Our founder Francis Phiri was fortunate to attend the 54th Biennial Conference of the National Association of the Deaf in Hartford, CT July 3-7th. This was a great opportunity for Give Back to Community Zambia to build relationships with other Deaf organizations and Deaf educators.

During the Conference, Francis attended numerous workshops on Deaf education topics and had a great opportunity to meet personally with the Executive Director and founder of the Zambian Deaf Youth and Women organization in Kite, Zambia. Mr. Musukwa attended the NAD Conference as part of his tour in USA to build awareness of the needs of the deaf community in Zambia. Francis and Mr. Musukwa continued their discussion about the upcoming GBCZ sponsored Deaf Education Summit to be held in Zambia later this summer. That conference will focus on Deaf education collaboration and the struggle for social justice and equality for Deaf persons in Zambia.

In December, our GBCZ Founder and his wife visited Zambia to reconnect with his family and to hold a series of meetings with education leaders and Deaf community leaders in the country. What Francis learned on this trip was that his memories of his childhood and the limited access that he had as a deaf child to educational opportunities was still the situation facing thousands of Deaf children in Zambia.

What a honor to be able share my journey with GoFundMe Team. It was honor for me to be invited to give a presentation at the GoFundMe HQ and to meet CEO, Rob Solomon and his amazing team. I was surprised to receive this email earlier this summer extending the invitation to visit GoFundMe.