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Archived Bulletins

March 2005                                          Ashesi University Bulletin
 

A TRIP TO AFRICA WITH MSN: HEROES OF AFRICA

By Matt Taggart
Development Associate

In January 2005 members of the Ashesi team accompanied Emmanuel Akyeampong, Professor of African Studies at Harvard University, and Richard Bangs, author, adventurer, and founder of Sobek Travel, to lead a trip through Africa visiting three extraordinary projects started by native Africans to improve their communities. The journey was documented by Richard Bangs and featured in MSN’s “First and Best” series. Enjoy their multimedia coverage – bringing you the faces, voices and hearts of the people we met along the way.  See :
Ashesi featured in MSN series: Heroes of Africa

The first stop was Ghana, where travelers visited Ashesi University and other destinations including a former slave castle, a forest reserve and an audience with Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, King of Ashanti. At Ashesi our guests had a chance to speak with students and faculty and see why Ashesi is being touted as an institution that can stand on a par with the best in the world. Founded by Patrick Awuah, a Ghanaian who traveled home after working as a software developer in the United States, Ashesi's mission is to train a new generation of thinking, socially-aware leaders for Africa.

Click on image below to see large version.  Use arrows to scroll through the gallery.

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Ghana: Chiefs gather for durbar

The next stop on the journey was South Africa. In Johannesburg, the itinerary included a visit to CIDA, another extraordinarily innovative institution of higher learning. CIDA was founded by Taddy Blecher, a native of South Africa, who gave up a brilliant actuarial career to do something even more important. He started South Africa’s first completely free university, dedicated to providing technical and business training to a new generation of professionals. By combining computer-learning technology with a humanitarian spirit, he has helped create an institution that fairly crackles with energy and enthusiasm. See: www.cida.ac.za.

From there the travelers swung up to northern Mozambique to visit projects being undertaken by Village Reach. Started by Blaise Judja-Sato, a native of Cameroon who has also worked in high tech in the USA, VillageReach features an innovative business model that uses a commercial cooking gas distribution network to move medical vaccines into remote areas. The project is now providing economic, environmental and health benefits to a large part of one of the poorest regions of the earth. See: www.villagereach.org.

Together these three projects are some of the most important and innovate in all of Africa. Please take a moment to click the links below and take a look at some of the photos that were taken along the way. For more information about trips with Ashesi University, please contact our staff at foundation@ashesi.org.

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