at] irex.org

Susan Pittman, Public Affairs, U.S. Department of State: 202-632-6445, eca-press [at] state.gov

And, join the conversation on Facebook or Twitter @cspecairex.

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League of Women Voters of California Education Fund Promotes Grassroots Empowerment for Civic Engagement in Uganda through Department of State Exchange