Ali Jookhun

In October 2022, U-Link founder Ali Jookhun described his work on a Brazilian jiu-jitsu project for young people with Down syndrome in Mauritius. He told Le Mauricien that he planned collaboration with African countries. Newly elected to lead the Africa Down Syndrome Network, he also explained his broader approach to participation: appropriate facilities and trained staff mattered, rather than simply placing a person in an existing classroom. In Star’s 2016 portrait, Jookhun looked back on childhood in Plaine-Verte, studies at St François Xavier, Jean Lebrun and Islamic College, and football with friends. He traced his voluntary commitment to his mother’s charitable example. The portrait identified him as U-Link president and a vice-president of the Down Syndrome Association. It also recorded his 2004–2005 leadership of a board concerned with training and employment for people with disabilities. He attended the SJJAF Open Africa ceremony in November 2022. In a July 2023 Le Mauricien portrait, Jookhun described three decades of unpaid disability-rights work. Still serving in U-Link and the Down Syndrome Association, he said he continued learning from activists and people with disabilities abroad. His concern extended to support across a lifetime. He called for trained staff to help families and proposed lasting accommodation for people who would outlive their parents: places equipped to let them continue living decently after that support was gone.