Fund raises money for African aid

Deepa Bharath

When Judy Knight and Bigira Kirokiro stepped into a classroom in a

deserted elementary school in a small African town, their feet

wobbled.

The floor was covered with lava from a volcanic eruption two years

ago, which wiped out the neighboring Congo basin town of Goma,

Kirokiro’s hometown.

Now the owner of African Corner, a Costa Mesa store that sells

African artifacts, Kirokiro was returning home a decade after he fled

from Rwanda to escape the civil war in 1992, which culminated in a

massive genocide two years later.

Kirokiro and his friend Knight are now doing what they can with a

nonprofit organization called the Moses Kazibwe Fund to help people

in those primitive African towns obtain the bare necessities.

“They don’t even have roads there to get from one place to

another,” he said. “They see it, and they accept it. That’s sad.”

The group is named after a man from Uganda, who died of

complications from sickle cell anemia at age 20. Young Moses Kazibwe

had a dream, Knight said.

“He wanted to come to the United States and learn computers,” she

said. “He wanted to be the African Bill Gates.”

He made it to this country, but Kazibwe’s dream died with him.

“So we wanted to dedicate our work to his memory,” Knight said.

The goals this small group has set for itself are lofty. Since the

duo’s first trip in 2002, they’ve made two more. Every time, they’ve

donated money for various projects -- one of them to rebuild that

elementary school for which there is a tremendous need, Knight said.

Another major focus is also creating awareness and educating

children about AIDS, which is rampant in all of Africa.

“They have little clubs and studios, where children put up

performances to educate other kids,” she said. “We’d like to fund

more of these programs and help them build a sound studio, where they

can do their work.”

The Moses Fund is also looking for donations of musical

instruments to help Aloys Kaberuka, a social worker in Gisenyi,

Rwanda, to form a band for homeless children. During one of their

trips, group members also found 200 children who were orphans from

the genocide housed in a high school dorm.

“We want to do something for them as well,” Knight said. “For

starters, we’re trying to get them scout uniforms.”

The group has also received a donation of 100 prosthetic feet from

Jeff Kingsley -- a Costa Mesa manufacturer of the devices -- which

have already been shipped to Rwanda, she said.

For Kirokiro, it’s his way of giving back to his country and his

people.

“They know I didn’t run away,” he said. “They know wherever I am,

I remember them, and they are in my heart.”