By Julia Wu, Staff Writer
Tim Strong, a brave and generous man, took his skills to help people in Africa. He has traveled and had many adventures in Sub-Saharan Africa, but also in parts of East and Equatorial West Africa. Over the past five years, he has worked in Mozambique, Malawi, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana and South Africa. In particular, he has most enjoyed Malawi and Ethiopia because of the friendships he has made there. He has switched around with different programs, projects, and organizations. Primarily, he worked with Christian non-profits, but eventually started working in the United States Peace Corps, and several Micro-finance programs. Tim is currently working for the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative. The majority of his work has been Agricultural Development and Forestry Protection, but now has a project manager positions for Infrastructure Development. One of his crazy experiences was working with hippos and elephants. Tim’s first task was called, " The Elephant Conflict.” He had to make a solution so that forest reserve's elephants stayed out of farmers' fields. Tim had many different approaches, one of which was electric fences, although they weren’t successful because elephants would promptly turn around backwards and kick them over. Finally they subsidized firecrackers, which the farmers would throw at the elephants at night. He noted that it wasn’t his favorite solution, but it was successful and the farmers could continue harvesting their crops without disturbance. His current project is installing water and sanitation measures at a school in Ghana. Tim has been able to install septic systems, showers, sinks and toilets! It seems pretty silly from our perspective, but Ghana really lacks clean water. If you were to put on their shoes, walking in the streets and seeing open sewer systems, you would certainly agree! Tim has also been offered a job for next year coordinating the development of all the health clinics in Machinga District in Malawi. Tim stated The Clinton Foundation has a memorandum of understanding with the Malawian Ministry of Health to renovate all their clinics as well as installing facilities for treating HIV/AIDS. It’s a huge commitment, and he is honored to do so. As Tim travels around different environments, he finds that the living style changes with each culture. With the Peace Corps Tim lived in a grass and mud hut and ate what he grew. Now, things are a little more up-scale, sometimes electricity is available. He normally has running water and lives in relatively urban environments. Because of this, his work demands are a lot higher, and he doesn’t get to live life in the village anymore. In the Peace Corps the majority of the time he rode a bike or hitchhiked. He did learn sometimes it felt a lot safer in a stranger's car than in a rickety mini bus that pumps exhaust into the car and makes your eyes sting. He also enjoyed walking. Adding to his wild adventures in Africa he has eaten flies, termites, and mice! Tim lived in a very rural area. It was about a two-hour bike ride through the mountains from the road-to-road beyond the trading center where they had electricity. Tim had a small solar charger for his phone and radio, but if he got tired of eating corn and soy all the time, he could bike in to that trading center to buy supplies like soap, rice, and even some fresh goat meat! Tim has changed lives in Africa solving problems such as the elephants, giving them access to water, or being a good friend.
