|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
| |
Turrets Great Hall
Radio stations in Liberia, a clinic in Sierra Leone, textbooks for the University of the Gambia-the Foundation for West Africa provides direct need assistance to specific projects in a region that has suffered deeply from war for nearly two decades.
Topher Hamblett, who founded FWA, will be talking at College of the Atlantic's Turrets Great Hall at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 14. He will be joined by Jay Friedlander, who holds COA's newest chair, the Sharpe/McNally Chair in Green and Socially Responsible Business. Also speaking will be COA students Nick Jenei and Sam Heller who have worked with Hamblett and the Foundation for West Africa.
Hamblett served as a Peace Corps volunteer in eastern Sierra Leone from 1985 to 1987 and has two decades of experience in advocacy, project management and fundraising for organizations in the United States and West Africa. From 1988 to 2004 he worked for Save the Bay, Inc. of Providence, RI. He also serves on the boards of the International Institute of Rhode Island and Rhode Island Public Radio.
In founding FWA, Hamblett sought to mobilize people and financial capital for innovative grassroots projects that have real social and economic impact in West Africa. FWA works primarily in Sierra Leone and Liberia, neighboring countries striving to emerge from poverty and conflict. The foundation targets West Africa's core needs: accountable governance, human rights, literacy, health care and sustainable economic development by investing in independent community radio stations, community-based health care and programs to improve literacy and the quality of education.
The entrepreneurial approach employed by FWA is consistent with the efforts of COA's new Green and Socially Responsible Business Program. The foundation partners with the region's leading innovators for social change-individuals and organizations who, with modest capital support, can mobilize their communities to solve long-standing problems in new, creative ways.
College of the Atlantic was founded in 1969 on the premise that education should go beyond understanding the world as it is, to enabling students to actively shape its future. A leader in environmental stewardship and experiential education, COA has pioneered a distinctive interdisciplinary approach to learning-human ecology-that develops the kinds of creative thinkers and doers who can lead all sectors of society to promote sustainable ecosystems while meeting compelling and growing human needs.
The talk is free and open to the public. Please park in the lots provided at the college's south entrance and follow signs for The Turrets; closer handicapped parking is available. For more information about the talk, please call College of the Atlantic at 288-5015, ext. 291.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
