After spending the summer thousands of miles from her native Liberia and watching nervously from afar as Ebola swept through her country, sophomore Winifred Gray-Johnson wanted to take action when she returned to the 91短视频 campus.
She never imagined that desire, born from hours of long-distance conversation with her family members and prayer over the sufferings of fellow West Africans, would draw the attention and support of her university community 鈥� and a .
鈥淒oing something was a way to help myself with the panic of thinking about my family and what was going on in my country,鈥� said the economics major. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 want to be silent and just sit on my hands, so I started thinking, 鈥榃hat could I do?鈥欌��
That question quickly became 鈥淲hat can we do?鈥� when shared with fellow members of 91短视频鈥檚 International Students Organization (ISO).
To Gray-Johnson鈥檚 surprise and delight, Liberian peace activist and ( ’07) learned of the fledging movement and enthusiastically agreed to headline a fundraising dinner.
at 91短视频鈥檚 Martin Chapel, with a seating capacity of 140, are $100, with $80 of that a tax-deductible donation to the Africa. Dinner guests will receive preferred seating at a public lecture later in the evening in Lehman Auditorium.
A freewill offering will be taken at the lecture, with an for those who cannot attend.
To those who need most help
鈥淪he is helping us raise awareness, but at the same time, we know that this money will go through her organization to those who most need it, [to] the children who have lost family members or been displaced,鈥� Gray-Johnson said.
Gbowee, who received the 2011 prize for her work in ending Liberia鈥檚 civil war, says that her country鈥檚 decade-long peace is threatened by Ebola.
鈥淲e must face another enemy from within,鈥� she wrote in an in Britain. 鈥溾�bola is resurrecting old traumas from those who survived the war.鈥�
Since the Ebola outbreak began, Gbowee鈥檚 Monrovia-based non-profit has contributed to community-based, . Donations from the 91短视频 fundraiser will be shared by the foundation with two Liberian organizations founded by alumnae of : GSA Rock Hill Community Women in Monrovia, founded by Vaiba Flomo (CJP Grad. Cert. ’13), and Messengers of Peace, a youth outreach group founded by Gwendolyn Myers (CJP Grad. Cert. ’14).
Gbowee鈥檚 visit kicks off a series of events planned by the in March, including a color run, chapel talk, and movie showing.
Kaltuma Noorow, ISO co-president, said students have rallied to the cause, inspired first by Gray-Johnson鈥檚 willingness to share how she and her family were personally affected by the outbreak.
Wilfred Gray-Johnson, Winifred鈥檚 father, is executive director of the . During the outbreak, he and his team travelled frequently to rural areas 鈥渢o work on an early warning and response mechanism to ensure that Ebola did not lead to a national conflict,鈥� Gray-Johnson said. 鈥淲hile in the field, he could see firsthand what was happening.鈥�
At later ISO planning meetings, student organizers discussed 鈥渢he stigma of disease and who was getting aid and who wasn鈥檛, which led to conversations about who needed help who wasn鈥檛 getting it. We鈥檝e all seen that in our own countries,鈥� said Noorow, a junior peacebuilding and development major from Kenya.
Learning from action-taking
In a year of new leadership and transition for the organization, Noorow credits ISO members for pulling together and taking on 鈥渉uge responsibilities鈥� to work on this fundraiser and the upcoming events in March, she said, adding that she鈥檚 reluctant for any one member of the group to be singled out for attention. 鈥淲e鈥檝e all learned a great deal from the process. It鈥檚 important that every member be recognized for their thoughts and all the time spent deliberating and processing.鈥�
Her own involvement with the project has been empowering, Noorow added. 鈥淚n class, we learn a lot of theory and just reading about it is great, but I鈥檓 interested in change. I鈥檓 a doer. This event shows that we students can actually do something given the platform. We never imagined it to reach this magnitude. It鈥檚 been a lot of work and a lot of time, but we鈥檙e all really excited.鈥�
From following appropriate fundraising protocols to parsing out the correct wording for public relations releases and invitations, Gray-Johnson says the hands-on experience has taught her about the complex realities of fundraising for international causes.
鈥淚鈥檝e learned a lot about professionalism and credibility, about raising money for a cause,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t is important to me that the money raised here go through the right channels鈥� [It helps that] Leymah鈥檚 giving us her credibility and that of her foundation.鈥�
Noorow and Gray-Johnson both met Gbowee briefly when she came to campus in spring 2014 to deliver the commencement speech and celebrate the graduation of her son, Joshua Mensah, a major. They are looking forward to learning more about Gbowee鈥檚 peacebuilding experiences from the woman herself.
Gray-Johnson hopes to share the experience with her 14-year-old sister, Addy, who moved from Liberia this summer to Maryland, where she鈥檚 living with an aunt.