May 21, 2015
For love of the motherland
Four students from Liberia, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, and Ghana want to improve public health, finance, and medicine in Africa.
By Vicki-Ann Downing
Liberia: Jermoh Kamara ’15
Jermoh Kamara ’15 (Worcester, Mass.), who lived in Liberia until she was 9,
is a health policy and management major with a community health minor. In four years at PC, she’s worked as a resident assistant, studied abroad in India, undertaken sanitation projects in Ghana, and founded the Motherland Dance Group to educate students about the influence of African dance on American culture.
It’s hard to imagine that she once thought about leaving college.
As a lonely freshman, “I was looking for ways to cope with things and stay,” said Kamara. “I was thinking about leaving and then I said, ‘Why not create something instead?’ That’s when I created Motherland. Running away is not always an option.”
Motherland’s members — including Asha Ahmed ’16, Marie-Florence Koikou ’16, and Margaret “Peggy” Saanuo ’16 — are committed to educating students about the history and influence of African and African-American dance forms in today’s culture, and the impact of both on social justice, Kamara said.
She never trained professionally. Dance is just something “that helps me relieve my stress and express myself,” she said.
In addition to performing, the group stages “Threads of the Motherland,” an annual fashion show. In its first year, the show won “best new event” from the Office of Student Activities. This year, the group won the award for “Outstanding Performance Organization.”
Kamara’s impact on the campus is even more notable given the time she’s spent away from it.
From January to May 2014, she studied public health in Karnataka, India. From there, she visited her family in Liberia before joining Dr. Stephen J. Mecca ’64 & ’66G, professor of physics, for a month in Ghana. She watched Mecca train local workers in how to build a microflush toilet, then returned to Liberia and built one on property her father owns. She plans to establish a nonprofit in Liberia to continue that work.
Kamara graduated from South High School in Worcester and was part of the city’s AVID Program, for “Advance Via Individual Determination.” One of her instructors, Magdalena Gabilondo ’98, introduced her to PC.
“I want to work abroad,” said Kamara. “I want to travel and do the kind of work that Doctors Without Borders does. I want to be involved in public health issues and changing public health systems to make lives better for people.”
Ethiopia: Asha Ahmed ’16
Asha Ahmed ’16 (Jamaica Plain, Mass.) was abroad for the spring semester, studying and observing public health in Delhi, India; Cape Town, South Africa; and São Paulo, Brazil. She received the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, a highly competitive federal scholarship, to help make the experience possible.
Ahmed, a double major in health policy and management and in global studies, counts travel as one of PC’s best opportunities. She previously learned about conflict resolution on a trip to Ecuador and spent a month last summer working to solve public health problems in Ghana with Dr. Stephen J. Mecca ’64 & ’66G, professor of physics.
Until she was 7, Ahmed lived in Ethiopia and spoke its native languages, Amharic and Oromic. A Muslim, she has worn the hijib headscarf since she was 2, for reasons both religious and cultural.
In Ethiopia, she remembers, people would become ill from simple water-borne diseases, and many died. Her travels and observations, especially a year ago in Ghana, where she worked on a program to encourage hand washing among school children, taught her that “issues that look very small can turn into something very big.”
Ahmed went to Ghana because “I wanted to be part of a trip that looked at global health from a different angle, to look at what is causing the problem, and to do hands-on work. You can learn so much that way. I won’t pass up an opportunity to learn something.”
At PC, her “down-to-earth and supportive” friends are a regular “United Nations” of students from Puerto Rico, Dominica, Guyana, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Haiti, she said. One is Hindu; the rest are Catholic. Ahmed, who attended Boston International High School with students from countries around the world, found the focus of PC’s Development of Civilization Program a particular challenge.
“I didn’t know what mythology meant — I had never heard of it before,” Ahmed said. “Looking back now, I did learn so much. I’m happy that I learned the other side. I know how the cultures are similar and how they’re different. I’m happy I took Civ, and I’m beyond happy I went to PC. I would do it all over again. The knowledge I’ve gained is way more powerful than the challenges I’ve faced.”
Ivory Coast: Marie-Florence Koikou ’16
The African Leadership Academy is a high school in Johannesburg, South Africa, that selects the top students from all 54 African nations for two years of study in entrepreneurship, leadership, and service, with the goal of shaping future leaders for the continent.
In her junior year of high school, Marie-Florence Koikou ’16 (Abidjan, Ivory Coast) became one of them. Acceptance into the ALA meant leaving her family to travel 3,000 miles to South Africa, learning to speak English instead of French, and switching her focus from science to studying business. But the benefits have flowed. The ALA helped Koikou apply to colleges, follows her progress at PC, and even found her a host family in Rhode Island.
Last summer, Koikou, a finance major, held an internship with Accion, the nonprofit microfinance organization, learning about the impact of investment on the working poor in Nigeria and Ghana. During the summer of 2013, she was an intern with United Bank for Africa, helping to develop a marketing plan for a prepaid Visa card in Senegal. This summer, she will intern with GE Africa in Ivory Coast.
Koikou chose PC in part because her mother, a researcher with the Pasteur Institute, is an active member of St. Dominic Convent in Abidjan, and the family is Catholic. Tinacho Gerald Chitongo ’10, an ALA admissions officer, was another connection.
“When I learned PC was founded by Dominican friars, it motivated me to apply,” said Koikou. “When I see the friars in cowls, I’m used to that.”
For her fourth-semester Development of Western Civilization colloquium, Koikou selected Workplace Culture and Womanhood, taught by Dr. Jennifer G. Illuzzi, assistant professor of history, and Margaret P. Ruggieri, C.P.A., assistant professor of accountancy. She also took a course on global feminism.
“It was the first time I got to learn about how feminism started in all the places of the world,” said Koikou. “I asked myself, ‘What has been done in Ivory Coast?’”
During a visit home last summer, Koikou created Ahiman Women (Women of Tomorrow), an empowerment and mentorship program for young girls. Thirty-eight participants from underprivileged backgrounds learned about leadership and confidence building. She is assessing its effectiveness and hopes to continue it.
“Right now there are so many opportunities in Africa,” said Koikou. “We need people to create a financial infrastructure. Empowering women is a great way to improve economic development in a nation.”
Ghana: Margaret “Peggy” Saanuo ’16
Margaret “Peggy” Saanuo ’16 (Providence, R.I.) is from Pokuase, Ghana, the town where Dr. Stephen J. Mecca ’64 & ’66G, professor of physics, has been working to improve sanitation and education for the past six years.
Saanuo was 13 when she joined the Girls Exploration and Empowerment Club, founded in her village by Mecca’s granddaughter, Hannah Davis.
“It was the first time I got to see a computer, to touch it and feel it,” said Saanuo. “Every Sunday afternoon I was so excited to go there and meet friends. They taught us to be assertive, confident, to be whatever we wanted to be.”
At 16, Saanuo was awarded a scholarship to attend Sant Bani High School in Sanbornton, N.H. She was far from her family, and the differences in culture — everything from food to how the students spoke up to teachers — amazed her.
But it was an opportunity, too. After graduation, she won a scholarship to PC, where she is majoring in biology and minoring in women’s studies with the goal of becoming the first female cardiologist in Ghana.
“When I was 14, a cardiologist ran for president of Ghana,” said Saanuo. “It was going to have a huge impact on the coronary care unit, since he was in charge of everything. I figured by becoming the first renowned female cardiologist in Ghana, I could collaborate with others to fill the gap and create equality in the workplace.”
During the summer, Saanuo will return to Ghana for the first time since 2012 to work with Mecca and organizations in the remote northern region, where people are poor and diseases such as cholera and meningitis are prevalent. She also will intern at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, the third-largest hospital in Africa.
“I like to talk about my country,” said Saanuo. “It’s something I’m really proud of.”
Studying far from home and family, she tries to keep her goal of medical school always in mind. When life gets overwhelming, Saanuo, a Catholic, visits St. Dominic Chapel for Mass, or kneels before the statue of Mary to pray the rosary.
“I always feel refreshed after,” she said.
