If you can’t go to Africa, it will come to you.
A fundraising event called African Safari is being held Saturday at the Grateful Fed on Bernard Avenue to raise money for children who live in Wakiso, Uganda.
The event is being organized by Emily Pletsch of Kelowna, who in 2012 volunteered with the International Volunteer Head Quarters (IVHQ) program and lived in Wakiso for three months
She stayed at a boarding school with 200 children called Wakiso Children’s School of Hope.
Pletsch’s work consisted of tending to children’s daily needs, bringing them to the hospital, testing children for malaria, helping with homework and organizing recreational activities.
Saturday’s fundraiser, which begins at 6 pm, includes a percussion, jazz and drumming show, and a face paint opportunity for everyone to “become a safari animal,” said Pletsch.
The $30 ticket, purchased at the door, also includes a full entree dinner.
Pletsch returns to Uganda in November and money raised Saturday will be used to help some of the children’s basic needs.
Pletsch recalls her last visit there.
“During my second week, we had a large malaria outbreak and about 20 kids got malaria,” she said. “Other common sicknesses were typhoid and parasites.
“Of the three months I lived out there, I spend one month of my trip sleeping in different clinics and hospitals with sick kids.”
