Kyrie Irving makes hefty donation to Miami grad's African charity
A University of Miami graduate has plans to change the world, and with the help of some nice strangers, his friends and an NBA superstar, he might do just that.
Cameron Mofid, 22, finished his master’s program in December and is on a mission to become one of the youngest people ever to visit every country in the world. He’s already been to 119 out of 195.
His most recent trip was to West Africa for a month where he visited one of the slums in Lagos, Nigeria, called Mokoko. This settlement is surrounded by water and the people get around by boat.
“Imagine a lagoon, a slum of sewage water, where 250,000 people have to use wooden stilts and build makeshift homes,” Mofid said. “People take canoes around. There are no walkways, it’s just a lagoon. So I realized the immense poverty over there and I knew I had to do something about it.”
The people in Mokoko do not have access to clean drinking water, especially in the schools. Children do not have backpacks, shoes, books, clothing and uniforms. So Mofid did what he could with the $100 that he had in his pocket and took off from there.
“I took the $100 that was in my pocket and gave it to the kids, then I said to myself, ‘What could $1,000 do?’ So that’s when I started my GoFundMe.”
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With the intention of making a small impact on their community, he set a goal of $5,000. He ended up raising $10,000 in the first week of the fundraiser going live with more than 200 people contributing.
After hitting the goals, Mofid woke up one morning to a $45,000 donation from Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving.
With the money raised he was able to buy backpacks for 351 kids in the elementary school in Mokoko. In addition, he was able to supply everyone with new books, shoes, uniforms and a giant tank of clean drinking water.
He used the money to buy 13 acres in Ghana and build an orphanage that will be named after the NBA star.
“I woke up on a Sunday morning and I remember getting a notification saying, ‘You have a $45,000 donation from Kyrie.’“ Mofid said. “I thought it was a scam, it didn’t cross my mind that an NBA player would donate. I am very blessed and grateful for him and to everyone that donated, it really changed the lives of those in Mokoko.”
The morning after receiving that donation, the Mavericks confirmed that it was Irving who made the donation, something that is not uncommon for him to do, at least for this past year.
Irving had donated more than $500,000 to notable causes and charities and has talked about them in his postgame conferences.
“I mean, it’s just so much going on in our world, I just try to do little acts of kindness every single day,” Irving said.
Now, Mofid has raised over $65,000 — 1,300% over his initial goal.
He wants to continue to inspire younger people to have an impact on the world and to follow their dreams.
“The world will very soon be in our hands,” Mofid said. “We all have a responsibility to look out for one another. Be the change you want to see in the world and no project is too small to make a large impact."
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Kyrie Irving makes hefty donation to Miami grad's African charity
