Atlanta Habitat is proud to host Aboubaker Tourab, a 2019 Mandela Washington Fellow who is an urban planner for the Urban Rehabilitation and Social Housing Agency of Djibouti. As such, Tourab serves on the World Bank’s Djibouti Integrated Slum Upgrading Project, where he helps push forward its mission to provide affordable housing and improve living conditions for those in impoverished areas.

“My passion to work in this sector came from being in a middle-income family,” Tourab shared. “We always struggled to get a decent house. I did my bachelor’s degree in geography and specialized in urban planning so that I could address this challenge in my country.”

As stated on its website, “the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, begun in 2014, is the flagship program of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) that empowers young people through academic coursework, leadership training, and networking.”

When Tourab first applied to the Mandela Fellowship back in 2018, he was not selected. However, his strong desire to find long-term solutions for the lack of decent housing in his community propelled him to apply again. This time, he was selected as one of the 700 leaders to advance his skill set and receive professional development at a U.S. college or university.

After completing a six-week Leadership Institute in Public Management at Virginia Tech University, he went on to become one of the 70 fellows chosen to stay in the states to gain professional experience at a public, private, or nonprofit organization.

Tourab is spending the month of August with the neighborhood and housing policy team. He is conducting neighborhood profiling and learning the ins and outs of affordable housing.

Fun facts about Tourab include speaking three languages and obtaining a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from the International Islamic University of Malaysia. This marks the first time that Atlanta Habitat has hosted a Mandela Washington Fellow, and hopefully, it won’t be the last.