Her Excellency Aisha Muhammadu Buhari, wife of the President of Nigeria and a delegation of Nigerian women – members of parliament and wives of Nigerian state governors – were invited to George Mason by SOAN’s Visiting Scholar Sylvester Okere and Professor Lester Kurtz. The purpose of the visit was to highlight the First Lady’s initiative, Future Assured, to promote women and children’s health in Nigeria and to look for ways in which the Mason community can collaborate with their work.
In the wake of devastation poverty, exploitation, and civil conflict with militant insurgents Boko Haram, Nigeria has the fifth-worse maternal and child health outcomes in the world and the women who visited Mason are determined to make a difference. CHHS Dean Deborah Boehm-Davis and CHSS Dean Thomas Prohaska outlined contributions and potential involvement of the humanities, social sciences, and health sciences can make to address the problem. SOAN professors James Witte and Rutledge Dennis were involved with other participants in roundtable discussions.
Future Assured’s priorities are to
- Advocate for the repositioning of health as a development issue not just a humanitarian issue;
- Champion with officials at all levels of government the need for accelerated implementation of programs to increase service provision and utilization;
- Mobilize families & communities about the actions they can take to improve the health of mothers and children;
- Influence investment in critical and high impact intervention areas in the health sector;
- Promote accountability for the attainment of maternal, new born, child and adolescent health targets.
The Nigerian delegation was hosted by several Mason units, the Sociology and Anthropology Department, the Center for Social Science Research, the Institute for Immigration Research, the Office of Global Strategy, the College of Health and Human Services, the Office of Admissions, and several units in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences: African and African-American Studies, Global Affairs, Women and Gender Studies, and the Center for Health and Risk Communication.
Aliyu Mustapha, managing editor of the Voice of America’s Hausa division, initiated the delegation’s visit to the Washington area, and he reached out to Sylvester Okere with a proposal that Mason invite them to visit the Fairfax campus. The luncheon was organized by Gbemisola Disu, Executive Director of Mason’s Office of Global Strategy; Christine Coussens, Associate Dean for Community Engagement in the CHHS; and SOAN professor Lester Kurtz, as well as Rita Rowand, Global Relations and Protocol in the Office of Global Strategy. A number of key leaders from the Mason community participated, including Vice President of Research Deborah Crawford and Senior Scholar Dr. Beth Cabrera.
Amy Best, Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology offered, “We in Sociology and Anthropology were inspired by the enthusiastic support from a diversity of units across the Mason community. It was an honor for us to play a role in hosting the esteemed First Lady of Nigeria and her delegation and learn more about the state of maternal and childhood health in Nigeria and Future Assured. Opportunities for productive exchanges such as these are the seedbeds for more sustained collaborations where Mason’s diverse scholarly expertise can be brought to engage in real world problem solving. Sociology and Anthropology is looking forward to the next steps.”
August 18, 2016
