WHO WE ARE

Urgent Africa is a registered non-governmental organization in Kenya and a 501(c)(3) non-profit in the U.S. The Board of Directors, Officers, and Advisory Board are a dedicated team of individuals committed to creating programs that builds sustainable solutions for communities that have been gravely affected by AIDS.

A Message from the President of Urgent Africa

Jambo,

My name is Atieno Kombe. I was born in Nyanza Province in Kenya in a small village called Malanga. I am the first of 10 children. I have been very fortunate to have lived three lives. I lived in a village until 10 years old, in the city of Nairobi until I was 21, in the United States in Boston, and now I live in Seattle.

I am terrified by a virus that is devastating Sub-Saharan Africa. I have lost more than 50% of my village peers and an equally large percentage of the people who I grew up with in the city. There are families that have been completely wiped out. This has been an on-going nightmare and it is a reality for millions. Many of our dreams and hopes have been shattered. Sadness and mourning are a normal part of each day. If I am consumed with so much pain then how can we describe what the orphans must be feeling? After being so loved they are suddenly all alone, unloved, unwanted, destitute, without food or shelter and feeling totally hopeless. HIV does not infect all but all are affected. Africa has more than 16 million AIDS orphans who struggle with hopelessness daily. These orphans need to be cherished and given guidance to help them rebuild their shattered foundations.

In July 1999, I attended the 13th AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa. From South Africa I visited Nyanza Province in Kenya where the infection rate of HIV/AIDS varies from 25 to 70% from village to village. The women and children are virtually powerless. Communities that have lost so many guardians have been left in hunger and disease. The various communities asked for your prayers and your help and they asked us to deliver a message: "Please don't let us parish."

Urgent Africa needs your assistance. Please join us in giving Africa hope for the future.

Best wishes,

Atieno Kombe
President

From the Executive Director

In an increasingly interconnected world, what happens in one country affects us all. We cannot meet the challenge of the AIDS epidemic in Africa unless we assist in its peoples' long-term survival. Building a sustainable community model offers genuine hope to the African people.

Urgent Africa is dedicated to assisting Africans in their quest to achieve a healthy, sustainable life. With the loss of so many adults, we are dedicated to educating the orphans so that they have every chance to carry on and lead a happy, fulfilling life. By exploring ways to stimulate economic development, and always working in partnership with the villagers, we are working to insure self-sufficiency.

This vision of hope is possible with the help of people like you. We must act now if we are going to have any opportunity to help these communities find solutions that bring some stability and hope to their children.

Thank you for your interest in helping make this vision a reality.

James Muya,  Executive Director e-mail:  jmuya@urgentafrica.org 

Executive Director & Board of Directors

James Muya, Executive Director 
Muya was the Director & CEO of Utamaduni Language Services, in Nairobi, Kenya for twelve years. He brings his experience as the Coordinator of Foreign Cultural Programs for the Voyager Montessori Elementarty School on Bainbridge Island, WA  USA where he designed, organized and taught Kiswahili language and cultural lessons. His experience as the Program Director of World Language Programs for the Associates in Cultural Exchange in Seattle, WA  USA is also a major asset to Urgent Africa.

Jack Danforth, Chairman of the Board
Danforth is an expert on energy systems and development. During the past twelve years Danforth has been directly involved with two successful business start-ups, Ramgen Power Systems, Inc. and the ANCO Consulting Group. Ramgen is a company that conceived, developed and commercialized the revolutionary new ramjet driven propulsive device called the Ramgen TM engine. The ANCO Consulting Group is a company that provided energy engineering and energy-related services directly to over a million electric utility customers. In addition, Danforth also has served as General Manager and Chief Executive for two electric/gas utilities in the United States, one in the state of Florida and one in the state of Washington.

Suzan Danforth, Board Member
Ms. Danforth created and directed one of the first energy conservation programs in the State of Washington. Working at the Washington State Energy Office in Olympia, Ms. Danforth created and managed the first revolving loan fund using energy dollar savings to pay for energy saving improvements in state buildings. She also directed operations of the Washington State Energy Extension Service. Ms. Danforth served on the Governor's Council on Child Abuse and Neglect in Oregon. Working with the Multi Service Centers of North and East King County, she worked for four years as director of the Community Service Programs for the Kirkland and Redmond offices while directing the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program for the Agency. Ms. Danforth is a member and officer of the American Association of University Women.

Robert Howe, Board Member - Secretary/Treasurer
Howe has been involved in finance, accounting and real estate management for over twenty-five years. His career experience includes the areas of the acquisition, planning, financing, construction and sale of single-family homes, apartments, high-rise residential buildings, office buildings, mixed-use buildings, hotels, an athletic club, a marina and several restaurants. He has managed the sale of more than $300 million of real estate and arranged over $700 million of financing during his career. Howe is also the CFO for a telecommunications company operating in Eastern Washington.

Dr Frank James, Board Member
Dr. James has practiced medicine for 15 years, working primarily in the service of low income and disadvantaged populations, including two years at the Navajo Nation and extensive work with the Lummi community. As a professor and researcher at the University of Washington's School of Public Health and Community Medicine, his work focuses on infectious disease control, community control of health determinates and effective interventions for personal health responsibility.

Fred Williams, Board Member
Fred Williams is a community access advocate, computer systems consultant and curriculum developer. He the first African American president of the board of directors for the National Capital Area Public Access Network (CapAccess/WETA Web), the largest community network in the United States. His accomplishments include work as the technology director for the Foundation for Education Innovation, Washington D.C. and the creator/manager of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators Virtual Clearing House. He has also worked as a technology consultant for the Institute on Anti-Racism and Multiculturalism; a technology consultant for the National Caucus and Center on Black Aged; the technology consultant for The National Coalition on Black Voter Participation; and chief technician for the Ghana Futurist Center for Management and Information Technology. Williams is the founder of SYF Associates L.L.C., located in Clinton, Maryland.

Sigi Gbadebo, MBA - Board Member
Sigi Gbadebo is an architect who received his degree from the London School of Architecture and has his MBA from Harvard. Gbadebo, originally from Nigeria, is the managing partner of Total Design Consultants, a strategic business planning service, which has consulted with companies like Mobil Oil, Real Networks and Microsoft. Gbadebo was responsible for the most successful product launch in Microsoft's history, the XP Operating System. Gbadebo has extensive business experience in the banking and oil industries and is now dedicated to sustainable development and growth.

Dr. Jay McLean-Riggs, Board Member
Jay McLean-Riggs got her Doctorate of Medicine and her Masters in Public Health from Yale University. She responded to an acute need for medical services by reopening a community clinic closed during the Kenyan liberation war. She also founded a nutrition training program and residential Kwashiok Village Program, Under-Five health initiative and sustainable development for women program. She trained new community based clinic workers to pursue formal medical training as physicians and established a network of support with area medical services. McLean-Riggs was a Down's Fellow Water Project Coordinator from 1991 to 1993, in Malamulo Hospital, Malawi, where she was responsible for the collection and analysis of water from boreholes, springs and wells in rural outlying villages and using innovative research on diarrheal disease by hospital record searches and interview techniques, testing and use of new technology for water quality assessment. She established protected or drilled water sources in new areas. During 1995, she developed a TB Surveillance Program in Uganda, using an innovative Grassroots approach to TB Surveillance in refugee Camps, in conjunction with Medicines Sans Frontiers. She created a crisis response plan for refugee health in cooperation with Americares with the formation of a crisis response flow plan to use as a general template in the in response to long, medium and short term refugee crises, 1994-1995.

June Eguchi, Board Member
Eguchi was born in Tokyo, Japan and has lived in the United States since 1958. She has been a licensed massage therapist for 15 years and currently operates a successful clinical practice in West Seattle which predominately specializes in injury treatment and insurance billing. She has previously been on the Board if Nikkei Concerns for 10 years, as V.P. for volunteers. Nikkei concerns operates Keiro nursing, Kidcare, an intergenerational day care center, and Nikkei Manor an assisted care facility, and was involved in the capitol campaign efforts for building Nikkei Manor, the Board of the International Youth Hall of Fame, which recognizes ordinary youth for extraordinary efforts, and challenging the media to broadcast positive news of youth through the National Broadcasters Association.

Advisory Board

Rita Azizi Egrari, PhD
Dr. Rita Egrari has focused much of her education and career on international public health. After receiving her B.S. degree in Nutritional Sciences from the University of British Columbia, she continued on to the School of Public Health, U.C.L.A. where she earned her Ph.D. in Community Health Sciences. Dr. Egrari spent a summer in Kitui, Kenya where she participated in an internship program that allowed her to conduct research on the nutritional status of children in rural Kenya. In addition, she has been involved with the Pilot Study of Inner City L.A. School Feeding Program where she conducted anthropometric evaluations of the students and analyzed the children's food intake. Currently, Dr. Egrari, a mother of three young children, is working on the development of the Nia Health and Resource Center for Urgent Africa.

Adam Reinhart, PhD
Adam Reinhart is an agricultural scientist with a focus on rural development and environmental quality. Dr. Reinhart has worked on numerous environmental projects in the areas of water quality, pollution prevention, and wastewater reuse with a wide variety of stakeholders including National and State Governments, large corporations, large and small scale farmers, and communities. Dr. Reinhart has also been a diversified vegetable farmer and managed a sustainable farming research institute. Dr. Reinhart's international experience includes working with vegetable farmers in the Northern Marianas Islands and providing technical assistance on a USAID soil management project in West Africa. Dr. Reinhart is working on the agricultural component for Urgent Africa regarding food security and crop development.

Risho Edward Sapano
A native of Sudan, Ms. Sapano has worked in both her homeland as well as in the United States in the area of disaster relief and community development. Ms. Sapano has worked as Program Field Officer for the Canadian Save the Children Fund in the Sudan where she managed relief projects intended for internally displaced persons. These projects included supplementary feeding centers, primary health care clinics, education, income-generation activities and water sanitation services. She also worked for the Sudanese National Committee for Eradication of Harmful Traditional Practices affecting women and girls. For ten years, she held leadership positions with the Sudanese Red Crescent Society and the Sudanese Girl Guides Association. She represented both organizations within Sudan and abroad in Austria, Egypt and Libya. Following her move to the United States, Ms. Sapano attended Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, where she earned her masters degree in International Development and Social Change. After graduation, she joined Oxfam America in Boston as the Program Assistant for Africa, providing programs and administrative support for the organization's regional programs in Southern and West Africa. Ms. Sapano is also a member of the American Red Cross. Ms. Sapano will consult on program management for the empowerment of vulnerable girls and women.

Todd D. Stong, PhD, P.E.
Dr. Stong's distinguished career included being the director of the Atmospheric Sciences Laboratory with a 420 person civilian staff, from Alaska to Panama, for 3 yrs, the Technical Director, for the US Army Strategic Defense Command "Star Wars Program" with a $1.2 billion/yr budget and as a colonel in the US Army Corps of Engineers. Dr. Stong retired in 1989 with 2 Legion of Merit Awards, 2 Bronze Stars, 2 Medals for Meritorious Service, 3 Joint Service Medals, a Vietnamese Public Works Medal, and six Vietnam Campaign Medals. He worked as a Technical Director for Coleman Research Corp in Virginia, working in Environmental Technologies from 1989-1996 and Humanitarian Services (water supply, Africa/Latin Am + small business creation for poor) from 1996-2002. He is currently writing a book on water in the developing world and advises Urgent Africa on water and engineering projects. Todd Stong is our advisor on developing appropriate technology in rural water systems.

Jeffrey D. Bernson
Having obtained an educational background from the University of Washington in International Health, Public Administration and International Development Policy and Management, Mr. Bernson has focused much of his work experience on international relief and devoted two years to serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras where he acted as a coordinator for the construction of gravity water systems. As an intern for PATH (Program for Appropriate Technology in Health), Mr. Bernson spent four weeks in the Philippines where he established an evaluation framework for a project integrating population health and coastal resource management. He has also worked as a Consultant in Participatory Strategies in Relief and Disaster Settings for Health Alliance International. Mr. Bernson has a solid background in planning and management as he held the position of Associate Director of Structural Trades for Facilities Resource Management where he oversaw the structural trades staff as well as the annual budget. He will be advising Urgent Africa in our strategic planning.

Michael Broili
Michael Broili has a broad range of experience that includes project design and management, graphic and physical systems design, mapping, contracting, marketing and research. Mr. Broili has designed and managed a wide range of local, national and international projects, and has managed large crews in remote and stressful circumstances. Over the past ten years he has taken a leading role in sustainability and low impact design. He brings with him over thirty years of experience and a network of contacts and alliances within the sustainable and low impact design community. He and Dr. Jonathan Scherch are partners in Living Systems Design. Michael Broili will consult with us on appropriate technology emphasizing low tech solutions using indigenous resources.

Jonathan Scherch, PhD
Dr. Jonathan Scherch is a Core Faculty member of the Graduate Programs in Environment and Community at Antioch University, Seattle. A certified permaculture designer and teacher, his background includes 15 years of sustainable community organizing and development initiatives, place-based appropriate technology design and applications, and teaching across five universities. Dr. Scherch is also a Retired United States Peace Corps Volunteer (Jamaica, 1991-93, Community Development Sector). Dr. Scherch will consult with Urgent Africa on appropriate technology stressing low tech solutions using resources indigenous to the region.

Renee Gastineau
Renee Gastineau is owner and president of Gastineau Communications Inc., a Seattle-based communications consulting business. With a diverse background in communications and public affairs, including news reporting, media relations, corporate communications and event planning, she brings strong strategic planning skills in media relations and marketing for multi-million dollar, global businesses, helping companies set benchmarks and measure the impact of communication functions on employees and customers. She is experienced in working with foreign cultures and diverse groups and has managed employees and contractors ranging from two team members to organizations of 15 people. Gastineau is the author of business trend and marketing articles for professional journals and educational web sites. She earned a B.A in Communication and English from James Madison University; a Certificate in Management from the University of Washington; and recently earned the distinction of Accredited Business Communicator (ABC), from the International Association of Business Communicators. Ms. Gastineau will help Urgent Africa with Public Relations.

Elizabeth Nyawira Mwangi
Elizabeth Mwangi has built a distinguished and successful career in community development as a Training and Capacity Building Officer/Projects Officer. Since 1997, she has enhanced the capacities of 4 Community based organizations' Board of Directors, Executive Directors, staff and client groups to effectively deliver poverty eradication strategies through programs based in eastern and western regions of Kenya targeting small and micro entrepreneurs. Ms Mwangi is well versed with surveys and assessments especially the design, development and use of survey/assessment tools, data collection and analysis. She participated in the Micro-finance Alliance for Global Impact (MAGI) accreditation assessment (in Uganda and Kenya) and Kenya Rural Livelihood Survey (Mbeere and Embu districts-Kenya). Further, Ms Mwangi is competent in supporting organizations in the process of bridging their vision and mission through integrated program planning and institutional strengthening by guiding them in strategic/business planning. Her aspiration is to be an eminent professional playing a facilitating role in enhancing livelihoods in East Africa. She will work directly with the village to train and educate the community on business and community development.

Richard Michael Tucker, MD
Richard Michael Tucker is a medical doctor specializing in infectious disease. He is currently at the Wenatchee Valley Clinic where he is a Clinical Associate Professor for the School of Medicine at the University of Washington. Dr. Tucker is also a Medical Staff Member at Central Washington Hospital and is pursuing a Masters of Business Administration through the American College of Physician Executives at U Mass, Amherst. Dr. Tucker is a member of the North Central Washington Rural Health Foundation and, in 2000, served as chairman of both the Continuing Medical Education Committee and the Board of Directors. Dr. Tucker will be working with Urgent Africa in the development of a vaccine program and the health care delivery system at the Nia Health and Resource Center.

Jody Rogers, M.Ed.
Jody Rogers has his Masters of Education from the University of New Hampshire in Developmental Disabilities and Administration. He began his career as a Vocational Coordinator at Branch Manor in Seattle in 1985. In 1987 he took a position at Highline-West Seattle Mental Health Center and was quickly promoted through the ranks to Program Director, where his responsibilities included clinical supervision, revenue resource development, contract negotiations and the development and monitoring of an annual budget in excess of $2.3 million. While there he implemented innovative services recognized statewide in the areas of supported employment, supported education, domestic violence and treatment services for mentally ill chemical abusers, as well as developed many state certified programs to deal with these issues. Jody Rogers is going to be helping Urgent Africa with Program Development, Grantwritng, and Program Evaluation.