Heroes Nurtured for a New Generation of African Youth

by Mengly Taing

Kwame Eyiah is an English-language teacher and administrator at the Community Health International (CHI) in Conakry, Guinea who has made an effort to help his students find pen-pals.

CHI, formerly known as the Community Health Training Center, opened in October 2001. Dr. Benjamin S. Taylor and Dr. Patrick S. Kamara opened the center because there was a need to train refugees as community health workers. The CHI, which works mostly with refugees from Liberia and Sierra Leone, is in need of financial and material support. Last year, six of 25 enrolled students dropped out because they could not afford to pay the school fees.

According to the CHI, "Each year hundreds of refugees graduate from high school with no prospects of further education due to lack of finance and also due to the language barrier." The refugees live on less than $1 a day and that does not include money to pay for medical bills. "The girls, most vulnerable, roam the streets … [and are] at the mercy of men who offer them little or nothing for their ‘night services'."

The CHI program helps keep girls off the streets because more women go through and complete the program than men. In the last four years, 63 women have been in the program including 15 who have graduated. These students become valuable assets to their community because they can use what they learned when they return home and because of the model they set for other girls. 90% of all graduates are now working in hospitals.

The CHI is on a "mission to save lives" and the lives they save are not only those of their students but the lives their students inspire and influence in their communities. The students participate in the letter exchange program with RESPECT so that they can share their experiences with other students.

Courses are taught by professionals. Students complete six months of schooling in the theory of nursing before they embark on a six-month internship at one of the CHI's collaborators: Centre Medical International in Gbessia, Polyclinique in Dixinn, or Mere & Enfants in Kaporo.

Since opening in 2001, the CHI has had to move more than once. Kwame says there are several reasons why this has occurred including increases in rent, lack of water, and poor sanitation. Once again, Kwame says the CHI is under the threat of relocating, but they are still negotiating with their landlord.

In addition to monetary donations that can help ease their situation, the center is also in need of office supplies. These office supplies would allow the students to conduct classes and to write to their pen pals. Kwame says, "The students of CHI are very enthusiastic and very eager to communicate with students in other countries who are doing the same nursing course." They ask for letters and are impatient to hear back from any friends who are willing to lend an ear.

• healthchtc@yahoo.com
• Koloma-Soloprimo
• B.P. 4453
• Conakry, Guinea
• PHONE: (012) 69 77 44