Meet Dominic Yambasu
After 25 years as a physical education teacher for the Lake Oswego School District, Dominic Yambasu retired in 2004. Dominic retired from teaching only to take on a much greater, more personal mission – providing aid to his war-torn home – the village of Motema, Sierra Leone in western Africa.
Growing Up in “The Mother Country”
Dom’s story is a remarkable tale of remarkable resilience, personal tragedy, war, and overcoming incredible adversity. “Yamba” and his sister Finda grew up in a small one room mud hut, in the village of Motema, in Sierra Leone, in West Africa. According to the people of Sierra Leone, the country was often referred to as the “mother country” because the people there were so loving. In fact, it was said that if you asked someone for directions, they would walk you to where you wanted to go.
The village, however, was not a prosperous place. It was, however, a safe and happy place to raise a family. Many were farmers who grew rice and vegetables. Others worked for the “Sierra Selection Trust Ltd (SLST)", a diamond mining company which later became the “National Diamond Mining Company (NDMC).” Motema had no electricity, no running water, no schools, no hospital or even rudimentary health care. But Motema was a happy place for Dom to grow up in, and he has very fond and lovely memories of his childhood, his family, and his beautiful and strong community.
Dom’s mother, Kumba Marta and Finda had no education as women in the village at that time were not allowed that. Sadly, Dom’s mother, and what would have been his brother, died in childbirth in 1951, when Dom was just a toddler.
Dom’s father Kaimba attended Arabic school for a short time but had no further formal education and could not really read or write. Kaimba worked day and night growing produce in a small plot on a nearby rice farm, and sold it, and some handcrafts he had made, at open markets in different villages. He used what little money he made to provide for his family and to realize his dream of paying for Dom’s education.
In his mid-30’s, Kaimba fell out of a palm tree while harvesting palm oil, broke his back and became a paraplegic. Dom, then only an elementary schooler, had to take over much of the farming while his sister helped, did chores and babysat children from the village while Dom went to school.
Getting up before dawn to tend to his father’s crops before walking the two miles to the Roman Catholic school in the village of Yengema, Dom eventually finished his elementary education and at his father’s selfless urging, moved 300 miles away to the island of Bonthe for High School, where he also worked every day to supplement the meager room and board his father was able to pay for. Dom graduated at the top of his class, while playing soccer and running track too. Thanks to his grades, he was able to attend MILTON MARGAI TEACHERS COLLEGE on a government scholarship in the capital of Sierra Leone, Freetown. Upon graduation, he taught Physical Education for 3 years, but could only visit his Father and sister when time and finances allowed.
Arrival in the USA
In August of 1975, thanks to the monies he had saved from teaching physical education for 3 years, the help of his fiancee who was a Peace Corps volunteer, and his academic record of excellence, Dom emigrated to Oregon with little more than the clothes on his back. He married his fiancee and settled down to chase his dreams. His dream was to further his education in the USA, start a family, and then hopefully to return to his family and native country to teach. Here in Portland he was granted a work study program at Portland State University. While attending classes at Portland State he worked at the Smith Center Building cleaning offices and setting up meeting rooms. After much hard work he was able to graduate with a MST in Physical Education and a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology. He was then hired as a janitor at the Smith Center Building and worked at a second job cleaning offices at Tektronix in Beaverton, OR. He worked both jobs 5 days a week from 7am until midnight. Dom was actively looking for a job as a Physical Education teacher. He was hired by the Lake Oswego School District and started teaching PE at Bryant Elementary School, eventually working in nine of the district’s 13 schools during his 25 years in the district. During his teaching career, Dominic also served as a coach in Track&Field and as a Soccer Coach at Lake Oswego High School. In 2004 he retired from teaching in the District, but he continued to coach the Girls Varsity Soccer Program at Lake Oswego High School, ending a 38 year long run there in 2016.
Civil War
Dom’s plans to return to Sierra Leone with teaching degrees changed after he had his three daughters. He felt that his children would have better opportunities in America. As time went on, however, Dom’s hope to travel to Sierra Leone to visit family proved impossible when in 1990 Civil War broke out. The discovery of what came to be known as “conflict” diamonds in 1990 in Sierra Leone heralded not wealth, but horror and catastrophe for the vast majority of its’ citizens. Tens of thousands of people either died from the Ebola Virus or were killed by rebels during the Civil War between 1990 and 2002, and hundreds of thousands more were displaced from their homes and their livelihoods. The war also took a huge toll on Dom’s family. In 1995 Rebels took control of the mine, slaughtered its’ workers, and then burned Dom’s village to the ground, killing his father Kaimba, who was unable to escape. His sister Finda was also murdered, shot in the back in 1992 by rebels while fleeing a raid on Motema with a toddler she was babysitting at the time. Finda was only 42 years old. All in all, 18 of Dominic’s relatives died in the war.
The Return Home
In November of 2004, after the war finally ended, Dominic returned to Sierra Leone for the first time in nearly 25 years. Thousands were homeless in the bigger cities and conditions in the outlying villages were deplorable. Into this pain stepped Dom, determined to do what he could to help. After holding a proper funeral for his family, Dom assisted his fellow villagers in rebuilding their community, all at his own expense. But that just was just the beginning of his commitment, and the early foundation of our charitable work.
Upon returning home to Oregon, Dom founded Kaimba Incorporated (dba Dynasty House), a 501(3) non-profit organization dedicated to providing for all those less fortunate in Sierra Leone. As you will learn if you join Dom’s dynamic cause, Dynasty House would rebuild Motema, provide free housing to needy families, and raise monies to educate children who lived there—particularly young women, in honor of his sister and mother who never had that opportunity.
Today, Dynasty House is dedicated to continuing Dom’s vision for a rebuilt Motema and his “Mother Country” of Sierra Leone. We hope you will learn more and join with us to help “a beautiful people recover from the ravages of war”.
