By Whitney Isenhower (RPCV Cameroon ’06-’08)
(pictures by Amber Byrne of Live It Out Photography, LLC)
Nearly 100 Washington, D.C.-area residents gathered in the Eighteenth Street Lounge’s warmly lit Gold Room on the evening of April 29 for a fundraiser supporting Education Fights AIDS (EFA) International, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that empowers African youth infected with and affected by HIV and AIDS in Cameroon and Rwanda.
Alim Ousmanou, EFA International’s Cameroon country representative, spoke at the fundraiser—one stop on a visit marking his first time in the U.S. Invited to participate in the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program from April 3-23, Ousmanou remained in the country for two weeks after the program to visit supporters of EFA International’s work carried out in Cameroon.
Alim Ousmanou
“It was wonderful to see how young Americans are helping the community of youth living with HIV and AIDS in Cameroon,” Ousmanou said of the Washington event.
EFA International’s efforts focus on creating associations for individuals infected with and affected by HIV and AIDS in Cameroon and supporting a center for orphans and vulnerable children in Rwanda. The organization began when Ousmanou and Andrew Koleros, then a Peace Corps Volunteer in Maroua, Cameroon, identified dozens of HIV-positive youth in the city who lacked the psychosocial, educational and financial support to live positively with the virus.
Along with Koleros, returned Peace Corps Volunteers Rachel Hoy, Michael Nilon, Erin Nilon and Nicole Sheldon-Desjardins officially incorporated the organization in 2006 to continue this work. Koleros, who currently sits on EFA International’s Board of Directors, said Ousmanou’s visit deepened members’ commitment to the organization, which advocates the Peace Corps’ Third Goal.
“It’s really motivated the board and volunteers,” Koleros said of Ousmanou’s presence at EFA International events in the U.S. “It reminded us of why we all got involved in this organization in the first place.”
For EFA International’s benefactors, Ousmanou’s presence at the fundraiser made the organization’s mission more resonant, clarifying what their involvement means for the youth the nonprofit enables to live positively.
“It was nice to hear somebody from the area where it’s being helped speak,” said Michael Causey, a Washington-based lawyer who attended the fundraiser. “It’s easy for Americans to say, ‘Look at the great work I’m doing.’”
(AJEPS photo taken by Caitlyn Bradburn (PCV Cameroon ’08-present)
EFA International currently supports eight independent groups in the Extreme North province of Cameroon. Income-generating activities to advance members in their communities and peer education programs to raise awareness about HIV transmission and prevention have empowered more than 120 young men and women.
Doumtigai Guibai, member of an EFA International-sponsored association in Mokolo, Cameroon, said her participation in peer education training motivated her to speak openly about HIV.
“People come up to me to congratulate me for my courage to speak about HIV in the community,” Guibai said in EFA International’s 2009 Annual Report. “At school, students call me the ‘mama’ for teaching them about HIV.”
During his visit, Ousmanou also attended fundraising events in Massachusetts and spoke at a Harvard Divinity School panel discussion on development and HIV in Africa. He said he was extremely affected by returned volunteers’ commitment to both EFA International and Cameroon.
“I saw so many people during my time in the U.S.,” Ousmanou said. “Seeing former Cameroon Peace Corps Volunteers was the most significant to me.”
To find out more about EFA’s work, go to http://efainternational.org/
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/05/142016.htm
Cameroon’s 50th Anniversary of Independence
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
May 19, 2010
________________________________________
On behalf of President Obama and the American people, I congratulate the people of Cameroon as you celebrate your fiftieth anniversary of independence on May 20. This is an opportunity to salute the people of Cameroon’s many accomplishments. Our two nations share a broad partnership that reflects a long history of friendship and engagement.
The United States remains committed to working with the Cameroonian Government as it seeks to strengthen democracy, governance, and rule of law. The ties between our countries are also strengthened by our ongoing military and security cooperation. We commend Cameroon for its support of the UN Mission in Haiti, MINUSTAH, and for its vital role in addressing regional maritime security threats as part of the Economic Community for Central African States. We commend Cameroon’s cooperation with Nigeria and the historic steps to demark the Cameroon-Nigeria border.
As the single largest investor in Cameroon, the United States values our economic partnership that has fostered investment and created new jobs and opportunities for both Cameroonians and Americans.
Cameroon has warmly welcomed our Peace Corps volunteers for nearly forty-nine years. We are proud of the more than 3,000 Americans who have partnered with the people of Cameroon to improve the quality of their lives by building cultural bridges, and strengthening capacity and development.
On this historic occasion, I offer the best wishes of the American people for a safe and joyous Fiftieth Anniversary, and I reaffirm the commitment of the United States to our enduring friendship.
Oroko Cultural Association is a not-for-profit/tax exempt organization as defined by IRS Code 501(c) (3). Oroko is a tribe located in Ndian and part of Meme Divisions of Southwest Cameroon Region in West Africa. With the assistance of sponsors, we provide assist to Oroko children living in the villages, through “Sponsor an Oroko Child Project”. This project caters for the interests, growth, and development of all Oroko children living in the villages, attending Primary and Secondary Schools. It provides financial assistance to Oroko children motivating them to reach their full potential. Please see our website www.angelsfororokochildren.org for more details.
However, these students (from 5yrs to 17years) leave schools each day deprived of critical tool for their success: TEXTBOOKS. Due to the extreme hunger and poverty in these areas, parents can not afford textbooks for their children. As a result, children are forced to attend school without reading materials.
We receive our funding from generous and sympathetic people like you and also from companies like yours. Will you help us meet our goal of placing a textbook in each student’s hand? Please send your donation to the address above with the check payable to Oroko Cultural Association, Inc. and the purpose for (always written on the bottom left of your check) should be “Textbooks for Oroko Students.”
On the other hand, please collect all your books from K-12, magazines, periodicals with only curriculum content and send them to the address above. Or please call the above number or send an email to the above email address to arrange for a pick up. The value of the school supplies and postal cost will be sent to you for tax purpose. We will recognize your gift with labels on each school supplies that will tell all our students that it was you who invested in their academic success. In addition, your name or your company’s name and logo will be added to our website as our sponsor. Your gift of school supplies will have significant impact on their abilities to maintain their studies and successfully graduate.
Thank you for partnering with our students
Sincerely,
Mercy Mabian
President
Oroko Cultural Association, Inc
Email: mmabian @ yahoo.com
Website: www.angelsfororokochildren.org
Website: www.orokousa.org
Gloria Twesigye ’07 to research Uganda’s child soldiers
Gloria Twesigye, a 2007 Ohio Wesleyan University alumna, has earned a Fulbright Scholarship to research efforts in Germany to rehabilitate former child soldiers from the Republic of Uganda in Africa.
Currently, Twesigye is completing her second year of service as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Republic of Cameroon, where she is teaching English to secondary school students. She will complete her Peace Corps service in August and begin her Fulbright-sponsored research in the fall.
Twesigye, who earned a double major in German and international studies and a minor in economics, is the daughter of Ohio Wesleyan faculty member Emmanuel Twesigye, Ph.D., and his wife, Beatrice.
“Five years ago, we took Gloria to visit Uganda,” says Emmanuel Twesigye, who teaches Christian studies courses. “Gloria saw some former child soldiers, and she heard about the socially disruptive 23-year-old war waged by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
“Gloria also heard of how the LRA had committed gross atrocities by raiding schools in Northern Uganda and kidnapping the students,” continues Twesigye, a former resident of Uganda. “The students had been brainwashed and, by force, trained to fight in the LRA as child soldiers. The girls were also given to the LRA officers as sex slaves and wives. Some of these children were later rescued and sent to schools, and some of them have gone into the German educational system through the Germans’ generous scholarship programs and education aid programs.”
In addition to aiding the former child soldiers, Germany also has assisted Uganda’s internally displaced people—those forced into refugee camps beginning in the late 1980s, he says.
“This is the complicated cultural, social, and political context of disruption in which Gloria’s Fulbright Scholarship award and study will take place,” he says.
The Fulbright Scholar Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, is the largest U.S. international exchange program for students, scholars, and professionals worldwide. The program was established by Congress in 1946. Since that time, Fulbright alumni have been awarded 40 Nobel Prizes and have gone on to become heads of state, judges, ambassadors, cabinet ministers, CEOs, university presidents, journalists, artists, professors, and teachers.
In January, OWU history professor Michael Flamm, Ph.D., also was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship. His award will support his teaching two courses this fall at the University of San Andrés in Buenos Aires.
OWU sociology-anthropology professor Mary Howard, Ph.D., served as Gloria Twesigye’s academic adviser while she attended Ohio Wesleyan and advised Twesigye on her Fulbright application.
“What amazed everyone was that the bulk of the work was done from the remote African village where Gloria is stationed with the Peace Corps,” Howard says. “Without a doubt, she is a brilliant student, and I’m sure she will continue to be successful in her pursuits. I’m so excited for her. A Fulbright research award is very prestigious and a real foot in the door at many graduate schools.”
Coincidentally, Howard’s son, Matthew Zalla ’94, also earned a Fulbright research award. Zalla, a sociology-anthropology and international studies major and a philosophy and history minor, went to Bolivia to investigate issues of conservation versus farming in the Amazon area.
Also assisting Gloria Twesigye with her Fulbright application was OWU music professor Tim Roden, Ph.D., the University’s director of post-graduate fellowships.
“It was a pleasure working with Gloria as she prepared her Fulbright application,” Roden says. “It was not an easy process for her. She had to travel several hours from the back country of Cameroon into the city just to gain e-mail access, so there would be a flurry of correspondence over the weekend and then she would work on refining her essays during the week. The campus committee interviewed Gloria over the telephone, which was an interesting experience due to the connection periodically going dead.”
Clearly, this OWU alumna impressed the committee, and it’s easy to see why. While at Ohio Wesleyan, Twesigye was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society, Phi Sigma Iota international foreign language honor society, and Omicron Delta Epsilon international economic honor society. She also graduated magna cum laude.
Her sisters Joy and Peace also are OWU graduates. Joy Twesigye ’98, a nurse practitioner, currently is a health policy student at Johns Hopkins University, and Peace Twesigye ’08 is working toward her master’s degree in music (violin performance) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Youngest sister Grace Twesigye is a 2006 Kenyon College graduate and a lawyer in Massachusetts.
Congratulations to Gloria and the Twesigye family.
Do you know about the National Peace Corps Association’s Africa Rural Connect (ARC) program? You’ve probably heard of it before, it’s an online collaborative space created to link R/PCVs, development professionals, African farmers, members of the African diaspora, and others in building strong project plans for the development of rural Africa. Theye encourage members of our affiliate groups (like Friends of Cameroon), to take part in this initiative and offer their insight, ideas, and experiences to the many discussions.
Check out the site to learn about our unique idea-sharing platform and Competition for seed-funding.
http://arc.peacecorpsconnect.org/
We recently began recruiting RPCVs from West Africa to teach secondary level Math, Chemistry and Physics in 9 month placements in Guinea, beginning in September 2010.
Secondary Physics Teachers
Secondary Math Teachers
Secondary Chemistry Teachers
Interested RPCVs can submit their applications online by following the links above, or can feel free to contact me directly at the email address or phone number below.
Thank you for your consideration and assistance!
All the best,
Brianna Fischer
Peace Corps Response
Peace Corps
1111 20th St NW
Washington, DC 20526
800-424-8580, extension 2247
bfischer @ peacecorps.gov
