From Bethlehem to Dakar, Allegra Itsoga’s Work Never Stops
By Marcia DeSanctis
For the past nine years, as executive director of the NGO Le Korsa, Bethlehem’s Allegra Itsoga has lived a thoroughly bicontinental life. Before COVID, she commuted every six weeks between Litchfield County and Senegal’s capital Dakar, as well as Tambacounda, a region in the east of the country where many projects, including a dormitory and learning center for young women, and an elementary school, have flourished. Le Korsa is a sibling organization of the Bethany-based Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, and is in keeping with the humanitarian values of the Albers—the hugely influential German artist couple who pioneered modernism and for 26 years made their home in Connecticut.
Allegra oversees all of the work in Senegal—these days, from home, with the help of a full in-country staff. The model of investing local hires with authority is, she maintains, what distinguishes Le Korsa from other organizations. “Even before COVID, we have always leaned on them heavily,” she says. “They say, ‘This is what we need,’ and we say, “Here’s how we can help.” Unlike large, bureaucratic NGOs that often dictate solutions from the top, Le Korsa listens to the people they serve. Because they are a small organization, they are also able to act quickly and effectively.
The road from childhood in Watertown to building schools in Senegal included a crucial stop in California. While at the University of San Francisco, her Ghanaian micro-economics professor encouraged her to apply to the Peace Corps. She was deployed to Gabon in West Africa, where her fluent French was an asset. While teaching and setting up national parks, she met and married her husband Idanga, also known as Kenneth, a biochemist. They moved back to the States, where she worked in non-profits, and heard about Le Korsa. “I always knew I should be doing something in Africa. So when this job opportunity presented itself, I jumped on it,” she says.
Le Korsa is discerning about the projects they undertake. Among her many jobs is to enlist and manage partners, such as other NGOs that provide medical equipment for a pediatric hospital, a pioneering maternal health clinic led by a leading female OB/GYN that is Allegra’s “passion project,” and a medical outpost near the Gambian border. The group has also enlisted the talents of celebrated architects such as Toshiko Mori, who designed the building for Thread, Le Korsa’s artist residency that is also a beloved community gathering point. “We have a real attentiveness to aesthetics because we feel that just because your situation is different or you are poor, it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy something beautiful,” she says.
Back home in Bethlehem, she finds beauty in her bucolic back yard, which also provides a living biology lesson for her eight year-old daughter Frankie, a budding ice hockey player. “We get all sorts of woodland creatures, hawks, frogs, and turtles, which was perfect last year when we were stuck home in the pandemic,” she says.
When not on ZOOM calls, fundraising for Le Korsa, chaperoning Girl Scout sleepovers, or driving Frankie to school or sports, Allegra is training for the Disney World Marathon in Orlando. The comparison to her humanitarian work to improve education and health outcomes in Senegal is not lost on her. “It’s a long game, right? There’s definitely the same mentality. Not every mile is going to be your best, but as long as you get there in the end, the journey is what matters. I think that’s the key.”
