Monthly Archives: December 2014
Success Stories from Africa: Judith Rodin’s Books
By Heidi G. Frontani This week I am reviewing two books published in 2014 that were written or co-authored by entrepreneur-philanthropist, Dr. Judith Rodin, the current President of the Rockefeller Foundation (RF). The RF has a long history in Africa. It funded hookworm disease studies in Egypt in the 1910s, yellow fever control efforts in […]
Success Story from Egypt: Fred Soper’s Malaria Control Campaign
Fred Soper was born in 1893 in Kansas in the USA. He was the third of eight children. His father was a pharmacist and his mother a teacher. Mr. Soper earned his Bachelor’s degree in 1914 and a Master’s in Embryology in 1916 from the University of Kansas. He received his M.D. in 1918 from […]
Success Story from Botswana: Mpule Kwelagobe’s (Miss Universe’s) Youth Empowerment Initiatives
Mpule Keneilwe Kwelagobe was born in Gaborone, Botswana, the third and youngest child of Justice Mothusi Kwelagobe and Dibelang Montshosi Kwelagobe. At age 17, while still in high school, Ms. Kwelagobe became the youngest woman to win the Miss Botswana pageant. In May 1999, at the age of 19, Ms. Kwelagobe, as the first ever […]
Success Story from the DRC: Dikembe Mutombo, a most Generous Athlete
Mr. Dikembe Mutombo was born in Kinshasa in 1966 in what is today the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He grew up in a comfortable home with his parents and siblings in a city with high crime and poverty rates. In high school, Mutombo was an excellent soccer goalie and practiced martial arts. Due to […]
african development successes 