Hilde Back Education Fund - Live to change lives!

     At the beginning of this blogging venture, I decided that writing about musicians and people in the public eye who were making positive change within society was the best idea.  The more I think about it, I have come to the realization that writing about ANYONE, who is making a change for the better is more important than just highlighting celebrities with loads of cash in their wallets.  The most amazing people making changes within are society are those who are just like ourselves.  Everyone is capable of making a life changing difference in someone else's life, and the movie, A Small Act, really taught me this.
     The movie, which I watched with my school at the Toronto Hot Docs Film Festival, is a documentary that follows a Kenyan man named Chris Mburu and an elderly woman named Hilde Back in their life changing story of how one person can make a difference in a child's life.
     When Chris was a young child growing up in Kenya, he truly believed that his education would come to a halt when he reached the end of his first years of education.  Money was sparse, as it is in most families in Kenya, and he was beginning to stay home to work instead of going to school.  He was one of the top students in his entire school district.  Then, a woman named Hilde Back decided to sponsor a child's education from halfway across the world.  This child was Chris.  Hilde, a woman who had survived the Holocaust and was living as a teacher in Switzerland wanted to make a difference in someone's life, but did not realize how far the small donation would go.  She ended up paying for Chris's entire primary education which eventually led him to getting scholarships at high schools and Harvard University.  A small donation ended up being the stepping stone into this man's unbelievable future.
     Because of the great success that Chris had from a women simply making a donation to help put a child through primary education, him and his cousin who was also put through primary education and continued on to Harvard with Chris, have started a foundation in honor of Chris's donor, Hilde Back. 
     The Hilde Back Education Fund, which was created in 2001 by Chris, his cousin, and a group of educationists was created with the goal of, "providing funds and other assistance to bright children in the area whose chances of pursuing education are diminished by poverty." (http://www.hildebackeducationfund.com/about-us.html) 
     As people living in the Western/Developed world, it is easy to see an advertisement on television or in the paper saying we should help kids who are suffering in Africa.  We are told that if we do not finish the food on our plate it is bad because, "children are starving in Africa."  This is all very true, but often people are so overwhelmed that they find it hard to understand where to put their money and who to trust with their money.  As well as constantly being thrown advertisements to help children abroad, often people are left wondering where their money is actually going.  Does it go directly to the cause, or to the organization helping these children abroad?  With an organization such as the Hilde Back Education Fund, it is clear to see where the money is going.  Simply by reading about why this foundation was started, who started it, and how it is run directly working with people in Kenya, it is clear to see that the money is being put to good use.
     As citizens of the WORLD, I believe that we have a responsibility if it is possible to help as many people as we are capable of.  The Hilde Back Education Fund aims to do just that.  With just a small donation, it is possible to change someone's life completely, and this is something that is proven through Chris's organization and life story.

To read more about Chris and the Hilde Back Education Fund, please follow these links:

Hilde Back Education Fund

A Small Act

(http://www.hildebackeducationfund.com/images/actionpic.jpg)