Published: Friday, March 28, 2008
GILL -- Although much of the country's attention is on Iraq and Afghanistan, in Africa alone there are 10 countries with tragic conflicts, said the founder of the nonprofit Voices for African Mothers, Nana-Fosu Randall.
Randall said that in 29 years visiting war-torn countries for the U.N., from Israel to Cambodia, it was on break in Liberia that she chose to start Voices for African Mothers, or VAM, which attempts to help Africans.
Randall spoke to about 20 people as part of Northfield Mount Hermon School's State of the World series. In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, NMH started it with the belief that what happens in far-away places like Vietnam, Afghanistan and Uganda is increasingly relevant.
She said that, at a Liberian shopping center, she saw a girl of about 13 without hands or feet sitting nursing a child in her lap. Through her driver, Randall learned that the woman lost her hands and feet after not cooperating with soldiers who raided her home one night.
''That day my life changed and I said I would do whatever I can to help these people who cannot speak for themselves,'' Randall said.
In Swaziland, which is not at war, Randall said a bigger problem is AIDS. There, she met a 7-year-old girl who lost her parents to AIDS. Randall recounted what the girl said.
''If I sell my body for a loaf of bread and an orange, my two brothers will be able to eat. And if I get AIDS, I won't die right away. It will take at least five years. At that time, my brothers, 4 years old and 2 years old, they will live,'' Randall said.
Africans are using guns from Western countries; meanwhile, some African leaders ''instead of using their resources to buy medicine for our sick ones, they use it to buy small arms to kill ourselves,'' Randall said.
But hate is a waste, she said. ''Life is too short.''
You don't have to be a millionaire or retired to help the less fortunate, in Africa or the U.S., Randall said.
''Just put your arms around a child who's orphaned,'' she said.
In 1997, Randall founded a Ghananian Montessori School that now educates 700 students. In 2004, she started VAM. It bought 100 acres by the Volta River in Ghana to create a partly self-sustaining farming, medical, educational and cultural center.
VAM also teaches women in three villages in rural Tanzania how to do things like raise poultry, weave rugs, bake bread, make jewelry and grow peanuts. In Uganda, VAM gave a school of 375 children, desks, benches, books, school supplies and shoes.
After Randall spoke, a group of NMH students asked her how they could volunteer with her in Ghana.
For more information on Voices of African Mothers, go to:
www.vamothers.org.