I begin in the name of God, the most gracious the most merciful. All praise is due to God the lord of the worlds.  I thank God for giving me the strength and health to undertake a blessed journey to Africa to fulfil his cause. I was born and raised in a developing country, Guyana, South America.  Upon emigrating to the United States of America 55 years ago, I realized how poor my country of birth was, but nothing prepared me for the poverty I witnessed in Mali/ Timbuktu, Kenya, and Ethiopia. 

However, the Africa I personally experienced was nowhere near the celluloid versions living in America, the land of plenty, where we flip a switch for our light, we turn on a tap for hot and cold running water. Our homes are automatically heated when it is cold outside, it is very hard to imagine that people could survive in such abject poverty. I am deeply saddened by the fact that we live in the United States with abundant blessings and favors from God, and yet many of us are not satisfied.  Here in the United States we are always going after more material wealth, when many parts of the world have very little or no material possession.  I must say that after my visit to that part of the world and seeing the condition of human beings men, women, and children, my perspective of life in this world has changed.

My visit to East and West Africa, Mali, Kenya and Ethiopia was sponsored by The American Relief Agency  an American non profit humanitarian organization established in 1985 and dedicated to the empowerment of disadvantaged people everywhere through relief and development programs emphasizing human dignity, self reliance, and social justice.  My visit to Africa was to assess various development relief projects. The goal was to determine the needs of the people relative to food, clothing and shelter. The trip was also in response to the drought and resultant famine that was currently affecting the people who were living in the Eastern part of Ethiopia near the Somalia border.

Poverty was prevalent everywhere in Africa,  children were wearing tattered clothes, and no shoes.  They sat in the sand, under a thatched hut with no electricity. This is their school, no desk, no chairs, only tiny stump of pencil and a two leaf notebook. I recalled meeting an elderly man who said “ We are poor, some of us are hungry, but we still have a lot to be thankful for. We asked the world to please help our children with education, medical care, and water so that they can survive, because our men are too weak to dig the graves of our children”. Those words resonated with me until this day, visiting poor families were very emotional. How fortunate and blessed we are, the things we take for granted are precious commodities for them. A family of four or five all cramped under one tent sleeping  on the sand, which is usually cold at night. When looking at the physical condition of the children and knowing that the life expectancy of these children are very short. I often asked myself how could the world watch this suffering of God’s creation, and not in a hurry to help after God has provided us with so much? 

A visit to one of the biggest slum of Sub-Saharan Africa, in Kibera, Nairobi, within the city proper, where the Nubian tribe of Sudan settled, (the land was payment from the British for their help during the war), a grandmother works at two jobs to support her family of thirteen, including four babies; all AIDS orphans. I have witnessed so much poverty its hard to relate all in my story. My work in Africa began in year 2000 an ended in 2008 due to political issues and safety. My work was accomplished with the help of donors across the United States we were able to build schools, health centers, giving food hampers to the poor and installing wells for pure drinking water.

In November 2011 I visited by country of birth Guyana once again I visited many villages of poor residents that I decided to do what I could to help the poor and needy with food, medical care. December 2011  I founded  Save a life foundation a non profit charitable organization  dedicated to giving the underprivileged children a chance to live normal lives by providing education, job training and health care. The main goal is to restore human dignity and instill hope in poor communities regardless of race, religion, or ethnic background. 

Our humanitarian mission have extend to Uganda Africa with the help of good honest and reliable volunteers.  Our charitable program includes building spring wells for pure drinking water to poor villages in northern/ central Uganda Africa, we also provide food, medicine, medical supplies to the sick and poor elderly.

I know that we cannot save the world but by doing our part we can at least save one life and that would be comforting than not doing anything.  I also believe in the saying of Gods messenger the Prophet Muhammad when he was asked about water he said “ he who gives a person a drink of water where water is found, it is as though he set free a slave. He who gives a drink a water to a person where water is not found, it is as though he save a life”.  And I believe that in my heart.