It’s been years since I last stepped foot in Ghana, but I can still recall it vividly. A crocodile’s scaly skin and toothy smile. Intricate kaleidoscopes of colored fabric in the sprawling market of Kumasi. The aromatic, savory smells of spiced meats and peppery jollof rice for lunch.

For two sweltering summer months in 2011, I was a graphic design intern at a women’s interest magazine called Emerge. Though my boss John and colleague Veronique were wonderfully supportive, I quickly realized I was not destined to become a designer. I had the vision, but not the patience or technical wizardry; I was the equivalent of a toddler banging rocks together in the hopes of a sandcastle. Alas!  

However, Ghana was the beginning of another journey altogether. Prior to my arrival, I mentioned to the program leader that I was curious to learn more about disability rights in Ghana. I am deaf myself, but at the time I had never before met a person with a disability who lived in a different country. With the program leader’s encouragement, I found myself freelancing for the Accra Daily Mail so that I could develop a feature story about Ghanaians with disabilities.

In my spare time that summer, I traveled to different parts of Accra for interviews. Once, I hitched a ride with Canadian nursing students to a sanctuary for young men and women with intellectual disabilities. Another time, I went to a rural area just outside of Accra to meet a deaf woman named Lydia, who was (remarkably) a university-educated teacher and married with a child on the way – an extraordinary accomplishment in a place in which many people with disabilities rarely attend even primary school, and are usually not considered suitable candidates for marriage.  

After returning to the United States, I couldn’t stop thinking about the people I had met. I became determined to support disability rights however I could. Gradually my footsteps turned away from journalism (though I did manage to finish my degree) and toward international development. Years later, I found myself working on disability rights internationally, supporting men and women with disabilities in places like Indonesia, Myanmar and Haiti. Though my life has changed course again since, I remain a fervent disability rights advocate – a life’s purpose that is easily traced back to that one summer in Ghana.    

Anais Keenon, Ghana alumni 2011