hELed by Lisa Purvis, educational specialist and research coordinator at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and adjunct Colby-Sawyer faculty member, and Erwin Boateng, president and founder of Quality Health Africa, the panel Changing Healthcare in Africa focused on issues of cost, access and quality of healthcare in the continent. “The session underlined how a single person can help communities in need,” said Sukriti Raut ’15, a Healthcare Management major at Colby-Sawyer, who participated in the panel. “Like-minded individuals eventually gravitate toward one another to make their efforts sustainable.”
Staying true to the spirit of action, conference attendees participated in three breakout sessions broadly classified as healthcare, educational, and arts and culture. Participants brainstormed project ideas for the African population, which then were evaluated by Colby-Sawyer Professor of Social Sciences and Education Randy Hanson and Associate Professor of Social Sciences and Education Eric Boyer, with Muragijimana and Wuddah-martey.
Based on its creativity, originality, scalability, measurability, achievability and passion, “One-on-One Volunteer Mentoring,” a project envisioned by Colby-Sawyer Business major Yanick Macuacua ’16 and community members Sidiki Swaray and Nancy Erickson Allenby, was named the best. It intended to help the African diaspora, especially the youth, in refugee communities in the United States, build on their English language and computer skills to enable them to search, and secure better employment and educational opportunities independently.
At the closing ceremony, Colby-Sawyer President Thomas C. Galligan Jr. presented the Nkrumah Lumumba Toure-60 Fellowship of $1,500 to the One-on-One Volunteer Mentoring project. Professor Hanson presented the W.E.B. Du Bois Award to Akua Dziffa, volunteer at the African Day Parade, while Conference Adviser Dana Dakin, founder and president of WomensTrust, an NGO in Ghana, presented the Patrice Lumumba Award to Gold Label Africa for their success in popularizing African culture by adding an African touch to western fashion. Professor Boyer presented the Kwame Nkrumah Award to Muragijimana and the Pamoja60 Award recognized Colby-Sawyer College for its support to the conference and the African Students Association.