At the Ford Foundation 80th anniversary in September, the alumni of Ford Foundation graduate scholarship converged in Lagos and shared their experiences. Senior Correspondent, ONYEWUCHI OJINNAKA, reports.
The Grand Ballroom auditorium ofEko Hotels and Suites bubbled, as the International Fellowship Program (IFP) alumni, beneficiaries of Ford Foundation higher education/graduate scholarship scheme, share their life experiences and expressed their gratitude to the Foundation for granting them the opportunity to attain such level of education.
With the theme, ‘Looking Back and Giving Back: Higher Education and Development-Reflections on IFP’, the event was a re-union of the IFP alumni to mark 80 years of the Foundation’s work and to highlight its achievements in developing human capacity in its countries of operation through academic fellowships.It provided a forum for the IFP alumni in West Africa to discuss ways of leveraging their extensive networks and expertise in advancing the work of the Foundation in the sub-region.
The forum particularly discussed ways of reducing key inequalities in the sub-region such as educational outcomes, voice and participation as well as youth employment.
TheNiche gathered that the IFP has, over a decade, offered advance study opportunities to more than 4,300 social justice leaders from the world’s most vulnerable populations in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Russia.It further gathered that a total of 374 fellows were selected from the West African sub-region for the programme which was launched with a grant from Ford Foundation in 2001.
IFP was anchored on an inclusive higher education model which prioritised social commitment over traditional selection criterion.In addition to academic and leadership potentials, candidates were selected from groups and communities that lack systematic access to higher education. These groups included women, indigent people and fellows from rural areas, physically-challenged persons.
After their fellowship programme, TheNiche also gathered, majority of IFP alumni return home and report positive local impact from their work.
Alumni re-union
Welcoming the fellows that came from Africa and beyond, the Vice President of Ford Foundation,Ms Hillary Pennington,said the forum was to celebrate Ford Foundation’s 80th anniversary and the reunion of IFP West Africa alumni. The Foundation has paid for graduate education for 4,300 people selected from 22 countries around the world, she said, adding that the programme has existed for 10 years.
Pennington also said that at the completion of their education, the beneficiaries became social justice leaders, imparting what they have learnt on their countries and immediate communities.
“So we are celebrating those leaders here in Nigeria, West Africa,” she added.
Pennington toldTheNiche that they are impressed about the report they receive concerning the fellows.
She said: “The report has been huge. Over 80 per cent of the fellows return to their countries and communities (of origin). They did not stay at the universities they went and they are now senior justice leaders. They are in government positions, manning the NGOs (non-governmental organisations); so their own lives were transformed and they are expected to come back and transform the lives of their communities and countries.”
Funding
On funding of the programme, Pennington told the TheNichethat it is funded by grantors, adding that the Foundation went into partnership in each of the countries of its operation.
Speaking on management of the fund, she said it was a tenure investment managed by an intermediary organisation called International Institute for Education.
She said: “It is a kind of investment that will yield dividends for years and years to come because of the expression of their own life stories and also the work they are doing.”
The speaker at the event, former VicePresident AtikuAbubakar, represented by Mrs.Margee Ensign, said if a society opts for fee payments by students and parents at the tertiary level, there must be support for the less-privileged, adding that such support should come from government, voluntary agencies and philanthropists.
With that, according to her, no talented and deserving student will be left out and society benefits from their contributions.
He advocated free, accessible and compulsory education, particularly at the primary and secondary school levels, throughout the country.
Atiku thanked the Foundation for its enormous contributions in improving humanity over the years, especially through education and research.
Sharing experiences
At the event, the IFP alumni shared their varied experiences of life and contact with Ford Foundation graduate scholarship.
Angela Afra from Ghanasaid she learnt a lot from the IFP from the beginning.
Her words: “I had a problem. I never met my father when I was (a kid). I struggled to survive until I had the opportunity offered by Ford Foundation for my education. I have always said that there is ability in disability. That is what it is, and so we equip the young adults with impairment and additional disabilities so that they can also make an independent life in the society.
“Coming to the opportunities that I have had, I will say that we have had a lot of human resources even in Ghana where we meet as alumni.
“We have formed thematic groups and when any of us need support, we know that we can count on someone who is usually part of us to help you out.”
Speaking on networking skill, she said it has also been enormous.
“I can sit here and call Ifeanyi in Nigeria to tell him that something is happening here and he would respond. With this kind of networking, we can move to the next level of what we are doing.
“I am happy to say that the international exposure I have has been great because, for me, it is like heaven.
“When you get that exposure; you are in school, meeting all these other people from around the globe who are also Ford Fellows, it is a good way to learn.
“We share best practices, and every country that I go, I share experiences with an IFP fellow.I was just telling someone from Kenya that there is one guy called Fred Haggai from Kenya.Anytime I go there, I remember that there was a USAID (United States Agency for International Development) programme where they were looking for someone with a disability to give a speech, I would just send him an email and then he goes to make a presentation.”
Afra pointed out that the networking linkage helps them a lot, adding that networking as a group, they could do a lot for Africa.
Agnes Oguche from Nigeria affirmed that Ford Foundation scholarship is real and unique right from the selection exercise.
She said: “Before I got their application form, I looked for it and could not get it. Then I was tempted to write and I wrote to them in Accra, but the address I wrote was wrong and, therefore, could not get a reply. Then I wrote again with correct address and, funny enough, they replied.
“I wrote that I wanted scholarship and they referred me to universities of Maiduguri, Abuja, Port-Harcourt or Lagos for the form. I told them that if I had the money to go to all these places, then I have no need to look for scholarship. To my greatest surprise, they sent me a reply saying that they wouldlook into my challenges and find way of making the forms available to me and they did it.
“I got the form through the internet, completed it and sent. Surprisingly, I was selected and given the award. So that was very interesting and that gave me the opportunity to be a graduate today.”
