He’s in Africa’s corner

Lindsay Sandham

Nestled in the corner of a strip mall and tucked away behind a

convenience store on East Newport Boulevard is a store that, from the

outside, looks like any other imported-goods store. Once inside,

though, it is evident that African Corner is much more.

In a sense, the store was the birthplace of a much bigger

movement, one to help the children and people of Africa.

Kiro Kiro, who lives in Costa Mesa and is the friendly face who

greets customers, came to the United States from Rwanda in 1992.

When he went back to visit 10 years later, eight years after the

end of the nation’s civil war, he found tremendous devastation and

family, friends and strangers who all needed his help.

“I was shocked with ... the change -- after demolition, after

people get killed, the attack from the HIV and AIDS,” Kiro said. “I

decided we have to do something about Africa.”

He then spoke with his business partner and best friend Judy

Knight of Costa Mesa about putting something together to help out.

“He came back talking about children,” she said. “With lots of

pictures of children.”

Knight and Kiro, along with Gretchen McKay, started a nonprofit

organization and named it the Moses Kazibwe Memorial Fund, after a

friend of McKay’s who had moved to the United States from Uganda with

aspirations of becoming the “African Bill Gates.” Kazibwe died in

2002 of complications from sickle-cell anemia.

“We named the organization in his memory because he was the kind

of person who probably could have done a lot,” Knight said. “He was

only 20 years old when he died, but over 1,000 people traveled for

hours to his burial.”

Because Africa is such a large continent and is in need of so much

assistance, the founders of the fund decided to limit their efforts

to two cities: Bujumbura, Burundi, and Gisenyi, Rwanda.

Their first goal was to actually take a trip to Africa in June

2003 to establish connections and start building a network of

organizations.

“I figured we should raise some money before we took the trip,”

Knight said. “I figured maybe we could make $500 in the six weeks

before we went. He [Kiro] was able to collect $1,400 just from people

coming in the store and putting money in a jar.”

The Moses Fund has collected more than $18,000 to date this way --

from customers and young people putting money in a jar. They also

have about 15 volunteers, mostly young people from all over Orange

County, who help with different campaigns and events to raise money

for the fund.

Jackie Lopez of Costa Mesa joined the team about three months ago

and has helped organize benefit concerts to try to raise larger sums

of money.

The Moses Fund is hosting a benefit concert in Santa Ana this

weekend in hopes of raising $20,000 to help build houses for members

of the Batwa tribe, who are being pushed out of their habitats in the

forest and have nowhere to go. They will also use proceeds from the

benefit to educate and inform African children about HIV and AIDS,

along with the other causes the fund assists.

For more information on the Moses Kazibwe Memorial Fund, call

(949) 650-7993 or visit https://www.themosesfund.com.