Project unites Ghana and Charleston

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MUSC hosted a special exhibition of images from Ghana, West Africa, as part of its global health strategic initiative. More than 200 people attended the celebration that Cynthia Cupit Swenson, Ph.D., associate director of MUSC's Family Services Research Center (FSRC), described as a vivacious linking of West African and Lowcountry culture and an introduction of Charlestonians to the village of Okurase in the eastern region of Ghana

The evening began with a performance by Djole — a youth West African dance and drumming company from North Charleston. Samuel "Powerful" Yeboah and Ayodele Scott, his colleague from Sierra Leone, followed with a Tamaraneh (coming together) performance.

MUSC President Ray Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D., highlighted the university's global strategic initiative and introduced Yeboah, who updated the group on the building of the vocational school and hopes for a medical center. Gerald Bybee, a renowned photographer from San Francisco, spoke about his experience in Okurase and the development of Okurase: Portrait of a Village.

Swenson said the event raised $630 toward the 2012 Village Health Outreach. Funds will be used primarily to purchase malaria testing kits and anti-malaria medications. "But, critical to the work in Ghana was the connections made and partnerships forged that evening and the days that followed," she said. Project Okurase's building goals are to complete the vocational school and begin job training programs and conduct significant work towards completion of the medical center in 2012. Swenson said the plan is to develop an exchange program between Ghana and MUSC in clinical research and health care.