Alumni Profiles

The Importance of Being Dispensable Allison Howard '99 believes poor countries need a hand, not a handout By Anne Downey '95G Also read a longer version of this story

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Allison Howard '99 had never been outside New England when she arrived at UNH. That changed after she graduated with a degree in political science and English and backpacked through Southeast Asia. "There was so much I didn't understand," she says. "How is it that Coca Cola has supply chains to every corner of the planet, but medicine can't get there? Once you start asking those questions, there's no going back."

After working for two nonprofits, Howard joined the Peace Corps in 2003. She worked in South Africa and learned a lot about the complexities of Africa's problems. "I was profoundly disturbed by the racism I saw," she says. "We couldn't hire a black engineer because there are none. A whole generation of people has no critical thinking skills because they were deliberately undereducated under apartheid. I saw textbooks that had been donated that sat in a corner and were used to prop open the door."

When Howard and her friend Bowen Hsu prepared to leave the Peace Corps in 2005, their desire to leave something behind resulted in the Kgwale le Molle Foundation, which gives scholarships to boys and girls from rural villages in the Mpumalanga Province to attend South Africa's most prestigious secondary schools.

"Charity doesn't build economies," she says. "If you're going to engage a vulnerable population, you have a responsibility to listen, do your best to help them, and then work yourself out of the job. Making yourself indispensable doesn't help them."

Lehlogonolo "Joy" Mashego, 13, is their 2009 scholarship recipient, one of six students supported by the foundation. Orphaned three years ago, Joy and her older sister were living in an unfinished home without running water or electricity. One of the best students in her village, she is well on the way to achieving her dream of becoming a research scientist.

After leaving the Peace Corps, Howard got a master's in international development from Columbia and then worked with the Clinton Foundation in Ethiopia. She is currently a program director for Containers 2 Clinics, a Boston-area nonprofit that turns recycled shipping containers into health clinics in rural Central America.

Her foundation continues, and for Howard, its mission still rings true. In the villages, she met children who spoke six languages, had clear leadership ability and a strong desire to help their people. "South Africa," she says, "needs leaders."