Ever since Marianne and I established the Karimu International Help Foundation in early 2008, we have had the habit of explaining that Karimu means “generous” in Swahili. This implies that she and I are generous, an idea we’ve enjoyed putting in people’s heads.
Yet we merely borrow our generosity from our donors—and especially from Ken Terry and Debbie Burns-Walton. They own a Santa Cruz-based company, Quantaphy, which makes dyes used in medical testing to help distinguish between positive and negative results. We have just found out that, for the second year in a row, Ken and Debbie will match every dollar given to Karimu up to a total of $20,000.
The donating needs to happen fast, since Ken and Debbie have set a deadline of midnight on December 26. But their pledge gives Karimu a pretty good chance of satisfying the following needs of our Tanzanian village friends during 2012:
- $48,000 for two more duplex-style teacher houses;
- $4,000 to give the medical clinic its first toilet and sink;
- $3,500 for textbooks for Ufani Primary School;
- $1,000 for another year of special-needs education;
- $900 for another year of teacher development;
- $700 to feed children who now go hungry at school.
In case Ken and Debbie decided, on a whim, to change their company’s name to Karimu, I don’t think Marianne and I would have any right to complain.—Don Stoll
