The College of Law Continues Its Partnership with the J&K Wonderland Foundation and the JAF Foundation.
In 2019, the College of Law announced two new scholarship programs to enable and encourage talented law students from around the globe to pursue the advanced study of disability rights, policy, and law at Syracuse University. As a measure of their programs’ success in their first year of deployment, both the JAF Foundation and the J&K Wonderland Foundation renewed their scholarship programs for the 2021-2022 academic year.
Meet the 2020-2021 JAF Foundation Scholar
The JAF Foundation supports social welfare, conservation, and human rights programs, including academic scholarships. In the College of Law’s case, the Foundation provides scholarship support for scholars from Africa. Isaac Onyango, an LL.M. student from Kenya, received the JAF Foundation Scholarship for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Dedicating his career to advocating for persons with intellectual disabilities, Onyango works as a consultant and strategist for the Downs Syndrome Society of Kenya. There, he leads the investigation of cases involving abuse and exploitation of persons with intellectual disabilities, often traveling to rural areas to interview and collect information for reports to the local police and governing authorities.
Onyango also conducts training for members of the judiciary, prosecutors, and police officers on the rights of persons with intellectual disabilities, and he writes on domestic and international legal frameworks designed to provide and protect these rights and proposed changes and improvements to the laws.
Not surprisingly, as an LL.M. candidate at the College of Law, Onyango is focusing his studies on disability law and international human rights. Explains Onyango, “The JAF Foundation scholarship is a beacon of hope
to international students like myself, and it has enabled me to expand my field of vision and deepen my knowledge in international human rights and disability law, in order to defend the disabled.”
Deepening and translating knowledge into practice —that’s exactly what the Wonderland Foundation aims to promote.