MTV Africa teams up with activist Eddie Ndopu on his voyage into space

MTV has revealed it will join forces with award-winning activist and humanitarian Eddie Ndopu to follow his monumental voyage as the first physically disabled person to travel into space.

Ndopu is leading a groundbreaking campaign to deliver a powerful message to the UN General Assembly on behalf of young people everywhere who have ever felt excluded by society.

The announcement was made ahead of International Day of Persons with Disabilities on December 3rd. The untitled project will begin production in 2019.

With an advocacy career that spans over a decade pioneering for rights of disabled young people around the world, and a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from Oxford University, he has defied all odds and now has his sights set on making history in outer space.

“As we pay tribute to Nelson Mandela’s 100th birthday, I can’t help but think of his profoundly powerful words: ‘it always seems impossible until it is done.’ With the help of MTV, my campaign to become the first physically disabled person to travel into space is about showing the world that with a lot of heart and a bit of human ingenuity, anything is possible,” commented Eddie Ndopu.

MTV will document everything from Ndopu enlisting an aerospace company to facilitate the flight, to his innermost thoughts as he gets closer to lift off, and finally, his celestial journey and message to world leaders.

Eddie has been using a wheelchair since the age of seven, yet he has not let his condition hold him back but rather used it as an opportunity to influence policy and also how the world looks at people living with disability.

That life with disability is as much about having access to joy, intimacy and self determination as it is to lifts, bathrooms and social services.

He’s also co-founder and intellectual powerhouse of Evolve Initiative, a global start-up that seeks to influence public policy and popular culture by re-positioning disability as a site of social transformation and innovation.