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Crowdfunding helps Kenyan woman stuck in India get back home

May 28, 2012 saw a terrorist attack in the Nairobi, Kenya which left 33 people injured. Caroline Wanjiru was one of them. In the time since then, not only was she left critically mutilated, traumatised and broke but was also stranded in Ahmedabad till last week.

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May 28, 2012 saw a terrorist attack in the Nairobi, Kenya which left 33 people injured. Caroline Wanjiru was one of them. In the time since then, not only was she left critically mutilated, traumatised and broke but was also stranded in Ahmedabad till last week.

After getting no help from the Kenyan government to acquire funds to save her severely maimed left leg, she decided to crowdfund and come to India for treatment. 24-year-old Caroline was pregnant when she came to India. Since her arrival in September 2015, she had been receiving treatment in the Parekh Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad. But after a point, she had exhausted her funds and wasn’t even able to afford a flight ticket back home for her and her newly born child.

While in Ahmedabad, Caroline was staying at the Hotel Classic Inn. Owing to her financial condition, Caroline wasn’t able to pay the hotel bills. "We subtracted the food costs and gave her a discounted bill. But she was having a hard time getting any money and was waiting to get help from the Kenyan government,” said Barkat Kotadiya, manager of the hotel.

Fortunately, Caroline found help in Bernard Diouf, a teacher at Mahatma Gandhi International School in the city. Through him, co-founders of Ekam Eco Solutions, an IIT Delhi incubated company working on sanitation, Uttam Banerjee, Vijayaraghavan Chariar and Sachin Joshi also came on board to help Caroline. They raised funds through the crowdfunding platform, Ketto to help Caroline clear her hotel bills.

Due to their efforts and the resulting attention Caroline’s case garnered, last week, she and her baby were able to go back to Nairobi. “One good person who doesn’t want to be named paid for the flight tickets. Now we are trying to pay the hotel bill amounting to Rs 3 lakh.” Bernard shared.

To help similar causes, log on to Ketto - a platform to raise funds for social, personal and creative causes.

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