The courage and determination of a young man

My sister Fern and her husband Bud have been active members of the Exchange Club for several years.  They just attended a weekend convention at the Red Jacket Inn in North Conway, New Hampshire to honor this young man.  I share his story because it is well worth reading.


Fortune Kalala

No person should ever face the horrors that confronted Fortune Kalala as a child.  Amidst the Civil War in Africa, he and his family fled the Democratic Republic of the Congo on a five-year odyssey as they fled for their lives. Running from one refugee camp to another, they finally landed at one in Mozambique as the rebels closed in on them.
Relatives were murdered, victims of the political violence that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands in the region.   Speaking no English, Fortune, his father and sister arrived in the United States and were reunited with his mother and younger brother for the first time in five tumultuous years.   A year later he began his career at Central Catholic, where he has achieved remarkable success.  In a rigorous college preparatory course of studies, Fortune has consistently maintained a strong grade point average with grades ranging from B to A-.  His story is one of determination, desire, goal setting, and success.
Fortune has participated in athletics, also. In his senior year he was chosen captain for his varsity teams in all three athletic seasons: football, indoor track, and outdoor track.  In football, Fortune was a conference All-Star at the safety. To watch him long jump is to see a younger version of Carl Lewis!  He has been written up in the Boston Herald, The Pilot (the Catholic newspaper for the Archdiocese of Boston) and the Eagle Tribune, and his story seems to have spread to other publications as a modern-day Horatio Alger hero.
Fortune has also volunteered countless hours as a tutor and mentor to the children at the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence. This school year he is the poster child for The Catholic School Foundation, which provides tuition assistance to economically challenged youngsters attending Schools in the Archdiocese of Boston. This spring, Fortune delivered the keynote address at the Catholic School Foundations annual dinner, an event at which millions of dollars were raised.
And so I ask you to consider this: an 8-year-old boy runs for his life to escape the horrors of civil war. After five years, he arrives in the United States unable to speak English. Five years later, he achieves academic success that would be the envy of any child born in the U.S. The prestigious Wesleyan University is begging him to matriculate.
He awaits his first choice-Holy Cross! He rises to significant leadership roles, tutors and mentors younger children, is assiduously pursuing an ambitious and noble career goal, and has won the admiration and affection of peers and adults alike. What better person to represent Lawrence as an A.C.E. Award winner? Fortune Kalala may well be the most remarkable young person I've met in my 48 year career in Boys & Girls Clubs. He has emerged from both war and poverty with the strength that surviving gives to a person determined to overcome personal obstacles and work for a better world.
Coming to the United States at 12 years old, I felt God had placed me in paradise.   My family was forced to break up about five years earlier amidst a coup of the government in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Rebels murdered anyone with connections to the government and my family was targeted because my father was a teacher.   My mother and brother, Andy, fled to the United States with the little money we had saved.
My father, my sister and I would try to save enough money to join them six months later. For five years, we moved from country to country trying to get a job for my father, but the rebels kept following us until we reached a refugee camp in Mozambique. Here we survived seven months in a 10'x10'tent with little food or water to live, with death all around us and orphaned children dying of starvation. I thought we were going to die. We would walk two miles to a spring for water that looked like the color of sand, come back to the tent, boil it and finally we were able to drink. Each day we would go with my father trying to find work. He found a teaching job in the city. We saved enough money for the trip to the U.S., and after five years I saw the beautiful face of my mother in the airport in Boston. My family had cheated death and my life was about to change dramatically.
My mother had hoped to become a doctor when we lived in the Congo. Her dream was shattered by the war in Africa and by having three children to care for. I never knew what career I wanted to pursue until I broke my leg playing football in my sophomore year of high school. My family had no money to pay the medical bills for the surgery I required, but a doctor took a special interest in me, took care of me, operated on my leg and put me back together. After two months of healing and four months of rehab, I was able to walk, then run, and I promised myself that I would repay that doctor, who refused any payment of any kind, by becoming an orthopedic surgeon and working in the Lawrence community to help those less fortunate who can't afford a doctor. There is something magical about the qualities of a doctor who can relieve pain and help people who are hurting. No one should ever be without the help of a good doctor because he or she cannot afford help -pain comes to the rich and the poor equally and my goal is to help all people live a life of as pain free as possible. In September, I will enroll in the College of the Holy Cross where I will begin my next odyssey -my pursuit to become a doctor and fulfill the dream my mother planted in my mind!

Happy Birthday Bud!

Hope you had a great day, Bud!  This is really special because I am not very computer literate.