Shireen Gul COPY EDITOR Children of Uganda turned Keat- ing Sports Center into a heavenly place on Friday, January 31. Those little angels—with their smiling faces and colorful outfits~were spreading positive energy among the audi- ence. Most of the people in the audi— ence were exhausted coming from their of— fices, but the moment they saw these kids, they were freshened up. No one could judge from the kids’ faces what they have suffered because they were so excited to be here, in the U.S., and to see so many things that they have had never even dreamt of. Their perfor- mance was full of energy, and the best thing about it was that they were smiling the whole time. Robert Kiwanuka is the Artistic Director, and a beneficiary of Children of Uganda (COU) whom hosted the concert. Kiwanuka says that these children were see- .,._ -ing‘snow for the first time, gettingar-v to taste proper food for first time. These words brought tears to everyone’s eyes, but the children were still smiling. COU is a non-profit organization, founded in 1995 in Uganda, to provide edu- cation and support to hundreds of young people in need. Their funding is derived pri- marily from individual child sponsorship, as well as grants and donations. Their mission is to support and empower hundreds of orphans and vulner- able children in Uganda, so they can help them to lead successful and productive lives. Their vision is to make sure that all the chil- dren in Uganda can get proper education to become healthy, productive members of their community and assume leadership roles to positively impact Ugandan society. Helping humanity to raise its bar is one of the best gifts we can give the world and the coming generations. This program can be one of the few steps that we take to- wards humanity. It doesn’t ask for much—all they want us to do is to save a future. As COU has mentioned on their website, “Even a little goes a long, long way.” Here are a few things that we can do to help this program: $7 puts a life-saving mosquito net over a child’s bed at night, $12 buys seeds for a family in the empowerment program to start their own home garden, $28 feeds one child nutritious meals for a full week, $50 gives a medicine kit to help treat common illnesses (cough, flu, skin rashes, « diarrhea, malan'a, et cetera) for a woman in the empowerment program and her chil- dren, $82 sponsors a student’s education, food and lodging for one month at boarding school, $140 pays for a performer’s visa for Tour of Light so a child can come to the US. and share their joy and talent, and $250 pro— vides industrial training, accommodation, food and transport for a vocational student. For more information, please visit their website: www.childrenofugandaorg or follow them on Facebook and Twitter under the same name, Children of Uganda. Photos by Shireen Gul Student newspaper of the Illinois Institute of Technology since 1928 technewsiit.com OPINION 2-3 CAMPUS 3-4 AErE 6 SLIPSTICK 6 SPORTS 7