CEDAR FALLS - Most people believe they have one or two guardian angels looking out for them. Jalloh Abubakarr has a team of them. They've dubbed themselves "Team Jalloh."

Team Jalloh began quietly in Egypt, where Abubakarr, then 17, was working for the Forced Migration of Refugee Studies Program at the American University in Cairo. Abubakarr had fled Sierra Leone, fearing he'd be recruited to fight in his country's gruesome civil war.

"I first escaped to Guinea, where my father helped me travel to Egypt. He was anxious to get me out of Sierra Leone and even Guinea because my life was in danger. I never had time to ask him how he arranged it," said Abubakarr, now 27, who recently began his master's degree program in health policy at the University of Northern Iowa.

While life in Egypt was better than home, he faced constant harassment, threat of deportation and little chance of obtaining citizenship in Egypt. He was a man without a country.

"They rarely give citizenship to African immigrants, so he was stuck in a no-man's land and he had no options to go back to Sierra Leone," said Christopher Martin, UNI professor of journalism.

His good fortune began when anthropologist Barbara Harrell Bond chose him out of a group of refugees to be her assistant. Then Anita Fabos, director of the Refugee Studies Program, contacted her sister, Bettina Fabos, UNI assistant professor of visual communication, to help Abubakarr with his Test of English as a Foreign Language exam.

"My sister was impressed by his work ethic and aspirations for a good education. She asked Chris (Martin, Fabos' husband) and I to help him out. It turned out I didn't have to help much. Jalloh had been to both TOEFL offices in Cairo, explained to me TOEFL's rather Byzantine guidelines. We were so impressed with his perseverance and thoroughness that my husband and I ended up inviting him, without ever meeting him, to live with us for six months," Fabos said.

Abubakarr made another Cedar Falls connection with Mark Grey, UNI professor anthropology and criminology, who was teaching a seminar at the Cairo university. Grey, also director of the New Iowans program, helped Abubakarr deal with bureaucracy in getting to the States.

So in early 2005, despite a snowstorm, airplane delays and rerouted flights, Abubakarr arrived in Cedar Falls, ready to begin his studies at Hawkeye Community College. He had missed the HCC deadline for enrollment, so Martin spoke with UNI's International Services and Jalloh was admitted to UNI.

He took some courses in the spring 2005 term, planning to begin full time in the fall. A few days before fall semester began, Abubakarr woke up with a severe headache and seizures. His roommate called 911 and Abubakarr was rushed to the hospital.

On the verge of death, Abubakarr was transferred to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Doctors diagnosed him with hyper-coagulation (excessive blood clotting). He was also introduced to the world of health insurance.

"It was really scary. They told me I had a stroke. My left side was paralyzed," Abubakarr said. "I was in a sick bed and not in my right senses and someone from accounting called and asked me about paying my bill."

Grey had recruited Kathleen Sihler, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra operations manager and education coordinator, to help navigate Abubakarr through his health insurance issues.

"He is incredibly lucky. If this had happened when he was in Egypt, he would've died. He wouldn't have gotten the health care he had. But time and again, he seems to have an unusual aura of good fortune around him, coupled with some real perseverance," said Sihler, who met Abubakarr shortly after he arrived in the States. "When he started there, he paid a small amount for insurance. In the ER, he accumulated hundreds of dollars in medical bills. Because of his financial situation, he was released from those obligations. Mark and I knew how disorienting it must have been to come to this country, be here eight months and be in the vortex of a major medical crisis."

Grey and Sihler became his surrogate parents, both legally and literally. They hounded him to take his medication, go to doctor's appointments and even to wear his bicycle helmet.

"We took responsibility for his health and got him through those years," Grey said. "He's still high risk. He will be on blood thinners the rest of his life. He is one of the luckiest people I've ever met in my life, not just getting to the United States but coming so close to dying."

Now, four years later, Abubakarr is off anti-seizure medications but visits the doctor each month to monitor his medications. He knows how fortunate he is.

"Chris, Bettina, Mark, Kathleen and everyone; they did everything for me," he said. "To have this community of support is wonderful; they give me a reason to keep going. They've become my family. I am lucky, to be able to make it out of Sierra Leone alive and be able to go to school. I hope I can make a difference."

His exposure to the American health care system also cemented his decision to change his major from English to global health and international affairs.

Abubakarr has worked for the Global Health Corps and the Iowa Center on Health Disparities, traveling across Iowa interviewing immigrants about health issues. He also speaks five languages - Fulani, Creole, English, French and Arabic and is working on Spanish. He hopes to someday work for the World Health Organization.

Team Jalloh is still together, but these days, mostly for social purposes.

The Greys, Sihler and her husband, Jonathan Chenoweth, Martin and Fabos, along with their children, attended Abubakarr's graduation in May from UNI, when he received his bachelor's degree in health promotion.

"Jalloh became such a significant part of our family that our daughter, Sabine, refers to him as her half-brother," Fabos said. "Chris and I did our small share, but it was our whole Cedar Valley community of friends - Mark and Mary Grey, Kathleen Sihler and Jonathan Chenoweth, Lou and Christine Fenech, Michelle Devlin - who nursed him through life-threatening illnesses and helped him navigate health insurance, university policy, scholarship funding and immigration policy.

"It sounds trite to say 'it takes a village' but it's true. When you have someone as special as Jalloh, it's all the more wonderful."