Chillicothe — The Chillicothe Auditor announced that the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission has paid for a summer intern to help in her office (see my first story).
Lailatu Braimah – pronounced “leeluh” but nicknamed Layla by her co-workers – is from Ghana and is a graduate student at Ohio University in applied economics and public administration.
She says she wanted to see how the public sector works, and actualize the theories she has learned: to see sources of revenue, how they are collected, how much goes into what – especially in a smaller city like Chillicothe.
Braimah says she has learned much in only three weeks, and plans to work in the office until the end of August, when she leaves her summer apartment in the Carlsile Building and returns to Athens.
In her native Ghana, she says she wanted to contribute and find solutions to economic and social issues. She knew someone attending OU who highly recommended it, and a scholarship helped her leave her country for the first time first time and attend in Athens.
This is her first time in Chillicothe, and she says it is an amazing city. Braimah said it was good to see people interested in development In Monday’s council session, and that she is meeting people who are passionate about their work here and city government.
Hear Braimah in her own words in the below video interview. Learn more about Ghana in Wikipedia or the official government website.
From Wikipedia:
Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It lies adjacent to the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing a border with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and Togo in the east. Ghana…[spans] diverse biomes that range from coastal savannas to tropical rainforests. With nearly 35 million inhabitants, Ghana is the second-most populous country in West Africa.
On 6 March 1957, Ghana became the first colony in Sub-Saharan Africa to achieve sovereignty. Ghana subsequently became influential in decolonisation efforts and the Pan-African movement.
The name Ghana comes from Wagadu, a vast empire in west Africa from the 3rd to 12th centuries; Wagadu was coined Ghana by Arab traders involved in the trans-Saharan trade.
