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Jul. 21--Taking advantage of a lighter political schedule during the summer, Councilwoman Carol West is in eastern Africa representing the city of Tucson as part of an exchange program sponsored by the U.S. State Department and the League of Women Voters.
Known as the Global Democracy Project, the program has West spending 12 days in Kenya. She left on Wednesday and is scheduled to return to Tucson on July 31.
While there she will spend her time along the country's predominantly Muslim coastal region.
"The State Department felt it was important for these people to be encouraged to run for office," said West, a member of the League of Women Voters for the past 30 years. She will participate in a workshop on what it takes to run for public office, as well as what must be done while in office to benefit one's constituents.
The workshop was set up by Asiya Suleiman Ali, one of four Kenyan women who spent a week living in Tucson this past April during the first half of the exchange program. Ali, who lived with West during her visit, was killed in a car accident in her village of Malindi on May 31.
"I'm going to be meeting with her family while I'm there," West said earlier this week.
West also will travel by boat to the Kenyan island of Lamu, where she said any inland transportation will be made via donkey. West will also visit Kilifi and Mombasa, the second-largest city in the country and the largest port in East Africa.
"I'm looking forward to the interaction with all of the women," said West, who brought along magnets and pins as mementos from Tucson to give out. "I suspect I'll learn as much from them as they will from me."
East Side
--Contact Brian J. Pedersen at 434-4079 or bjp@azstarnet.com.
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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