A Loss to our Community
It with great sadness that we inform you of the death of Agbedan Guillaume Kakanou, a 2004 graduate of our program. Guillaume died in a motor accident in May 2005 while on a long-term observer mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the Carter Center. Guillaume would have been just 26 years old this summer. Our hearts go out to his parents and family in Benin.

Guillaume was the purest of souls, a genuinely sweet person, who devoted his life, however brief, in the service of Africa, to the poor and vulnerable. He was passionate about building democratic institutions that might give hope for change. After graduation, he was employed by the National Democratic Institute's office in Rabat, Morocco and was recently assigned to the Carter Center mission.

Guillaume, tragically, is the second of our 2004 graduates to die in the service of compassion. Mironda Heston, an American, contracted dengue hemorrhagic fever in Haiti just months after graduation and passed away quickly. She was just 24. There is now a health center in Haiti named after her by the community she served so well and a scholarship fund named in her honor.

Guillaume, like Mironda, brought to his work at SID and in the field a quiet dedication and humility, two traits of great importance for development workers. While at SID, where he was a Ribakoff Fellow, Guillaume's academic record was superlative. He did his internship at the International Labour Organization and assisted the Senior Programme Officer in charge of the West Africa Cocoa / Commercial Agriculture Project for the elimination of hazardous and exploitative child labour. His internship culminated in his master's paper, "Towards the Progressive Elimination of Child Labour in Commercial Agriculture in West and Central Africa."

We all wish he could have been with us longer, but we love him all the more for his selflessness. He will always be among our most distinguished and beloved alumni.