Nurtured at KiBO

“An 84-year-old woman has just been rescued after spending 10 days under rubble, while a sixteen year old girl escapes barely alive from the wreckage of a house near her college in Port-au-Prince after two weeks.”

Moments before the deadly earthquake, the old lady and the sixteen year old girl were happily enjoying life just like you and me in a far island in the Caribbean. As fate may have had it, over 200,000 people did not survive the deadly earthquake. Many of these were bread winners, children and youth hoped to lead tomorrow, loving fathers and mothers. Life will never be the same for this nation. What a huge disaster?

Over 7000 miles away from the agony and the devastation, a campaign is initiated to fund raise for the many orphans as well as countrymen left homeless in Haiti. Good enough more than US$ 150000 is raised within days of the commencement of this initiative. This could not be enough given the magnitude of the disaster. Pledges continue to trickle in as high profile musicians plan to set up a huge jam session for Haiti of which all proceeds shall be channeled to aid the sons and daughters of Haiti. To make the donations quite dynamic, bank accounts have been set up as well as mobile phone sms channels. If you are in Uganda and reading this, get your phone and SMS the word ‘HAITI’ TO ‘8198'

Ugandan youth have not been left behind either. Far away from Kampala Serena hotel where the appeal was publicly commenced, a team of youth at KiBO Foundation sit quietly as they ponder the devastation in Haiti. To many, Haiti seems too far a place to connect with, but as the Deputy High Commissioner of the republic of Trinidad and Tobago H.E Andre’ Laveau narrates their history we all get empathetic. Black as we are but most of them sons and daughters of slaves men driven to the Caribbean Islands during slavery in the 16th Century to work in the plantations for little or no pay. However, the Trinidad and Tobago- Uganda Cultural Association president Mr. Anthony Samuel puts it, ‘We are all equal regardless of race, creed and color’ this was enough for the KiBO youth to kick off a fund raising drive.