Katherine Hayden
Hartford, Connecticut, United States
"If you have some power then your job is to empower somebody else." -Toni Morrison
In 2008 my professor took me to work for 17 days in Sierra Leone Africa, where the blood diamond war occurred. We worked on a health project for an NGO there. I had never seen such poverty and devastation in my life. I literally saw starving people for the first time. During the war the capital city of Freetown was bombed out by the rebels leaving facades of buildings in decay. The dire sites were juxtaposed by the vibrancy of the people I worked with, including Paul. How could I not help?