http://collegian.com/2016/10/dr-woldezion-mesghinna-a-life-restoring-food-security-in-sub-saharan-africa/
Dr. Woldezion Mesghinna: A life restoring food security in Sub-Saharan Africa
October 25, 2016 By Laurelle Turner 0 Comments
Editor’s note: This story is written from the perspective of the
subject, Dr. Woldezion Mesghinna, president of the civil engineering
group, Natural Resources Consulting Engineers, which is based here in
Fort Collins. Due to his origins in Eritrea and personal passions, Dr.
Mesghinna published a book addressing the availability of food in
Africa, called “How Sub-Saharan Africa Can Achieve Food Security.”
This text focuses on reshaping the vast and growing poverty
historically present in SSA by addressing a major factor: food
security.
His full interview and discussion with KCSU host, Laurelle Turner, can
be found online on SoundCloud and at kcsufm.com.
________________________________
Dr. Woldezion Mesghinna is the president of local civil engineering firm, NRCE.
“I was born in Eritrea. My parents were small, rural farmers and
ranchers. We were living outside of the village, about 10 or 15
kilometers away because we were ranchers. Sometime when I was close to
six years old, I was tending, like anyone else, goats. I was running
on a hill. I fell down and shattered my right knee. And because of
this, they took me home and they tried to cure me using village
medicines.
There was not a health center in the village or even in the nearby
areas. I was there for quite a while and they took 3 months before
they took me to the hospital.
So I went to the hospital and my parents went with me. When the doctor
saw my knee he said that the only way to save me would be to amputate
my right leg completely.
Only my father agreed. They told him he was the expert. There was
nothing they could say.
My mother said no.
“You have to try first,” she said. “Try to save my son. Because my son
is going to be a farmer and a rancher. He has to work 14, 15 hours
every day. And if you amputate him, he will be unable to do the work
that waits for him in the village. His peers will laugh at him. And
one day, I’m sure, he will commit suicide.”
The doctor was struck by my mother’s determination. He tried for over
10 hours. And he saved my leg.
When I went back to my village, my parents found out that I was not
able to work in the country side any longer. They decided to take me
back to Asmara in Eritrea and I went to school there. After going to
university in Ethiopia, I got a scholarship at Cornell University,
more or less in structural engineering. After working here in the US
for three years, I went back to school for irrigated agriculture.
I started my own company, NRCE, which specializes in water resources
engineering and irrigated agriculture, in 1988, and we have become
experts in water rights. The U.S. Government uses us as expert
witnesses when working with Native American tribes. More recently, we
have done a tremendous amount of work in Eritrea designing and helping
construction management there – we just opened an office in Western
Africa, in Senegal.
I need to do a payback to the origin of myself. My experiences have
helped me to understand water resources. And in Sub-Saharan Africa
(SSA), there is extreme poverty. I want to give the people and the
governments there my help and my knowledge.
I believe that SSA can achieve sustainable food security and progress
to light industrialization.”
Filed Under: Arts and Culture, Features
Received on Tue Oct 25 2016 - 21:38:07 EDT