Bloomington woman educates African youth

Ann Marie Thomson sees untapped potential everywhere in Africa's war-torn Congo, where she grew up. \nIt's teeming in the Congo River, which could provide enough energy to power the whole continent, as well as in the country's people, most of whom can't receive the educational training they strongly desire, Thomson said.\nAn adjunct professor in IU's School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Thomson has started to make a way for these people, by forming a nonprofit organization to fund education for the Congolese she grew to love as the child of missionaries in Congo's Ubangi province.\nShe didn't really have a choice, she said. \n"To not respond would be unethical and I couldn't live with myself," she said. "I feel compelled. The reason we are doing it is (because) it is an obligation for me to give back to Congo all that Congo gave me -- it gave me so much and formed who I am. It's the least I can do."\nThe name of the organization captures her attitude -- Giving Back Africa.\nThe organization's purpose is to fund the education of Congolese men and women in order for them to return and use their training to improve the quality of life in the Congo, particularly in the rural areas, through specific projects. The nonprofit is designed to form a link between Thomson and the partners of GBA, who will give back to Africa by providing funding, and the people of the Congo, who will give back to Africa by using their training to help their own struggling country.\nIt's not easy to request an educated person in Congo to stay and work for little or nothing, Thomson and her partner, Jim Calli, said. \nCalli, a Bloomington cardiologist, went to Congo with Thomson in January.\n"You don't make any money (in Congo)," he said. "Teachers make $5 a month. Doctors make $200 a month." \n"It's just mind boggling," Thomson said, "and to stay in the Congo when you are educated and it's full of uncertainty is a lot to ask. But that's what we're asking, because it's the only way the Congo is going to find its way out of the war."\nCurrently, Thomson is compiling possible "pilot projects" -- ways to get GBA's feet off the ground in Congo for 2006. \nGBA board members will choose one of the projects in December and Thomson will return to Congo in January to receive feedback on plans and organize ways to implement those plans.\nThe only way to make a difference is to let them help themselves, Thomson said. \nHer desire to see Congo's people succeed and her love for the country grew even amid war and conflict. Twice, while she lived in Congo, she and her family had to evacuate their home, she said. She knew one missionary who stayed and was killed by Congolese rebels.\nThomson didn't dwell on those tense situations. She "absolutely loved" growing up in the Congo, she said.\nWhen she was 18, Thomson graduated from a Congolese high school and moved to America to attend college.\nAt Chicago's North Park University, she obtained her bachelor's degree in international studies. She then became a nurse's aide and practiced nursing for almost 15 years. But the whole time, she said, she wanted to go back to school and focus on African studies. \nIn 1986, she came to IU to pursue that desire. She now has her master's in public affairs and her Ph.D. in public policy. In the middle of her IU experience in 1990, Thomson found the vision for GBA on a return trip to Congo to visit her parents and friends.\nWhile staying in rural Congo with her best friend, she asked her friend's son what he wanted to be when he grew up. "A doctor," he answered, astounding Thomson with his optimism and vision. She said at that point she found herself determined to do everything she could to help him accomplish his goal.\nWhen she told Calli about her plans, he challenged, "Why not for other young people in Congo also?"\nSo she rose to the challenge, went through all the necessary red tape and in September 2003, GBA officially reached nonprofit status in Indiana.\nNo one said it would be easy, though.\n"There's nothing that's not an obstacle," Calli said, after reviewing a list of problems GBA will face. \nBut Thomson interjected quickly, "Except the human capital -- the people waiting there. The people are certainly not an obstacle."\nThomson's father, Bob Peterson, a missionary and educator in Congo for 38 years, knows the difficulties better than most from his own experiences. Those experiences allow him to say GBA will make "a small drop in the bucket of need" while expressing how proud he is of his daughter.\n"As her father," he said, "I've been very thrilled to see what she, by her determination, actually has accomplished"