Latin School of Chicago

Just look at how our lives have evolved. Our families in Cameroon made sacrifices so that we could go to school. A scholarship brought us to the United States. In Africa we say: It takes a village to raise a child. This was true for us, and we continue to follow that tradition, whether it is by helping our relatives get an education or by doing what we can elsewhere. We never stop giving back. I [Nyambi] came here from Cameroon in 1963 through a college scholarship program and went on to Northwestern Medical School to become an oncologist. Marie came over in 1975. We have made Chicago our primary home, but Cameroon also continues to be our home. Understanding the needs in Africa, we have always tried to be of help there. In the last few years it has become a family effort. Kenneth, our second son, was a Fulbright Scholar. After college, he went to Cameroon to do AIDS research, and when he came back he started a non-profit foundation called FECH (Foundation for Education Culture and Health). He, his brother and sister run the foundation, and we try to advise and support them. Through FECH, we go back and forth working with NGOs, churches and other organizations. I traveled to Cameroon with Kenneth and Jennifer in 2006 to see where FECH could be of use. For me, it also was a mission trip – I regularly return to practice medicine in my home village. We pack up as many supplies and medicines as possible, and we convert the house that we maintain in the village into a clinic. People come from all over the place, they stand in line, and we work around the clock. It is usually about two weeks worth of seeing people before the medicines run out. During that trip, we spent much time with the cardinal of the Catholic Church of Cameroon visiting health and education facilities for FECH. We found out that Douala, where he is based, had no ambulances. It is a city of 1.5 million people, and emergency patients were being transported to hospitals by taxi or in many cases on the back of a motorbike. Then, when the cardinal came to visit Chicago, he saw an ambulance go by and said "Oh, how we need one of those in Douala." That gave us an idea. Jeremy contacted the City to find out what they did with ambulances that were no longer in use. Then, he went before the City Council with a presentation about the needs in Cameroon and asked for help. Believe it or not, a week later the City called him and said it would refurbish two ambulances and give them to FECH. We had those ambulances filled with medical supplies, defibrillators, cardiac monitors, medications, IVs – everything down to bedpans. We put them on a boat, and Marie traveled to Cameroon to wait for them. When they arrived three or four weeks later, she handed the keys over to the cardinal. Today, these Chicago ambulances are the only two ambulances serving Douala. We have many communities – our Chicago community, our Cameroonian community here, our community in Africa, our church community, our Latin community – and we try to do our part wherever we can. We have benefited from the help of others. And, as a family we feel that it is our responsibility to pass it on. After all, you get out of your community what you put into it. "For me, it also was a mission trip – I regularly return to practice medicine in my home village." Marie Ebie with the cardinal of Cameroon; joined by clergy from the Archdiocese of Doula, with an ambulance donated by the City of Chicago. Latin School of Chicago 21

• Cover