Human rights activist, Eddie is realizing his childhood dreams, one day at a time.
Most recently, he took to the runway at New York Fashion Week. Overwhelmed with excitement, Eddie posted on his Instagram account saying:
“Growing up in South Africa my dream, for as long as I can remember, was to one day become a world-famous fashion designer. When my hands became too weak to continue sketching the dresses I had been day-dreaming about between the ages 12 and 16, I had to dream a new dream. And so I did.”
Eddie Ndopu ‘08 is one of seventeen eminent global advocates appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations for the Sustainable Development Goals.
The ALA alumnus engages and mobilizes young activists to pressure lawmakers around the world to strengthen human rights across Africa—and to provide better educational opportunities to children with disabilities.
He was born in Namibia in 1990. His single mother had fled apartheid South Africa and gone into self-imposed exile. When he was two years old, doctors diagnosed him with spinal muscular atrophy and told his mother that he wouldn’t live past the age of five.
