New York, United States: Internationally acclaimed Liberian child rights activist Kimmie Weeks has been named a speaker at the 2008 7th Annual Global Philanthropy Forum Conference, which will be held April 9th-11th, 2008 at the Sofitel, San Francisco Bay, in Redwood City, CA. The 2008 conference entitled, “Human Security, Human Rights and the Shared Responsibility to Protect: A conversation between elders and emerging leaders,” is dedicated to a conversation among elders and the next generation of philanthropists and outstanding emerging leaders from throughout the developing world.
Speakers at prior conferences have included: Former President Bill Clinton; Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Co-founders of Google; Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation; Angélique Kidjo, Singer, Songwriter, Founder of the Batonga Foundation and UNICEF Good Will Ambassador; Steve and Jean Case, Co-founders of the Case Foundation; Fola Adeola, Chairman and Founder of FATE Foundation and Co-Founder of Guaranty Trust Bank (Nigeria); Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS; Kemal Dervis, Administrator of the United Nations Development Program; Sally Osberg, CEO of the Skoll Foundation; Ted Turner of the UN Foundation; Sam Nunn of the Nuclear Threat Initiative; Ashok Khosla of Development Alternatives (India); Carol Larson, President and CEO of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation; Karen Tse of International Bridges to Justice; Vartan Gregorian, President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York; Sterling Speirn, President of the Kellogg Foundation; Wangari Maathai of Kenya’s Greenbelt Movement and Nobel Laureate; Ernesto Zedillo of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization; William Gates, Sr. of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Teresa Heinz Kerry of the Heinz Family Philanthropies; James Wolfensohn then President of the World Bank; Gordon Conway then President of the Rockefeller Foundation; Victoria Hale of the Institute for One World Health; George Soros of the Open Society Institute; Jeffery Sachs of the Earth Institute; Graça Machel of the Foundation of Community Development; Hernando de Soto of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy in Peru; Sakeena Yacoobi of the Afghan Institute of Learning; Tim Wirth of the United Nations Foundation; Muhammad Yunus of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and Nobel Laureate; Paul Brest and Esther Hewlett of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; Ed Penhoet of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; and Thoraya Obaid, of the UN Population Fund, among others.
You can listen to highlights from previous conferences on streaming video at www.philanthropyforum.org. Some of the proceedings from the 2008 conference will also be syndicated on National Public Radio throughout the United States and featured in the conference transcripts.�
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Every year, Kimmie Weeks embarks on a nationwide speaking tour to motivate young people to become pioneers of change. To date, thousands of students have heard his message and many of them have gone on to start their own humanitarian organizations or have joined other change-making programs.
Contact Natsumi Ajiki: natsumi @ peaceforkids.org
“What have I gotten myself into?”
This is a question that has come up many times on my journey to Africa.
I suppose to clarify, and so as not to sound like a cynic, I should explain a little bit about myself. I’ve been a photographer for two and a half years now. When I first picked up a camera the only thought that went through my head was “Awesome, now I have a big chunk of metal, plastic and glass that will allow me to take clearer photos and I’ll soon be rich and famous as a result of having this camera!”
This was not the case as I am neither rich, nor famous (side from my own delusions of grandeur.) Anyways all of that is beside the point. If someone had told me the day that I picked up that camera that it would eventually lead me to post war West Africa, I would have laughed in their faces. Not because traveling to West Africa is a crazy idea, but simply because I did not see myself ever getting past the stage of “hobbyist” photography.
And yet, here I sit, in Sierra Leone, thousands of miles from home (6168 miles approximately) volunteering as the photographer for Youth Action International.
Now in regards to Africa, particularly Sierra Leone and Liberia, I don’t think that anything could have really prepared me for what I would experience here. This is including Kimmie’s ‘worst case scenario’ description of Liberia.
I wish I had been more diligent about documenting my experiences and reactions in Liberia, but I seemed to always put off the act of writing. I always told myself I was too tired or busy, but the truth is that I had a very difficult time reflecting on the barrage of experiences at the time. Throughout my time in Africa, I realized that I did not once shed a tear. It was only once I was on the plane from Accra to New York, on my way back to my privileged and comfortable life, that I was able to absorb the memories and the pictures that I was taking with me. As I looked through the pictures I had taken on my camera, I cried for a half an hour straight. I cried thinking about the hopeful faces on the small children at Temas Orphanage that I was leaving. I cried for young people of Grand Bassa County who do not have the opportunity to go to school. I cried because I realized that my life would be changed forever and I cried because I felt an overwhelming sense of helplessness.
A cross-section of observers, traditional and religious leaders, local and international media stormed Ri-Kwangba last week to witness the historical moment were Joseph Kony, the Lord Resistance Army (LRA) leader was supposed to sign the final peace agreement. The rest of the world held its breath to witness the day that northern Uganda would finally get to normalcy after 20 years of conflict between the Government of Uganda and the LRA rebels.
“Aren’t you nervous?” my dear friend carefully asked me when I told her that I’d be visiting Uganda. That’s how my parents reacted at first. I told myself it is not because Uganda is part of Africa that they are worried for my travel. Traveling to new places is always uncertain to some extent. However, I couldn’t deny that part of me was more worried than usual. What would I see? How would I feel? What should I expect? Am I mature enough? Above all, the question was ‘why would I want to go visit Africa’? I cannot tell Uganda story leaving out the influence of Kimmie and Youth Action International. I actually met Kimmie at Northfield Mount Hermon High School where Kimmie graduated from.
The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), an Acholi-based opposition group led by Joseph Kony has been fighting first against president Museveni’s government, and currently against other Acholi peoples. The Acholi are an ethnic group who live in Northern Uganda. Though Kony, leader of the LRA reportedly believes he has been chosen by God to overthrow president Museveni and establish a government based on the Ten Commandments, and a purified Acholi race, the LRA has yet to explain its goals or put forth any sort of political agenda.
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I wasn’t promised an African sunset. When Kimmie Weeks invited me on a humanitarian mission through post-conflict countries, what came to mind were the stunning landscape pictures my friends had brought back from the ranch in Kenya. It was how I had envisioned this beautiful continent. Streaks of red and orange, firing up the night sky of deep blue and purple: a kaleidoscope of color. Instead, I found another kind of sunset. I found the African people wasting away, dying brutal, horrific deaths at the hands of war, disease, and poverty. I found the sun setting on their lives. Not fading into the night with brilliant lights, but being shredded into a nonexistence wracked with pain and suffering. Continue reading
I traveled to Liberia and Sierra Leone with Kimmie Weeks during the summer of 2006 to assist him and carry out research for YAI. I am originally from Tanzania and was excited to visit west Africa. I was confident I would adjust to Sierra Leone pretty quickly, because hey, it was still Africa wasn’t it? And I’m half African. Continue reading
