About Us
"Start With Me" was etablished as 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization by Dr. Charles Kabeya and Mrs. Schola Kabeya in March 2014 with main office in Bakersfield California.
history
Mrs. Schola Kabeya traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in December 2013. She experienced the warmest most welcoming reception. The hospitality of the Congolese people was heart felt. However, she was so heartbroken to see how people lived in poverty. There was so much poverty that one may ask how these people survived. She met a mother of four children who shared that she earned $25.00/month selling vegetables at the market. She wasn't able to take her sick 2 years old son to the hospital because she couldn't afford the hospital cost. A week later the child died.
Mrs. Schola Kabeya had several similar conversations with different people. Some couldn't afford to send their children to school because they weren't able to pay the $5.00 school fee. These stories were repeated everywhere she went.
During this trip; she visited couple of the hospitals in town. She was surprised that people looked for medical services when their conditions were deteriorated and hopeless. Most deaths were unnecessary and preventable. She had the opportunity to observe nurse's practices, out of the fifty patients she followed over four days, none of them had any idea of their height, weight and their physical and family history. Prescriptions were being written without data to support it. The majority of the patients were healthcare illiterate and had no idea about the diagnostic and prognostic given to them by their doctors, which most of the time were guessing.
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Regardless of our color differences; we all bleed red and have the same longings for personal growth, meaningful life, healthy families and basic life needs. Why are such disparities in the way we live in the world? We can quickly transform human life with as little as a sign of kindness and love. For example, Mrs. Kabeya couldn't understand how the people of DRC could be so impoverished while the country is amongst the richest in the world in regards to natural resources. We should all thank DRC for its natural resources which have allowed the world to experience a technological revolution.
As Mrs. Kabeya boarded Belgium Airlines in Kinshasa Ndjili airport, she made a decision to be a part of the solution by creating a non-profit organization name START WITH ME INC. Which, will engage African Diaspora to focus on socio-economic development of their respective countries. As well as be part of decreasing and eliminating their country's poverty, by engaging donors, friends and acquaintances around the world to donate funds. Then channeling those funds into small scale infrastructure projects in their respective countries. We will start by launching preventative and curative health program in DRC and eventually leverage the model across other developing countries around the world.
