Former US president Bill Clinton hugs Clinton Kaligana at Entebbe airport on Friday evening shortly before flying out. Courtesy photo
At times you don’t need to posses a penny in order to help rural poor children here in Africa. You surely need not to be rich to help poor rural children here in Africa. Your CHARITABLE acts or heart in linking the same to useful opportunities is the KEY.
I dedicate this blog post to a local News Paper Monitor, Bill Clinton (former USA President) and His Family, Ugandan Government, and all people engaged in any kind of Charity in the World.
Fourteen years ago, Bill Clinton (Former USA president) visited Uganda. While on his visit, he was introduced to a very poor family in a very poor village called Wanyange where he carried a four-months old baby who was eventually named after him.
This month, Bill Clinton returned on yet another charitable mission of fighting diarrhoea in children On noticing his planned visit, one local news paper Monitor really did something sooo charitable by publishing a story (Will Bill Clinton Kaligani meet his USA name sake 14 years later?)
L-R: President Museveni, Janet Museveni, Hillary and Bill Clinton (carrying baby) during their visit to Wanyange in 1998. COURTESY PHOTO
By Emmanuel Mulondo & Roddney Muhumuza
Posted Friday, July 20 2012 at 01:00
IN SUMMARY
Second coming: Ms Namugosa tried to stay in touch with the Clintons, sending them a letter not long after they returned home. Mr Clinton wrote back on October 25, 1999: “Thank you for your kind letter and the wonderful picture of Baby Bill. He has certainly grown since my visit to Wanyange village! I am so pleased to learn that you are both doing well. Hillary and I know how proud you must be and we wish you and Baby Bill all the best.”
Sometime in March 1998, a bevy of security operatives descended upon Wanyange Village, eastern Uganda in Jinja, to prepare for the arrival of very important people. They were particularly interested in the house of a seamstress named Betty Namugosa, who was about to give birth to her fourth child.
The operatives searched her house diligently, analysing every crack on the floor, their dogs toppling household utensils, until they were sure the place was safe.
“They had sniffer dogs that were as big as heifers,” Ms Namugosa recalled recently. “I have never seen dogs so big.”
If the woman was not prepared for the sight of well-fed canines upsetting her bedroom, she was ready to meet the people in whose service the animals were employed.
When Ms Namugosa finally gave birth to a baby boy, just in time for the moment that would bring her considerable fame, and just as the security operation around her house intensified, she knew that her joy would be complete.
“I decided to call him Bill and if it was a girl, I would have named her Hillary,” Ms Namugosa said.
Back then
On the late afternoon of March 24, 1998, camera crews and Wanyange residents watched as US President Bill Clinton held a baby in his arms, his wife Hillary smiling, to create what became one of the most iconic images of his tour of Africa.
It became the picture of an American president holding a poor African child, symbolically speaking, but it was really a picture of Bill Clinton holding Bill Clinton.
The New York Times published this picture on March 25 (the following day), and the caption quoted Mr Clinton as saying: “This baby is my namesake. People should not be written off because they were born or grew up in a poor area.”
Since the visit
A lot has happened in the years since 1998, Mr Clinton is no longer in the White House and his wife, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is perhaps America’s most powerful woman.
And Uganda’s Bill Clinton is now 14 years old, humble, shy but very brilliant, looking to becoming a surgeon to help the suffering poor who cannot access medication.
“I am happy. I would be happy if he sponsored my education,” said Clinton, now in Senior Two when Daily Monitor visited him at Holy Cross Lake View Secondary School.
“He is a very brilliant boy, but I think the problem is that the mother is poor and he is always out of school due to lack of fees,” said Mr Paul Mukyawe, the director of studies.
“Mama Chilintoni” as her neighbour knows her is a mother of eight, who lost her job about five years ago as a tailor and is selling second hand clothes to shoulder the burden.
Asked whether he gets special treatment because of his name, Kaligani gives an affirmative “no” answer.
The above published story helped the poor young boy get reunited with his USA namesake (Bill Clinton former USA President) after 14 years as per this news post from Monitor News PAPER
By Emmanuel Mulondo
Posted Sunday, July 22 2012 at 01:00
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As one was just about to board one of his several flights, the other was taking the first ever flight of his life time in a police chopper, hastily arranged so that the Bill Clintons could meet for the second time in 14 years.
Master Bill Clinton Kaligana, the Jinja boy named after the former US President beat the odds to meet his namesake who sat patiently in a plane waiting for the arrival of the youngster after a brief but hectic day’s visit to Uganda on Friday.
Kaligana was airlifted to State House, Entebbe, catching up with Mr Clinton a few moments to take off. The two Clintons met on the former President’s plane.
“There was something like a room. We met there and he was very happy to see the boy. He asked him what he wants and the boy informed him he wants to become a doctor,” Ms Betty Namugosa, the boy’s mother narrated on phone yesterday.
She said: “He promised to look after his son in every way. Clinton told him he should study hard. He promised to fund his education up to the level the boy wants.”
President Clinton reportedly said: “I was leaving but I decided to wait and see you. I want us to do a deal. Will you study? Are you determined?”
He told them to compile the boy’s education needs and hand them over to US Embassy officials who attended the meeting.
“I feel good. He told me he also wanted me to be a doctor, that I should work hard and pass in my studies,” Master Bill Clinton Kaligana narrated yesterday, elated after the first air travel and meeting his namesake for the first time as a grown up.
The former President and his guests shared a drink, some juice and snacks. Clinton also gave some presents to Master Kaligana, which included “pens, key-holders and thing like that.”
President Museveni who had met the former US President was not at the meeting apart from other senior government and security officials.
A source at the Serena Hotel, Kampala where President Clinton stayed said the search for Kaligana was prompted after the President read the story of the boy in the Friday copy of the Daily Monitor and immediately asked his aides to find the boy.
The boy’s family had not been scheduled on Clinton’s visit and had not known about it until Daily Monitor broke the news to the family on Wednesday. On Friday at 1:00pm, Mr Joseph Kaliisa, an official running Building for Tomorrow, Mr Bill Clinton’s charity’s activities in Uganda called this reporter trying to locate the boy.
The mother’s cellular phone number was passed on to Mr Kaliisa who called her.
She was initially concerned about her son’s security and she also didn’t have transport to make an abrupt journey to Kampala.
When Mr Kaliisa informed State House of the position, an order was made to the Jinja District Police Commander, Mr Jonathan Musinguzi to ensure the boy and her mother were picked from their home in Wanyange and delivered to Kampala.
Helicopter ride
But to beat the time, a police chopper was dispatched to pick them at Lugazi. “So we boarded at Lugazi at Mehta’s airstrip. It delivered us some distance away, then we boarded a vehicle to the (Entebbe) Airport where he was waiting. We met him on the plane at around 5:00pm,” Ms Namugosa said.
Lastly, How much have you learnt from this blog post and how much have u utilized your resources (brain, connections, money, prayers, etc) to help others?
God bless you
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Children attending school in Rural Communities of Uganda face a great number of challenges like: lack of materials to use at school, lack of food, walking long distances, lack of clean and safe water, among others.
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