Many of you will remember that in May of 2019 I took a promising new job in the Middle East, leaving Aimee, Omari, Lucien and Sophia at home in the US. More than a year later, in the fall of 2020, with the pandemic in full force, Aimee and the children left our longtime home in Washington DC to join me in Abu Dhabi. We fully anticipated this being a long term move for an excellent career opportunity for me and so we carefully shipped our essential, irreplaceable household goods with confidence.

It was a shock when only two years into our time the American company I worked for lost their contract in the UAE. This was devastating for me, my family and the many other employees who were suddenly forced to move back to the US.

Thanks to crowd funding from family and friends, we were able to fly ourselves and our children home to the US in May 2022. Before leaving the UAE we sold everything possible and arranged for the storage of our most precious and intimate belongings in a storage facility in Dubai.

Three years have now passed and our belongings remain stuck in Dubai. This means we remain stuck paying expensive monthly storage fees because we are simply not able to finance the full up front shipping cost. We urgently hope to raise these funds by mid-May in order to release our belongings and to finally initiate their shipment home.

It is not an exaggeration to say how traumatizing this has been. It is as though part of our family has not yet been allowed to return home. We are now praying family and friends will come together to bring this long and difficult chapter to an end.

Please be assured that the items in our shipment are absolutely irreplaceable and of tremendous sentimental and intellectual value (original family art, our children's handmade schoolwork, our wedding and family photos, antique furniture items, Aimee's and my book and music collections, Sophia's antique dolls house, and Aimee's grandmother's piano, to name a few). The idea of these irreplaceable family belongings being lost or held indefinitely is just devastating.

Since returning to the US, I have been teaching Arabic online and doing Middle East related consulting jobs. However, without a permanent salaried position in place we cannot take out a bank loan as we have in the past. It isn’t easy to ask for assistance in this way, but it is our best and most immediate hope.

Please help us by giving to this campaign as generously as you are able. Those of you who are unable to contribute financially, we would welcome your help in sharing our online Arabic and French teaching services within your community and professional networks.

Thank you so very much on behalf of myself and our family.

With love and appreciation,

Kwame

P.S. - For those concerned about the legitimacy of this request, feel free to reach out to me via email or text prior to making a donation.