The Diplomat

Helping His Village

Thanks to a scholarship for African students funded by Eugene ophthalmologist John Haines, Vincent Konchellah of Kenya will be able to create a better life for his community back home. Vincent grew up in a Masai farming village of mud-and-stick homes with no running water or electricity where the only school was a clearing in the bush. Vincent was the first in his family of seven to see education as a path to a better life. Now studying diplomatic law and international relations at the University of Oregon, he hopes to help improve the living conditions and education in his coutry. "This is part of what I think I owe my community because I have the knowledge," he says. Vincent and other African students benefitting from Haines's scholarship are teaching other UO students more about Africa.