From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Mon Oct 26 2009 - 09:26:17 EST
10:09 October 26th, 2009
The African brain
drain<http://blogs.reuters.com/africanews/2009/10/26/the-african-brain-drain/>
Posted by: Donna Omulo
Africans living in the United States are twice as likely to graduate from
college as the average American.
These African students often come from families who value education as a way
to get on in life and place a high value on working and studying hard.
Sara Tsegaye, a straight-A student at UCLA, is one example of that success.
Her parents
fled Ethiopia in the late 1980s, first to Sudan and then, when Sara was one
year old, they moved to San Jose, California.
Sara’s father works on a mobile ice cream truck in San Jose and her mother
used to be a
factory worker before she got laid off.
“We manage to pay for school because I’ve been working since I was 11,” Sara
told Reuters Africa Journal. “I’ve been working with my dad on his ice cream
truck, he’s been paying me and I’ve been saving the money. Also I had two
jobs in high school and I saved up a lot of money. I understand the value of
money.”
Sara wants to work with an NGO or a non-profit organisation after she
graduates. She wants to travel and she wants to make a difference in the
world.
Other African students say they want to go home once they get a bit of
experience in their careers.
But Africa is suffering from a massive brain drain just now and it’s
questionable whether enough of those highly motivated students from America
will return home in large enough numbers to really make a difference.
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