Polio Survivors & Associates

Kouame Remi was born 1 October 1967 in a small village in the west-central Ivory Coast named Zuenoula, located just next to Yamoussoukro, the political capital of the country. He is one of nine children his father has with his three wives.

Before Rotary International initiated the Polio Eradication Program in the 1980s, many people in the Ivory Coast, including Kouame Remi's parents, simply did not know about the existence of a polio vaccine. At the tender age of eighteen months Kouame Remi contracted polio. A lack of adequate health care and rehabilitation services prevented his parents from finding him the medical attention he needed. Today, Kouame Remi has no use of one of his legs and was evaluated as having eighty percent physical disability. He is able to walk with the aid of a crutch.

Unlike many rural families in his region who keep their disabled children hidden at home, Kouame Remi's parents allowed him to attend school and to enjoy the same educational benefits as his able-bodied brothers and sisters. His parents have always encouraged him and have never lacked faith in his abilities. In school, Kouame Remi excelled.

He attended the Dalolabia Primary School in Daloa Prefecture in the central Ivory Coast, and then moved on to Tiebissou General Education College, finally earning his high school matriculation in 1988 after studying at the Lycee Mixte in Yamoussoukro. He was admitted to the National University of the Ivory Coast in Abidjan, Cocody Campus, and earned his first bachelors degree (License) in Spanish in 1991. In 1993 he earned a second bachelors degree (License) in sociology. He developed a passion for sociology and went on to do an in-depth masters program in 1994. He earned his first level master's degree (Maitrise) in 1994 and his second level Master's degree in sociology (Diplome d'Etudes Approfondies) in 1995.

From 1996-98, Mr. Oussou worked as a research assistant for BNETD (National Bureau of Development Studies of the Ivory Coast). He also assisted in studies piloted by Family Health International and funded by agencies like the UNDP (United Nations Development Program), USAID (United States Agency for International Development), and ADF (Development Agency of France). During this period, he was an active member of the Rotaract Club of Abidjan-Cocody.

Kouame Remi has exceptional language skills, and besides his native Baoule and French, he is fluent in English, Spanish and German. In addition to his bachelor's degree in Spanish, he holds a diploma from the London Chamber of Commerce in English and the European Diploma of the German language.

In 1998, Mr. Oussou left the Ivory Coast in order to undertake specialized language and computer programming courses in Germany. During his time in Germany, when not attending classes, Mr. Oussou served as a volunteer teacher and outreach worker in refugee communities teaching the German language and computer skills to new immigrants, who mostly came from Turkey. He also participated in workshops on cultural co-existence in Germany. He served on the editing board of "Die Bruke", a bi-monthly journal published in Moers, Germany serving the refugee community.

In 2002, Mr. Oussou returned to the Ivory Coast in order to pursue a doctorate in sociology. Just after his return home, on 19 September 2002, a civil war broke out in the Ivory Coast.

Kouame Remi has lived through the dangers of war and the sad decline of his country that used to be, by far, the most prosperous in the sub-region prior to the onset of the conflict. His country is currently divided into two. Although most of the violent fighting ended in 2004, the situation in the Ivory Coast remains tense today. The United Nations has established a peace force called the UNOCI (United Nations Operation in the Ivory Coast) that maintains the current stalemate.

As with most people in the Ivory Coast, Kouame Remi's life has been seriously disrupted by the conflict in his country. However, he has the tenacity and courage of a true survivor. Despite the frequent closures at the National University at Cocody, Mr. Oussou, under the direction of Professor Seri Dedy, finished writing and submitted his doctoral thesis in sociology in 2006 and is currently waiting to defend it.

Mr. Oussou is a consultant for both development project design and management, and for workplace computer systems. He is also a freelance translator, serves as an online volunteer for the United Nations and for NABUUR, is the immediate past president of the "Voice of America Club" in the Ivory Coast and mentors several undergraduate students majoring in sociology.

Mr. Oussou's specialty is rural sociology. He is the author of several articles and scholarly papers on topics that include: unionism in private transportation companies; multi-party politics in the Ivory Coast; the attitudes and perceptions of the Ayaou People of the Ivory Coast towards illness and health; disabled people's access to employment in the Ivory Coast; and the determinants of child labor in the rural areas of the Ivory Coast.

Kouame Remi's participation in the peace studies program marks a number of Rotary firsts. He is the first Ivorian, the first polio survivor, and indeed, the first participant from any French speaking country in Africa to participate in the Rotary Peace Center Fellowship program.

While at the Rotary Peace Center at the International Christian University in Tokyo, Mr. Oussou will work towards a Masters Degree in Peace Studies, and hopes to focus his research on the role of the United Nations in peace keeping operations in African conflicts.

Kouame Remi Oussou aspires to continue publishing, to become a Rotarian, and to obtain employment at the Directorate of Peacekeeping Operations at the United Nations after his studies.