Tampa native Elizabeth Davis was in Tampa this week, as she is from time to time.
The 25 year old niece of former Tampa Democratic Congresswoman Jim Davis was in town raising funds for her organization, the Akilah Institute for Women, a school that she founded in Rwanda that will soon begin instructions this year, with construction set to begin on a new facility in a month or so.
Davis has lived in the African nation for over 3 years, after graduating from Vanderbilt University in 2006. She helped run an orphanage initially, called Amani.
She says that when the boarding school opens in a few months, she hopes to be able to educate approximately 40 women, all between 18 and 21 years of age.
In a country of crushing poverty (most people make a dollar a day at most) Davis takes a different perspective.
“They lost a million people in one hundred days”, she says, reflecting on the massacre that occurred between the rival Huti and Tutsi tribes back in 1994, “They’ve been rebuilding their system ever since. It’s amazing what they’ve accomplished.”
The same could be said for Ms. Davis, who says that the Akilah school will charge fees, but says most of the girls will be on scholarship.
When one learns more about Elizabeth Davis, it becomes quickly apparent that her evolving to become an Executive Director for a school in an African nation trying to improve womens lives is not a suprise.
Always intrigued by international affairs, she says she spent a year in Latin America, and then had the chance to work for Amnesty International. She gives a tremendous amount of credit to her uncle, former Congressman Jim Davis, who now consults for the Tampa and D.C. offices of Holland & Knight.
She also gives credit to her home town of Tampa. Originally, she says she and her fellow organizers for the Akilah project hosted fundraisers in Washington and New York, but says she was blown away by an event held earlier this year at the SoHo bar Lime, where over 300 people attended, and contributed $30,000 to the cause. "They're coming out of the woodwork now", she says about the Tampa community, clearly impressed.
Davis says the Akilah Institute will be the first school of its kind on Rwanda, and says that the reason that its emphasis is on hospitality training is that the tourism industry is the fastest growing sector of the economy.
This article appears in Sep 30 – Oct 7, 2009.