Kizito's Fund
Donation protected
I am writing to you about my decision to help a friend I met recently on a trip to Rwanda. As many of you know, 20 years ago there was a genocide in Rwanda. This genocide devastated the country and left just over a million people dead in a mere 100 days. On a school trip to Rwanda in February, I befriended a man named Kizito. Kizito was just finishing his high school education at age 26. He was 6 years old at the time of the genocide. During that time, he witnessed his mother being raped and beaten by 4 HIV positive men while his father was killed before his eyes. Kizito now struggles to find a way to pay rent on their house, continue his education, and find enough food for his mother who was recently diagnosed with lung cancer. The government-supplied HIV pills for his mother do not work because Kizito and his mother can only eat a few times a week and this is not enough nutrition for the pills to be effective.
This a very tough situation for anybody to deal with, but Kizito also has to deal with the fact that he became the man of the house at age 6 and manage the grief he lives with everyday. Kizito said during an interview, “I am concerned because I have no future.” Well I would like to give Kizito the brightest future that I possibly can by giving him the gift of education.
Kizito is one of the strongest people I have met in my life. I admire the way he can still put a smile on his face after all he has been through. He is always positive, and his smile lights up the room. There is not a person more deserving of a future than Kizito; he always puts the needs of his family before his own and has taken care of his mom and baby brother for 20 years. The Harvard Westlake Chronicle recently published a story about our trip. The second and third paragraphs are about my friend, Kizito.
http://www.hwchronicle.com/opinion/an-eye-opening-experience/
There is a saying that you can give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, but teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life. This is what I intend to do for Kizito. With a college education, his future will significantly brighten because of the job opportunities a college education will bring. I plan to raise just about $10,000 to send him to four years of tuition for University, transport, housing, food, and healthcare for his mother.
Thank you so much and hopefully together we may give this strong, deserving young man a bright future.
God Bless,
Mike Mapes
http://www.hwchronicle.com/opinion/an-eye-opening-experience/
*Kizito’s education fees will be paid as he meets each academic requirement
*In the event that circumstances keep Kizito from continuing his education, or I raise more than my goal, funds will be directed to one of the partner organizations my friends and I visited while in Rwanda:
SURF – Genocide Survivors Fund
www.survivors-fund.org.uk
Solace Ministries
www.solacem.org
Rwanda Multi-Learning Center
www.rwandamlc.org
Ivuka Arts
www.ivukaarts.com
Aspire
www.aspirerwanda.org
Clean Water Ambassadors
http://cleanwaterambassadors.org
This a very tough situation for anybody to deal with, but Kizito also has to deal with the fact that he became the man of the house at age 6 and manage the grief he lives with everyday. Kizito said during an interview, “I am concerned because I have no future.” Well I would like to give Kizito the brightest future that I possibly can by giving him the gift of education.
Kizito is one of the strongest people I have met in my life. I admire the way he can still put a smile on his face after all he has been through. He is always positive, and his smile lights up the room. There is not a person more deserving of a future than Kizito; he always puts the needs of his family before his own and has taken care of his mom and baby brother for 20 years. The Harvard Westlake Chronicle recently published a story about our trip. The second and third paragraphs are about my friend, Kizito.
http://www.hwchronicle.com/opinion/an-eye-opening-experience/
There is a saying that you can give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, but teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life. This is what I intend to do for Kizito. With a college education, his future will significantly brighten because of the job opportunities a college education will bring. I plan to raise just about $10,000 to send him to four years of tuition for University, transport, housing, food, and healthcare for his mother.
Thank you so much and hopefully together we may give this strong, deserving young man a bright future.
God Bless,
Mike Mapes
http://www.hwchronicle.com/opinion/an-eye-opening-experience/
*Kizito’s education fees will be paid as he meets each academic requirement
*In the event that circumstances keep Kizito from continuing his education, or I raise more than my goal, funds will be directed to one of the partner organizations my friends and I visited while in Rwanda:
SURF – Genocide Survivors Fund
www.survivors-fund.org.uk
Solace Ministries
www.solacem.org
Rwanda Multi-Learning Center
www.rwandamlc.org
Ivuka Arts
www.ivukaarts.com
Aspire
www.aspirerwanda.org
Clean Water Ambassadors
http://cleanwaterambassadors.org
Organizer
Mike Mapes
Organizer
Los Angeles, CA