As a young child growing up in Ghana, Ebenezer Kobina Mensah witnessed a tragedy that changed the direction of his life. A close family friend, like a brother to Mensah, was drowning, and several people attempted to administer first aid. Although it was too late to save his friend’s life, Mensah never forgot their bravery.
Mensah grew up watching his grandmother give first aid to members of her community, who knew her as someone gifted in setting broken bones. He volunteered at the Ghana Red Cross and Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana. Mensah dreamed of becoming a doctor, but this same dedication to his community ultimately led him to pursue a career in student affairs. Throughout his life, he has remained passionate about health education.
Now Mensah is advancing first aid training and health literacy in Ghana on a large scale as chairman of the Black Stars Wellness Initiative of the U.S.-based nonprofit organization True Community. This work is crucial as four out of five deaths from cardiovascular disease occur in developing countries, according to the World Heart Federation. Less than 1% of the population in Ghana is trained in first aid or cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), according to research led by the World Health Organization and Ghana Health Service.
“The most important thing for us is saving lives,” said Mensah, an international student in the higher education, student affairs and international education policy Ph.D. program, student affairs concentration, at the University of Maryland.
Founded by Luke T. Kues M.P.H. ’24 in 2021, True Community provides CPR, automated external defibrillator (AED) and first aid training in marginalized communities. The organization has facilitated more than 10,000 CPR and other certifications in 18 U.S. cities and 4 cities in Ghana.
Mensah and Kues met in 2022 as they trained together as resident directors at UMD’s Department of Fraternity and Sorority Life. Mensah has played a pivotal role in expanding True Community’s work outside the United States for the first time, leveraging his extensive connections in Ghana. He led efforts to forge an in-country partnership in 2023 with the Institute for Educational Planning and Administration at the University of Cape Coast (IEPA-UCC).
“I'm proud of the network of volunteers and partners that we have built, who are all committed to the mission and work tirelessly to make a difference,” said Mensah, who also serves as an instructor trainer with True Community.
Mensah and Kues led True Community’s first visit to Ghana in Summer 2023 to establish two first aid training centers, where Ghanaian instructors provide free training year-round. They launched a third center–the Kumasi Do Good Training Center–this past summer with the $2,500 Kues and Mensah received as the second-place winners in the venture-based track of UMD’s annual Do Good Challenge. A fourth training center is in the works. So far, True Community has provided free first aid and CPR training to more than 1,500 people in Ghana, including 30 instructors, and its efforts have saved at least 15 lives there.
In his academic life, Mensah focuses on empowering U.S. student affairs practitioners to use African Indigenous models to better support African students. For him, this work stems back to his commitment to improving people’s lives.
“I am someone that, all the time, wants to see someone smiling,” Mensah said.
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This article originally appeared on the College of Education's website.