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Kibera Relief Organization Gets Seniors' Parting Gift

Senior marshals representing the class of 2008 have voted unanimously to give to Carolina for Kibera as the students’ parting gift to the University.

Carolina for Kibera is an international, nongovernmental organization based in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya. The organization, founded by then-undergraduate Rye Barcott ’01, works to fight abject poverty and prevent ethnic and religious violence through community-based development via sports programs, health clinics and women’s rights centers. CFK has been named a Time magazine and Gates Foundation “Hero of Global Health.”

Seniors are being asked to donate $20.08 each to CFK, and sponsors have offered to match seniors’ donations. A concert also will be held in Memorial Hall on Oct. 2 featuring a variety of campus a cappella and dance groups to help raise funds.

Ashley Shores, senior class president, began promoting the cause during her spring campaign. She also put the Millennium Village Project on the table as a potential service gift but has since marked off the option because she thinks it does not benefit UNC as directly as CFK.

The latter choice has been approved by the Office of University Development.

While prior senior class gifts have included an aquarium on the upper level of the Student Union and a 9/11 memorial, students were encouraged by administrators after 2006 to install “campaigns” as gifts rather than physical markers.

The class of 2007 donated to the Carolina Covenant, which offers need-based financial assistance to UNC students so that they can graduate debt-free.


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