Khadidiatou Lusby
As a native of Senegal, Khadidiatou (Khady) Lusby was drawn to the CAR Undergraduate Program by a combination of factors. As a student and young adult working in rural Senegal, Khady was exposed to conflicts revolving around ethnicity, language, religion and gender. Prior to entering Mason in 2006, Khady conducted fieldwork with the National Census Bureau in Senegal teaching couples about family planning in rural areas. During her fieldwork, Khady developed strategies to conduct dialogues between men and women regarding the use of family planning as an acceptable practice in their culture. She also had similar experiences working with the World Bank and USAID.
Another factor in her decision to join the CAR Program was Khady's admiration of her father, a respected community leader who had the gift of transforming spiraling and intractable conflicts between individuals or families into works of progress leading to reconciliation. When she came across the CAR program during her transfer orientation. She found the program to be a perfect fit for her academic and personal interests.
In addition to her coursework, Khady is also involved in leading and organizing a variety of development projects in her hometown of Nioro du Rip. In response to the lack of economic opportunities and the recognition that youth from the region are leaving the area, Khady and her family have created the Nioro Agribusiness Development Project to enable women of the community to grow watermelons and other crops and to use the proceeds to support their children and families. To make the project sustainable, Khady and her husband are reaching out to community organizations in the U.S. to help provide funding to build a wall around the land and an irrigation system and also to provide some basic agricultural tools and new seed varieties.
Khady's unique experience, maturity, and leadership abilities were instrumental in her being chosen as one of twenty undergraduate students selected to participate in the Mason Fall 2008.