Contact Info
2858 University Avenue, Unit 303
Madison, WI 53705
Hezouwe Walada
Executive Director
Hezouwe Walada is the founder and executive director of Africa Forward Initiative. A biochemistry graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and aspiring physician, Hezouwe grew up in the small village of Koumea in northern Togo. He was driven to become a physician after a malaria epidemic broke out in his village, killing one third of the population, including three of his cousins and others who were close to him.
Education became very important to Hezouwe, and he was determined to attend school, even though the nearest school was about 30 miles round-trip away from his remote village. Rising very early each morning, he did his chores at home before walking to school each day and back home again, arriving late at night. An excellent and driven student, Hezouwe finished first in his class even though he was the youngest. He was especially interested in math and science and excelled in those topics, eventually winning an American visa lottery that brought him to the United States.
His journey eventually led him to UW-Madison, where he enrolled through the university’s Odyssey Project, which helps students with barriers find a path through college. Hezouwe chose biochemistry as his major because he saw it as the foundation of medicine. He graduated in spring 2023 with a biochemistry degree and a global health certificate, the latter of which is particularly meaningful to him because of his goal to help improve community access to health care as well as healthy food, fresh water, and information. He is currently working toward his Master of Public Health at UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health..
While working full time and attending classes at UW-Madison, Hezouwe saved his earnings and sent money back to his village wherever possible for basic needs like food and school supplies, eventually saving enough to supply his village with its first-ever well, providing much-needed access to fresh drinking water.
Hezouwe came to realize that in order to eradicate famine in his village, he needed to come up with a sustainable solution that didn’t require people to wait for his help. He established a microloan system based on a model he learned about in a global health course at UW-Madison, “World Hunger and Malnutrition,” which provided a broad and coherent understanding of the root causes of hunger and policies that can help reduce worldwide hunger. Hezouwe reasoned that instead of waiting to receive help—a way of thinking that had been established in Africa by foreigners through years of colonial rule—Africans could create their own wealth.
With $600, he established a microloan program through which entrepreneurs could borrow a modest amount money to make improvements to their business ventures, and then pay back the loans with a small amount of interest that could be reinvested to meet community needs such as building schools and clinics, digging wells or a forage system, or buying machinery to increase agricultural yield. The first 20 entrepreneurs to take advantage of this microloan program were bread bakers, corn roasters, tailor, farmers, breeders, and gardeners. The program has grown to include more than 700 entrepreneurs who are active clients, with more than 2,000 on a waiting list. This revolving loan fund has been enormously successful and self-sustaining, with a payback rate of 97 percent.
Learn more about Hezouwe’s journey:
Badger Talks Podcast - Stories of Courage: The Odyssey Projecti
UW-Madison Continuing Studies Profile