Longtime AU Advocate Introduces Lift Her Up Program To East Ohio

By Barbara Dunlap-Berg

The Rev. Dr. William ‘Bill’ McFadden of Elyria, Ohio, first heard about Africa University (AU), during the 1988 General Conference. Excited about the possibilities, he got involved. He has served on the AU Advisory Development Committee as the Planned Giving Council chair for 20+ years.

While advocating for and inviting friends to elevate Africa University to the status of family with estate gifts and bequests, McFadden learned about Bonnie Albert’s Lift Her Up initiative, created in 2016 in response to immigration and global migration issues.

“Lift Her Up,” McFadden explained, “is a response to an urgent need to get women out of a refugee camp and into college.”

Albert, a member of First United Methodist Church, Valparaiso, Indiana, launched a Lift Her Up campaign in 2017, inviting 250 people who care about refugees to give $100 each. Within two months, she had enough for one woman’s first-semester tuition. For $25,000, an individual or group can support a young woman from the Tongogara Refugee Camp in Zimbabwe in completing a four-year undergraduate degree program at Africa University. One young woman has already graduated thanks to the Lift Her Up initiative in Indiana and another is due to graduate in 2025.

Now McFadden is using Albert’s model to share Lift Her Up with the East Ohio Conference. Recently, 12 women residents of the Tongogara Refugee Camp, were granted admission to AU, but lacked financial support. McFadden hopes to raise enough so four of the 12 women can enroll in August 2024 and be housed in the new East Ohio-funded women’s dormitory. His Lift Her Up goal is $26,000 per year for four years, with the additional $1000 going to essentials such as a laptop, books, clothing and toiletries.

Dunlap-Berg is a writer and editor in Carbondale, Illinois.