Esther Chou

Global experience: I spent 13 months working on different projects with refugees in Zambia through FORGE, an advocacy group for refugees in Africa. In the first program, we taught kids to take photos to tell their stories. There is nothing for the kids to do in the camps, so for the second project, I helped create an art and music room to provide some activities. The third project involved establishing start-up scholarships so people could start a small business, maybe hire others, and then incomes could grow. The program has made about 35 loans, doubling monthly incomes for the borrowers, with a 91 percent rate of return.

Expectations vs. reality: Before I went to Zambia, I didn’t know what a refugee really was. I thought the camps were temporary. But the civil wars in Africa are so long, people are born in camps, they live there for decades.

Education value: This semester was my most enlightening at Northeastern. In class, I learned about the politics behind Africa’s civil wars. In Africa, I saw the results of those wars.

Life lesson: Doing activities with the kids in the camp was fun, but we realized it wasn’t addressing the real need. They were still poor and hungry. I realized that poverty is the root cause of everything bad in the world.

Career effect: This experience totally changed my career aspirations. Before, I’d wanted to work in an international organization like the United Nations. Now I see that the real work is done by NGOs (nongovernmental organizations). I want to start or partner with an NGO, and devote the rest of my life to ending poverty.