Eddie Ndopu

Did You Know?

• Ndopu was born in Namibia in 1990 after his single mother fled apartheid South Africa into self-imposed exile.
• At age two he was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy and given until age five to live.
• He moved to Cape Town, South Africa, when he was nine.

Education

Ndopu graduated in 2008 as part of the inaugural class of the African Leadership Academy. He then earned an interdisciplinary studies degree summa cum laude from Carleton University in Canada. While there, he was invited to give a presentation at a 'Master's Tea' at Yale University. From 2016 to 2017, he became the first African student with a degenerative disability admitted to the University of Oxford on a full scholarship at the Blavatnik School of Government, based at Somerville College, graduating with a master's in public policy.

Work and activism

While studying at Carleton University, Ndopu was asked by the World Economic Forum, on the request of its founder Klaus Schwab, to write a White Paper about how businesses could help solve youth unemployment. He later worked as a program associate for the Clinton Global Initiative’s Global Minimum InLabs project and was Amnesty International’s Regional Youth Coordinator for Africa. In 2009, he started the Global Strategy for Inclusive Education, a campaign focused on the educational rights of children with disabilities in poorer countries. By 2018, he was Humanity & Inclusion’s Global Ambassador, still supporting those children. Ndopu also serves as a special adviser for impact and corporate sustainability to the partners of RTW Investments.