Watsons

I am currently working in Jos, Nigeria in the development of Onchocerciasis Control and Prevention of Blindness Programmes in Northern Nigeria and have been with CBM since August 1995.

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest of the United States with plenty of opportunities for outdoor activities such as water sports, snow skiing, hiking, and biking. I attended elementary school and high school in Spokane, Washington and attended Eastern Washington University in Cheney just outside of Spokane. After graduating from the University in 1973, I joined the U.S. Peace Corps and took my first overseas trip to South Korea where I worked with TB and Leprosy Control in a rural mountainous community five hours east of Seoul. During these two years, I was exposed to overseas living which "hooked" me for life. It was in Korea where a blind and crippled leprosy patient witnessed his Christian faith to me which planted to seed for my committing my life to Christ two years later.

Upon returning to the United States from Korea, I went back to school and received my certification as an elementary and secondary teacher and received my Masters in Health Education. I taught school for three years in Washington state but started to get the "travel bug" again. In September 1979 he headed back overseas to the Phillippines to work with the Peace Corps again in Family Health programmes. Sitting next to me on the plane was another Peace Corps Volunteer, Catherine Seamans, who was later to become my wife. We have been married for 19 years now.

After three years of living and working with minority tribes in a picturesque area of northern Luzon Island, I was hired by USAID to coordinate a health education programme in the southern part of Luzon. When that project was completed, I became the Country Director for Helen Keller International. My son, Tyler, was born in Manila in 1986 and in 1988, I was transferred to New York to the Helen Keller International headquarters to become the Asia-Pacific Regional Director. Again the overseas urge came back and in 1991, I joined the River Blindness Foundation in Nigeria. I helped to coordinate a Mectizan distribution programme in the northern part of the country. Presently, I am a CBM co-workers and continue doing the same work but with more of an emphasis on integration of Mectizan distribution with blindness prevention activities.

Olivia was added to our family in July of 1996. Olivia was adopted from Guatemala and quickly adapted to her new life in Nigeria within our family.

Jeff Watson