At Immigrant community conference “The best revenge on a system that does not value you is to get an education. What a win-win!”

Those words were spoken by Claudette La Vert, a special education teacher in the Reynolds School District, at the African Youth Leadership Conference Sept. 29 at the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization.

Nearly 100 immigrant and refugee youth from a wide variety of African nations attended the conference, designed to empower youth between ages 12 and 23 to succeed in school and life. Additional goals were to establish a sense of community among youth from multiple (and often warring) African cultures and to increase personal self esteem and affirm cultural awareness.

Negussie Sado of Virginia State University, gave the young people advice on the necessity and methods of advocating for themselves in their schools. Sado emigrated from Oromia in Ethiopia to get an education in the United States.

Sponsored by and developed under the guidance of IRCO’s Africa House, the conference was organized by a committee of youth, including Fatuma Mohamed. Mohamed was less than two years old when civil war caused her family to flee their home in Somalia. For the next 14 years she lived in a refugee camp in Kenya before coming to the U.S. as a refugee in 2004.

Valerie Palmer, a researcher and director of the toxicogenomics laboratory at the Center for Research on Ocuupational and Environmental Toxicology at Oregon Health Sciences University, kicked off the day with a general address.

She used the stories of three children from different countries who all came to the United State and became educated, successful and are making positive differences on people all over the globe, urging the youth to follow their dreams, strive to reach their goals and make a difference.

Palmer, a Zulu who grew up poor on a small farm in South Africa, escaped apartheid at age 17 by traveling to England. When that country refused her asylum, she came to the U.S., where she completed her education and launched a career in research on the causes and cures of diseases affecting poor people in developing countries.

Also included in the conference were an African youth fashion show and African music provided by DJ Menzies.