Senior Sherzel Smith wins $10,000 Projects for Peace award to assist two villages in Ghana

The Projects for Peace competition has awarded a $10,000 grant to Sherzel Smith, a University of Richmond senior from the Bahamas, to help revitalize community farms and provide health services in two villages in Ghana. This is the seventh year in a row that at least one Richmond student has won a Projects for Peace award. 

Smith’s project will establish a community health fund to supply villagers in Nyamebekyere and Kwamoano with basic health services and treatments. The grant will provide start-up money to purchase farming equipment from local sellers. The equipment will expand current farming projects for women in the village, and 12 percent of their revenue will go toward providing health services.

Smith will graduate in May with a bachelor’s degree in public health and healthcare policy. Her internship experience with two Ghanian non-governmental organizations in the summer of 2012 inspired this project.

Richmond is a partner school of the Davis United World College Scholars Program. The Davis Projects for Peace is a competitive initiative to give students the chance to design and complete summer grassroots projects to promote peace across the world. 

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