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Groton Landmark (MA)

Veteran UN officer to speak at Memorial Hall on Friday
M.E. Jones Correspondent
Published: November 9, 2007
TOWNSEND -- Nana-Fosu Randall might not have left her post as Chief Financial Officer for the United Nations, a job she held for 30 years, except that the UN requires employees to retire at 60. To her, that's a key distinction. "I'm not really retired," she said. Describing what she does now in a recent phone interview, she said her global links are still intact. A passionate advocate for causes she champions, her life's work is driven by compassion and an experienced world-view.

As founder of the John William Montessori School in Ghana, where she was born, and a founding member of Voices of African Mothers (VAM). Randall, who lives in New York, stands before audiences all over the United States and the world to deliver a message of peace and hope. Her mission is to raise funds and assemble a coalition of helping hands to build up what war has torn down for generations of African women and children. The school and VAM are separate but her dedication to them is equal.

"I asked myself, what can I offer children growing up in Ghana?" she said. "They are the future." The answer was education. Thus the school was established in 1997 and named for her husband, John, a professor, and her son, William, the "main supports" in her life.

Her role in the school project is personal as well as professional. Randall funded the start-up with her own money, but charitable giving is crucial to continued success. In Africa, there is no government-paid public education, and many parents in Ghana are too poor to pay tuition. The school cobbles together its finances from tuition and donations.

It also accepts additional challenges. Two children there, 7-year-old Kelvin Sefah and his 4-year-old sister, Rosemond, are orphans who live at the school and whom Randall supports, according to Anastasia Tsorgali, chairman of the school's parent-teacher organization. She said the children's above-average academic performance is "very encouraging," but as they grow older and needs increase, the PTA is looking for "permanent support" such as a trust fund.

During her years with the UN, Randall saw global gaps in educational opportunities that she now wants to close. "In 1991, I was in Kuwait. Even in this rich country, with oil floating on the street not all the children went to school," she said.

As a VAM ambassador, Randall shares another vision, that of assisting women and children "who suffer most in war." Ambitious goals include creating a partially self-sustaining agricultural, cultural, medical and educational center on 100 acres of land the organization bought in Ghana. VAM's goal is to help women take control of their lives, offering access to medical care, literacy skills and practical training.

"I have seen so much suffering," Randall said. "When I was assigned to Africa, especially Liberia, it really hit me what war has done. All these handicapped people," she said, and VAM aims to help. "So that is why this is what I will do with the rest of my life."

Randall attended school in England and college in the United States, but her roots remain in Ghana, where her 103-year-old mother lives. "I miss home," she said.

Her father wanted her to be a nurse, but she chose accounting. "I was good with figures," she said. For her, it's been a helpful profession of another kind. After she'd obtained her master's degree, she met the United Nations ambassador, who supported her application to join the world peace organization in 1974.

"They were looking for women," Randall said. "It was very hard at that time. There was a quota system."

Over the next three decades, Randall built a career and made friends all over the world, citing close connections with people in Canada, the Netherlands, Africa and Germany, where VAM board members now come from. They all share common ideals, she said.

Randall will be the keynote speaker at "A Night of Peace" at Memorial Hall on Friday night. Sponsored by Squannacook Elementary School teacher Fred Goldberg, whose fourth-grade class and parent-partners are taking the fund-raising side of the project into the community, the event will also feature exotic sidelights. African music will be joined by ethnic food sampling and an array of unique browse-and-buy options such as authentic African jewelry and custom-made items inspired by Randall's African art collection and created by an Arizona artist. World-famous musician Tony Vacca and other members of the renowned group World Rhythms will perform.

"A Night of Peace" will start at 7 p.m. in Memorial Hall in Townsend on Friday, Nov. 9. Admission is free.