Alimatu is an online peer educator with MySistahs.

My name is Alimatu and I'm a 21 year old student majoring in Foods and Nutrition; and about to start my junior/senior year. My true passion in life is to help others. I have always known that whatever great things I did in my life had to involve, in one way or the other the helping and uplifting of others. I think this desire has a lot to do with the fact that my first name, Alimatu, is a west African variation of the Muslim name ''Halimah''; which means ''humane''. Becoming a MySistahs online peer educator will be my first activist experience, hopefully it will the first of many.

More about myself, I am of west African origin, my mother is from Liberia and my father is from Gambia. Most of my life I was raised by my mother, who was a single parent. She always instilled in me to be a hard worker and be proud of my African heritage and dark (chocolate) complexion despite the fact that (especially) American society has told me and many people like me (especially young girls and women) to think and feel the complete opposite. I believe this has a lot to do with European influences on societies as well as colonization and/or slavery throughout the Diaspora in which African people were made to feel inferior in everyway. What especially saddens me, is the fact that hundreds of years (in some cases) and many decades later, many black people all over the world still have this slave mentality (negative thinking about themselves) despite slavery and colonization being over. Another fact that is astounding to me, is that Africa is most rich in natural resources and yet, the poorest continent in the world! The current state of Africa is: high illiteracy rates throughout the continent, undeveloped countries and economies, mal and undernutriton, and wide spreading of HIV/AIDS throughout the continent (some countries being affected by one or more of these issues more or less than others).

I hope to continue in activism by utilizing my future M.S. degree in International Nutrition and clinical experience to travel the third world countries and help to eliminate/reduce world hunger and malnutrition by teaching and instilling proper nutrition information to the public and their governments through various teaching methods. I want to educate African people all over the globe, but the mother continent needs extra attention. This education includes: teaching black people to truly love ourselves and our rich history and culture, erasing the slave mentality a lot of us (still) possess, making education a priority, developing our communities, and learning the proper information about sexual and reproductive health. But, overall I want to help build a positive image of Africa; because there are also beautiful aspects of this vast continent that are rarely seen by outsiders and display on American television.

In the upcoming school year I will serve as the media overseer for the Foods and Nutrition club and I plan on achieving and maintaining at least a 3.5 GPA. Within the next year I would like to participate as a contestant in the Miss Liberia New Jersey pageant (and hopefully win) and of course, get involved with more activist work with minorities.