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Last month, I traveled to Rwanda and Kenya in an effort to learn exactly how my foundation can have the greatest impact on the children of those two African countries, and elsewhere in the world.
Most of my time was spent in Rwanda, a small country that suffered a terrible genocide in the nineties. Expecting the worst, I was amazed to see the Rwandan people striving to recover from the effects of the genocide. Rwanda is now an amazingly clean country with ample natural beauty, but the people are very poor.
I witnessed many children between the ages of 3 and 11 years old walking around without shoes and torn clothes. I was with a group of people who had been to Rwanda before and they told me that some of the children actually had on the same clothes that they were wearing the year before.
Still, somehow these children had so much joy in their faces. Seeing them brought me back to when I was a child living under the same circumstances. These children before me had no idea where their future would lead. They didn’t have much to look forward to. My one wish was for them to keep their same innocent joy, but with hope for the future, prospects of an education, wearing clean clothes, having shoes, enjoying clean water, and following their dreams.
Being around the children in Rwanda also made me reflect on the USA. There are many American kids who live under the poverty line, but in the eyes of Rwandan children, those kids have everything. I also thought about kids born into rich families, many of whom always find something to complain about; meanwhile, the children in Rwanda laughed constantly and remained grateful for what little they had.
We all need inspiration to thrive, but my hope is that this foundation will inspire kids to be the best they can be and experience they joy they deserve to feel as children – no matter where they come from or the status of their lives.