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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.
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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