Kirundi Ibrahim Katibo is 15 years old. After his father was “Driven mad” after an unidentified disease, Ibrahim was left with his mother who is jobless. He was later taken to his aunt’s place where life “did not move well for him” even though he attended some free elementary-level education sponsored by the Ugandan government.
Ibrahim says he “started hoping big dreams” after joining senior level one, but those dreams failed because his aunt could not raise enough money to keep him in school.
Hackers for Charity found Ibrahim feeling hopeless about school, education and his future but after talking to him, we realized that he had a keen interest in computers and specifically in video editing and offered him a free trial seat in some computer training classes at the CTC in Jinja.
Ibrahim passed the introductory courses and proved that he has the focus and drive to continue with free training. Ibrahim is very thankful to HFC and says that, “my hopes are now back after joining Hackers For Charity for free computer study.”
Biiso Dini is a young and humble fifteen-year-old boy who is the third born in a family of six. Dini, who stays with his parents, says that he stopped going to school during primary seven (P7) because his family couldn’t raise the money to allow him to continue. He also says that even though his parents are both alive, they are unemployed, but he is thankful that they could provide him some food and a place to sleep, however, it was obvious to him that he wouldn’t have much of a future.
Specifically, Dini wanted to learn more about computers and had dreams of becoming a graphics designer and photo editor.
Eventually, his home situation became even worse and Dini was forced into street life where he tried his hand as a chapatti (flat bread) baker, but eventually this job fell through and he was left with nothing.
When HFC found him, he was sleeping on the street, dodging police and simply trying to scrape enough together to survive. After a brief conversation, our staff realized that he was keenly intelligent and has a desire to learn computers to, “design posters, business cards, flyers, and other related work” so that he could not only take care of himself but also take care of his family.
Like Ibrahim, we took in Dini on a trial basis, providing free training to see if he would take it seriously. We were thrilled that he did, and he’s now advancing quickly with more free training.
It’s our hope that stories like these are only the beginning. We are not qualified to fully care for the many aspects of getting kids off the streets. That’s why we work with other organizations that are qualified in that area, but by providing skills and training in a course of study that kids like Ibrahim and Dini absolutely love, we can lay a foundation for a stable future and give them hope.
I’m personally very excited to see how Ibrahim and Dini progress and I’m so thankful for your donations that help keep our training center door open. Each month, your donations pay the rent, salaries and utilities so that we can provide free training without struggling to run our center as a business to keep the doors open.
On behalf of Ibrahim and Dini, thank you so much for your continued support. You really are making a difference!
