Two young women bitten by the Obama bug

Faridah Nambi and Rehmah Kasule, attended the Presidential Summit on Enterpreneurship, on April 26, in Washington. They shared their excitment about visiting the White House with Agnes K.Namaganda

The managing Director and Host of Nambi Children Initiatives and Talk Show (that features on NTV), Faridah Nambi says she grew up in a slum and has always been impassioned about disadvantaged children in slums. This passion led her to resign her job in Civil Aviation Authority where she’d worked for seven years and with no resources whatsoever, and start this NGO.

“I have always believed there maybe a child from Kifumbira slums who will move the world and not my child who grows up in Kololo; that that child whose mother died at childbirth might be the one to change the world. I went to school with minsters’ children, children of high profile people but you find them and wonder what happened to them inspite of the privileges they had,” she says.

With such a belief you would think that Ms Nambi would think Obama that child (like the ones she works with) from a not-so-privileged background would move the world. Not so. She says she closely followed the US elections but felt Obama the unlikeliest candidate to win.

“I saw Hillary Clinton coming but honestly I didn’t see Obama making it but he did. Imagine he didn’t grow up in a conventional home and didn’t know his father that much but he made it. His story gives a seal to the work I am doing that I should continue doing it, that as much as emphasis is put on business people the world needs social workers like me.”

A month ago, she received an invitation to a presidential summit organised by Barack Obama, President of the United States of America. As you can guess, she’s still elatedly giddy -who wouldn’t be- ever since she came back from the event.

“Imagine a female Muslim woman like me from Butambala and he invited me to the White House! Then there was this time, when I was on the second row and thought well, he’s just going to greet people on the first row and that will be it,” she remembers. She didn’t want to appear overly eager to shake hands but, Obama made room between people in the front row just to say hello to ‘us’-those on the second row.

She didn’t attend from the sidelines. She says Obama told her while shaking her hand, “I have read your profile and appreciate what you’re doing and appreciate you. I also used to work with the community.”

“He is a very humble man and gives you the feeling that he’s been where you are. I am telling you America has a solid asset in that man. Our leaders should learn from that man and know that it’s people who put them there. He is very consistent with the policies and promises he made during his campaign,” Nambi says.

Nambi’s invitation to the summit was in line with President Obama’s Cairo speech where he pledged to get closer to the Muslim community. The summit was for people from the Muslim community who are doing something and she such as herself from all over the world. She was among the 13 women among the 213 people who got invited. She thinks she got nominated by someone in the public because, “Once you do something for the public, they see it and appreciate it.

I know people in Uganda appreciate what I do, but to appreciate what I do on an international level was overwhelming.” “The crème de la crème of this world was there. I rubbed shoulders with Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim, the founder of Celtel International, Jerry Yung, the CEO of Yahoo, Gary Lock, the US secretary of the department of Commerce, Valerie Jarret- the private assistant to the president and I was housed to a breakfast and dinner by President Obama and Hillary Clinton.

It was a life-changing experience and I spent the whole time asking myself, ‘how am I even here?’ It gave me a huge dose of humility because here I was with global millionaires and they were humble. They wanted to share what they know and they cared to listen when I talked and didn’t seem to think ‘what s this one going to add to my life?’”

One thing Nambi is very excited about is that she hopefully, might get the chance to interview President Obama and his wife Michelle. She also got a lot of advice at an international level about what she’s doing and got contacts too. “To know that I can pick up my phone and call someone in the white house and to go on record that I have ever been invited by President Obama are things I don’t want to take for granted.”

She also hopes to get some funding but that is after “you can show that you’re helping women to get jobs.” Nambi’s final message is this; “The world is fast becoming a global village and with the way things are still happening, I am telling you, you can still hope. It doesn’t matter anymore whether you studied at Harvard, just do whatever you’re doing. The ground has changed and is giving opportunities to everybody regardless of background.”