September will be a blessed month for Uganda’s disabled children as the father of African Jazz Hugh Masekela will join Ugandans in a special concert to fundraise for an organisation that supports disabled children in the country.
Masekela’s concert, which will take place September 2 in Kampala, is part of a series of activities to mark Uganda Society for Disabled Children’s (USDC) 20th anniversary.
Masekela’s contribution will further help the organisation achieve its goal of helping children with disabilities and their families to access the resources and opportunities to enable them achieve their potential and lead fulfilling lives.
Masekela was born near Johannesburg in 1939. In his early days in the South African music scene Masekela played with such names as pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, Jonas Gwangwa, and Kippie Moeketsi as teenagers in the Father Huddleston Band. In 1961 Masekela went into exile where Harry Belafonte helped him settle in the United States as a student. Hugh is best known for his 1968 feel good worldwide smash ‘Grazing in the Grass’ and also his 1987 hit ‘Bring Him Back Home’ which became the anthem for Nelson Mandela’s world tour following his release from prison in 1992.
As part of their social corporate responsibility, Ugandan companies MTN Uganda and the state owned media New Vision together with South African Airways, have partnered to sponsor Masekela’s first trip to Uganda.
USDC, whose proceeds from Masekela’s concert will go to, was started in 1985 as a UK based charity with a country office in Kampala. The pioneers were a few British, who had previously lived and worked in Uganda.
‘We want to make sure Uganda’s disabled children have a decent life, which is very, very important,’says Connie Tinka of USDC. According to Tinka, Uganda’s disabled children still go through a lot of challenges even after the organisation’s intervention. Even with current information and campaigns for the rights of disabled in Uganda, parents still restrict disabled children to homes and many times do not take them to school.
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