UNC Uhuru Child group funds Kenyan school

For UNC students, $7.50 can almost buy breakfast at Rams Head Dining Hall.

For Monicah, a young girl torn from her village in Kenya, $7.50 was all it took to get on a bus, reunite with her lost family and put an end to two painful years of wondering if her loved ones were still alive.

Uhuru Child, a national nonprofit organization that has ties to UNC, seeks to empower impoverished African communities like the one Monicah lived in.

The organization helps fund jobs for native Africans by founding sustainable businesses and building schools.

UNC was the first university in the nation to join in the nonprofit’s efforts, said Brandon Richard, copresident of the University’s Uhuru Child chapter.

With the guidance of copresidents Richard and Alejandro Antonia, UNC’s Uhuru Child chapter is advocating for student involvement in a national campaign titled the “750 Campaign,” which runs through this week.

The campaign was inspired by Monicah’s touching story.

Students are encouraged to help out with the campaign, which is trying to raise $75,000 to go toward the construction of the Uhuru Academy School in Jikaze, a resettlement community in Kenya.

“The money is going towards breaking the bonds of poverty as a result of the 2007 election,” said Kerby McKinnell, who serves on Uhuru Child’s marketing committee.

Violence in Kenya following the 2007 election destroyed the homes of thousands of people, leaving both the wealthy and the poor with nothing.

To make amends, the Kenyan government gave each displaced citizen $50, said Hannah Harrison, a junior who serves on Uhuru Child’s marketing committee alongside McKinnell.

In response, many of the homeless came together, combined their money, bought a stretch of land and started their own community of Jikaze.

McKinnell has taken part in two summer service trips to Africa, where she helped Uhuru build schools and greenhouses for various communities.

“Uhuru has gone in there to stand by people and to help people get back on their feet — not make people feel useless,” McKinnell said.
“Uhuru fights for people, not for issues,” she said.

The Jikaze school is set to open next February.

Uhuru Child will be screening a documentary Friday, Richard said.

The documentary will portray Monicah’s reunion with her family entitled “#7fifty: Because $7.50 Goes a Long Way.”

Contact the desk editor at university@dailytarheel.com.