In honor of Legacy Giving Day, ALIMA recently spoke with our long-time supporter and committed legacy donor, Leslie Roberts, an award-winning freelance writer specializing in science and global health who has spent her career reporting from the front lines of regions facing crises. She reflected on how her experiences—including her first encounter with ALIMA while in the field—shaped her understanding of humanitarian aid, and her own relationship with philanthropic giving. Read our full Q&A with Leslie below.
Can you take us back to the moment you first learned about ALIMA? We hear it involves a helicopter.
I first encountered ALIMA on a helicopter in 2017 when I was in Borno state in northeastern Nigeria, a stronghold of the terrorist group Boko Haram, reporting on the humanitarian crisis.
The World Health Organization arranged for my photographer and me to fly on a UN helicopter to Monguno, a town recently liberated from Boko Haram. Everyone else on the helicopter was wearing T-shirts emblazoned with ALIMA, which I had never heard of. In the few minutes of silence we had before the helicopter took off, I asked what ALIMA was. It turned out ALIMA was the first humanitarian group to enter Monguno and provide services to the people who had gone so long without.
When I returned to Washington, DC, I looked up ALIMA and was impressed with what I read.
That’s a pretty incredible connection. What was it about ALIMA’s mission and model that resonated with you?
ALIMA’s model seemed different. Instead of flying in and out to a crisis zone, as do other international NGOs, ALIMA collaborates with local NGOs in a partnership. They are headquartered in Senegal not Europe or the U.S. Most of the staff on the ground are local.
I sent in a small donation, and on the donation form there was a question about how I heard of ALIMA. I told them, and received a lovely note back from the Executive Director at the time, Charlie Kunzer.
How did your relationship with ALIMA grow after that initial gift?
I then had the opportunity to visit ALIMA’s clinic in Maiduguri, in Borno State, and see their innovative and compassionate approach to treating acute malnutrition in children. When I was writing about an unprecedented outbreak of Lassa Fever in Nigeria, one of the key experts I interviewed was an ALIMA scientist working there.
Since then, I have stayed in touch with Charlie, attending small events in Washington, DC, where I could meet their leadership and their scientists and learn more about the scope of their work and their research.
You spent your career reporting on public and global health. How has that background shaped the way you think about humanitarian aid and where you want your own resources to go?
My decades of writing about global health have very much influenced my philanthropic giving. My work has taken me to impoverished communities across the globe, where people are dealing with hunger and disease, conflict and displacement, and often a total lack of health care. That brought home the magnitude of the need and the crucial role NGOs like ALIMA play, and it reinforced my desire to contribute more generously.
“From the outset, what inspired me is that ALIMA does rigorous research in addition to responding to crises and ongoing deprivation across the Sahel.”
And specifically as a science writer, one of my priorities is understanding how my contributions are being spent. Are they used wisely, in the most effective way? And is there a way I can contribute to advancing humanitarian science, studying what actually works in the field, or supporting work on badly needed vaccines?
From the outset, what inspired me is that ALIMA does rigorous research in addition to responding to crises and ongoing deprivation across the Sahel. Their work on Lassa fever, a little-known scourge of West Africa, is one example…Perhaps the best known is the Ebola cube they developed during the last massive outbreak.
After years of regular giving, you decided to become a legacy donor by including ALIMA in your estate plans. What pushed you to go further and make that commitment?
As a long-time supporter of ALIMA, I knew my priorities would not change. So why not set aside the money now, enabling ALIMA to plan long term?
Other international NGOs also do great work, and I support them at a smaller scale. But most are better known and have more funding than does ALIMA, and I feel my contributions, while meaningful, have less impact overall.
Thank you for trusting us with your gift. Looking ahead, if you could see the impact of your donation 50 years from now, what would you want it to look like?
I want to help a smaller, innovative NGO grow and expand in whatever way they choose. Might they be interested in expanding into new areas, if funding allows? I would be delighted if my contribution could help make that happen.
Learn more about legacy giving
What started with a chance encounter on a helicopter in Nigeria has grown into a commitment that will extend beyond Leslie’s lifetime. If this resonates with you, we’d love to talk with you about planning your own legacy gift.
Click here to learn more, or reach out directly to Ashton Giese at ashton.giese@alima.ngo.
