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Scholars
from Africa often find that hectic university schedules and the
lack of source materials available at their institutions present
significant obstacles to their work. As a result, many who obtain
Fulbright grants for research in the United States find time and
resources to be the most important benefits of their awards. This
was certainly true for Christofell Lombard, a 1998-99 scholar
from Namibia, who spent 10 months conducting research on human
rights education and environmental education at the University
of California-Berkeley and the Graduate Theological Union, also
at Berkeley.
Lombard characterized his Fulbright assignment as
a much-needed break from the hectic academic life he led at the
University in Namibia, where he serves as director of the Ecumenical
Institute for Namibia. His months in the United States were a
special opportunity to read, write, reflect and spend time with
his family, which he was pleased to see thrive in their host community.
Lombard's wife, a lecturer of Afrikaans literature, worked on
completing her Ph.D., and his two sons, immersed in a performance-driven
culture where choice and freedom are emphasized, excelled academically.
Presented by the resources of Berkeley, the scholar was thrilled
with what seemed to him an endless supply of information on his
research topic. The success of his research, the numerous materials
he acquired for his home institution and his family's personal
growth gave Lombard a renewed determination "to dedicate my academic
talents to the strengthening of a global culture of freedom and
democracy, human dignity and human rights, care for our environment
and a measure of justice to the millions of marginalized people
at the receiving end of global practices of greed and self-interest.
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