Pearson Family Africa Award
The Pearson family has had strong ties to Africa for more than four decades. Dr. Terry Pearson was born and raised in Vernon, BC. After receiving his PhD in microbiology at UBC and post-doctoral studies in Cambridge England, in 1977 he married Anne Reed and the next day moved to Nairobi, Kenya to help establish a new laboratory for research on tropical diseases (International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases (ILRAD; now ILRI). After several years Terry and Anne moved to Victoria—Anne as a primary school teacher and Terry as a member of the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology at UVic.Terry continued to research African Sleeping Sickness for 38 years.
Terry and Anne maintained enduring links to Kenya and with daughters Katie Malaika and Lauren Naivasha spent several more years in Kenya, establishing friendships and collaborations in science and education that have persisted for more than 40 years. It became clear to the family that both underfunded diseases and the lack of opportunity for education were limiting the opportunities for many in East Africa. While in Kenya, Anne established the African Children’s Book Box Society, a charity that purchases culturally appropriate books (written and published by Africans) and distributes these to schools in Kenya and Tanzania. The charity expanded its mandate to build schools, libraries, dormitories and clinics in Tanzania and Kenya with daughters Katie and Lauren now leading the board.
Katie is a primary teacher on Bowen Island. She specializes in outdoor education and inquiry-based learning. Katie continues to teach about Africa and what it means to be a global citizen as a way of establishing an interest in internationalism in our youngest learners. Lauren became involved with the Student Refugee Program of the World University Service of Canada (WUSC) during her time as an undergraduate at UVic. After graduation she returned to Kenya and maintained a home base in Nairobi. She is now employed by the International Organization for Migration (IOM, a United Nations Agency) and has spent more than 10 years working with migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons in conflict/post conflict zones including South Sudan, Kenya, Somalia, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Through these collective experiences, the Pearson family has developed a love of internationalism and a special affinity for Africa and its people and hope to contribute in a small way to helping student refugees to succeed.