The mission is very clear. Atlas Corps develops leaders, strengthens organizations and promotes innovation through an overseas fellowship of skilled professionals to address critical social issues in their home countries. Atlas Corps also clearly wrote it that, spend six, nine or twelve months and go back home to #MultiplyImpact. I left my home country on May/16th/2016 and now back on February/16th/2016 just exactly as required.
If I would have extended my fellowship for more 6 months, then the Atlas Corps’ Sudanese fellow Nadia Taha class 20, would have missed this amazing opportunity of being an Atlas Corps fellow to positively change the marginalized Sudanese people from her Darfur region. All the extension logistics to extend my fellowship could stop Nadia to come for this exciting opportunity. I spoke to some fellows and also got some experience from my host organization who told me two reasons for extending the fellowship in the United States but I’m yet to be convinced. The question I put to them was; why do some fellows push ahead their time frame to stay in the United States?
Answering the above question, enormous fellows who don’t want their names to be displayed here told me that our colleagues sometimes extend their fellowship because they enjoy staying in the United States than in their home countries – reason to me is baseless because our communities need us back home. Nevertheless, this reason by such fellows has claimed an escape from a responsibility in fellow’s home country. In my host organization, Alumni Nabeel Muhammed Biajo class 13 is one of the fellows who really stayed for long with his host organization, Voice of America – VOA. When I asked from the the organization, his reason was that to be trained because he did not come as a professional journalist. He extended his fellowship because he want to be trained to pursue good experience while in the U.S. Okay, this reason is fair compared to the former.
Why I am not satisfied with extending the fellowship?
Well, Atlas Corps launched a campaign with a hashtag, multiply impact – one which is so effective and would build one world just within a decade. In fact, I am impressed. More so, Atlas corps is also focused to bringing more fellows overseas to get their first ever experience in one of the world’s developed countries, the United States or other developed countries later on as projected so that they can take the experience back to their home countries. This Atlas Corps’ milestone is amazing.
Yes, the hashtag to me means the more Atlas Corps brings fellows to shadow their advance career professional experience in the United States, the more impact we (Atlas Corps) would ensure across the world. For example, if I tell you to hold a heavy weight (work) in your hands for a certain amount of time, I think you’ll say that it takes ‘effort’; yes, I mean work force to make it light. So we need more work efforts to come to the United States to lift heavy burdens back home.