Today I interviewed Nyuieko Afua Bansah, the child of a father from Ghana and a mother from Arkansas. Nyuieko is currently in graduate school and is a health educator, working with pregnant teenagers and women who depend on government help to get by.
She has seen both of her parents earn college degrees while working hard to support their family. She says they taught her to be proud of her heritage and to work hard and be independent. "There was no room for excuses," she recalls. "We were taught that you can do anything and that everyone has roadblocks. You just have to get over them."
Nyuieko says that while growing up, she was teased because of her name and because of her father's thick accen . She says when she was young, she fit in better with children of immgrants with roots to Mexico and the Phillipines than with students from the African American community.
What really has impacted her life, Nyieko says, is a trip she took to Ghana when she was 13 to visit her father's family. They lived there for over a month and the poverty she saw was eye-opening and life changing.
Today, she talks about a dream of becoming a philanthropist in Ghana and working with that government to help it understand the importance of helping its poor population, especially women and children.
She's quite a remarkable woman!
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