Kimmie Weeks
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Kimmie Weeks has worked to alleviate poverty and human suffering in Africa and around the world since he was fourteen years old. Kimmie was born in Liberia, West Africa in 1981. At the young age of nine he came face to face with civil war, human suffering, and death. Weeks can still vividly recall eating roots and wild leaves when his family did not have access to food, drinking infested water when national water supply was shut off, and nearly being buried alive after epidemics had wrecked his emaciated body.
These experiences would have broken the souls of most people. However, they encouraged Kimmie to follow a path where he could make a difference and work to ensure a world where all children have access to food, medicine, and shelter. It is a vision that he has pursued ever since.
Over the years, Kimmie has formed partnerships and led organizations that have provided education to thousands of students in West Africa, lobbied the disarmament of over 20,000 child soldiers, and provided health care and recreation supplies to children.
Kimmie has faced many obstacles in pursuit of his dream. The biggest was when the Liberian government of Charles Taylor attempted to assassinate him for a report he issued on its involvement in the training of child soldiers. As a result, Kimmie was forced to flee Liberia when he was seventeen and has since been granted political asylum in the United States.
Today, a graduate of Amherst College, Kimmie is working towards building a movement to positively change the face of Africa. His goal and emphasis focus on empowering the people, providing new opportunities, creating strategic development partnerships with Africa and the west, and using technology to link Africa with the rest of the world. This year, a documentary called "Kimmie" was released and is now airing in the UK. Kimmie is also featured in the new book Peace in Our Lifetime as an international peacemaker, along with Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Kimmie's passion for his mission is found in his unique situation, which gives him the ability and opportunity to connect children in need to those young people who have the potential to help.
