A few months ago I had the opportunity to chat with Kendall Ciesemier, the 15-year-old founder of the Kids Caring 4 Kids organization, which provides impoverished African children with food and education. This past September, she appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” with former President Bill Clinton, who came to her high school and spoke at a surprise assembly.
Kendall felt moved to fight for justice in fifth grade, when she watched an Africa special on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” about orphans. One girl her age had lost her family to AIDS, and now she carried the responsibility of raising her younger sibling. Compelled by the orphan’s pain and grief, Kendall signed up to sponsor a child through World Vision that day. Later she expanded her sponsorship to include an entire Zambian village. Her charity eventually grew into a nonprofit organization, Kids Caring 4 Kids.
“It’s gotten so much easier for people to join the force to fight AIDS,” Kendall said at a coffee shop in January 2008. She recommended PRODUCT(RED) and the ONE Campaign as examples of other organizations fighting poverty and HIV/AIDS. “These people in Africa are our future. It’s just deciding to take responsibility to change someone’s life.”
Kendall pointed out that it doesn’t take a lot to transform life for a kid in Africa. “Ten dollars, school uniform, right there,” she said. “If [these kids] don’t have ten dollars for a school uniform, they don’t get an education. . . . That can change their life, give them an education for as long as they can fit into the uniform.”
The summer before sixth grade, Kendall, who was born with a liver disease (biliary atresia), went to the hospital for a liver transplant. She ended up spending most of her summer there, asking family and friends to donate to her cause instead of buying her gifts.
Kendall triumphed over the disease; now she says her hard experiences help her relate to kids in Africa. “I feel empathy for them,” Kendall said. “I know how they feel and I want to help.”
Kendall, who has raised $680,000 so far, also stressed the importance of channeling empathy into action. “Teens have to find a cause they’re passionate about,” she said. “You have to get in contact with people and see how you can help.”
She pointed out that teens don’t have to launch an organization to change the world, and then added, “It can start with people at your school. There’s always people in school—even knowing who’s the loner in your science class and asking them to be your partner. You can change their life. High school is a hard time . . . but that in itself is enough to make a difference.”
Read my full coverage of Kendall’s story here on the Chicago Tribune's TribLocal.com.
HOW YOU CAN HELP KIDS CARING 4 KIDS AND AFRICA
- Visit Kendall’s web site at www.kidscaring4kids.org. You can donate to her organization, buy a Kids Caring 4 Kids T-shirt, or write to her through her online guest book.
- Recruit friends to support Kids Caring 4 Kids through the Facebook Causes application. You can find the Kids Caring 4 Kids Cause page here.
- Check out how you can get involved in World Vision at worldvision.org.
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