Rotarian Natalie Hanh was awarded the 2020 Sower Award by Humanities Nebraska. Individuals chosen for the award have made “a significant contribution to public understanding of the humanities in Nebraska.” Natalie is the International United Nations official and Malaika Foundation founder. She served 38 years with United Nations programs in Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, New York City, and Rome.
Her work with the U.N. included areas such as new food crops and nutrition in Nigeria, women, and Finance with the International Fund for Agricultural Development, youth initiatives with the Food and Agriculture Organization, UNICEF Representative to Malawi, and Senior Private Sector Advisor at the U.N.’s Fund for International Partnerships. Her favorite job was in Nigeria with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA-Ibadan) where she assisted in introducing improved food crops and nutrition programs for rural women. An agricultural revolution was the adoption of soybeans, a new crop of the country. For this accomplishment, the Yoruba Peoples honored her with a chieftaincy and bestowed the title Balogun Iyalaje, meaning “the person who empowers.”
Over the past 20 years, the Malaika Foundation has organized educational workshops throughout Nebraska for 3,000 teachers and provided 68 fellowships to teachers and students to study abroad on five continents. Dr. Hahn has donated African art to Metropolitan Community College in Omaha; the Kenneth Morrison Cancer Center in Hastings; the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln; Wayne State College, and the public schools and libraries in Lexington. Read the Lincoln Journal story about Natalie, click here.
