Hope-Joy Kamuntu College Tuition Fund

Back in 1998, Bertin & Brigitte Kamuntu were planning to get married in the small town of Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo  (DRC) in Africa.  Right around this time, a violent Civil War broke out, filling the streets with military tanks, machine guns, and constant gun fire on a day to day basis.  Bertin & Brigitte later became pregnant with their son Hope-Joy Kamuntu, who was due to be born at the end of 1999.  With a son on the way, Bertin knew he needed to raise his family in a safer environment so he fled the DRC in search of a new home and job, where he landed in Cape Town, South Africa some 3-4 months later.  After nearly 2 years working as a Car Guard in Cape Town, Bertin was able to save enough money to bring Brigitte and Hope-Joy down to join him.  On January 6th, 2001, Brigitte & Hope-Joy set off on a harrowing 3 month journey, which took them on trucks, boats, buses, and canoes across Rwanda, Zambia, Tanzania, and Namibia.  Along the way, they evaded a fatal crocodile attack and were detained for 1 month in a Namibian Prison.  Nonetheless, on March 20th, 2001, they arrived safely in Cape Town and were reunited with Bertin to begin building their new life together in South Africa.

Although Bertin & Brigitte felt blessed for escaping the dangers of the DRC, there is no question that the road ahead in Cape Town was going to be a difficult one. Over the next ~20 years, their family shared a two bedroom apartment with another family to help make ends meet.  Bertin has been working tireless 16-20 hour days, 7 days a week, as a Car Guard and then later a taxi driver to help provide shelter & food for his family, as well as pay for the primary school education of Hope-Joy and his sister.  Brigitte & Bertin have both worked so hard and are truly sacrificing everything to give their two kids a better future. 

As a young-boy, Hope-Joy often spent each evening studying at the library, while waiting for Bertin to finish work at the Car Park.  As a result, Hope-Joy developed an incredible work ethic and began excelling in school as one of the top students in his class.  When he turned 18 years old, Bertin suggested that Hope-Joy look into attending an International University because Hope-Joy had recently sparked a passion in IT.  After applying to numerous scholarship programs, Hope-Joy received a letter of interest one day from The College of Saint-Rose in Albany, New York saying that he was being strongly considered for a scholarship to their school.  Hope-Joy couldn't believe it! Attending an International College, let alone in the United States, was beyond a dream come true.  As Hope-Joy continued pursuing this scholarship in the upcoming months, he soon received a letter in the mail, which stated that he had been accepted to Saint-Rose and had been granted a 50% IT Scholarship of Usd$23,000 per year for 4 years.  As Hope-Joy read the letter, he could not help but hold back his overwhelming excitement!  However, as he continued to read the letter, he realized that his family would owe the additional balance of the tuition, which would be Usd$23,000 per year, almost 360,00+ South African Rand, an amount of money that Hope-Joy and his family couldn't ever fathom to pay.  This seemingly insurmountable financial obstacle quickly turned Hope-Joy's excitement into disappointment as he began to think that this new found dream of going to College in the United States was never going to happen...

When Hope-Joy shared the acceptance letter with his Parents, Bertin told him, "Don't worry son, we will find a way to make this happen.  Put your faith in God and he will find a way for us".  And so the journey of Hope-Joy attending The College of Saint-Rose began...  When the first opportunity to enroll in Saint-Rose came up, Hope-Joy's US Visa status had not yet been finalized so they opted to defer enrolling until the next semester.  After Hope-Joy's F1-Visa status was secured, he began exploring additional scholarships, grants, internships, jobs, and school loans in order to find a way to pay off his tuition each year.  Unfortunately, all of these alternatives continued to hit dead-ends... Many of the scholarship and grant programs in the US required him to be a US Citizen in order to qualify so that path proved to arduous.  The option of taking out a school loan quickly became unattractive as well because of the hyper-inflation of the South African Rand vs the US Dollar on top of sky-high interest rates that he would need to pay on any loans. Lastly, Hope-Joy explored getting an internship or a job so he could help pay off the tuition throughout the year as he attended school.  Unfortunately, his F-1 Visa status was going to restrict him from working anywhere off campus, thus limiting his options/ability to earn enough money.  So as the months & semesters began to pass, Hope-Joy continued to defer his enrollment in hopes of finding a way to finance his his tuition. 

Towards the end of 2019, Hope-Joy was contacted by the scholarship program.  They told him he needed to accept the scholarship and enroll in Saint-Rose for the Spring 2020 Semester or else his scholarship offer would be pulled off the table and used for another student.  In a moment of truth, Hope-Joy and his family decided to enroll in the Spring 2020 Semester, despite having zero clarity on how he was going to pay for his tuition.  Hope-Joy crowd-sourced the money for his plane ticket via Facebook and on December 31st, 2019, found himself in the Cape Town International Airport getting ready to board an Emirates flight that was bound for Boston, Massachusetts.  Over 24 hours later, Hope-Joy landed in Boston and was on his way to The College of Saint-Rose campus.  Since early January 2020, Hope-Joy has been attending classes and enjoying everything that the college experience has to offer.  He loves his Professors and is absorbing the content of each class like a sponge.  He has quickly identified his passion within the IT space to be Cyber Security and has already declared Cyber Security to be his 4-year major.  Hope-Joy is living out his dream and is proving that anything is possible, no matter what your circumstances are or where you are born!

Now.... This story has brought you to this moment and Hope-Joy and his family need your help.  Hope-Joy has made some progress over the past 2 months but still needs additional funding.  He has worked with his counselors to secure an additional $2,000 per year in grants for his tuition.  He has also applied to become an RA for his 2nd, 3rd, & 4th years at Saint-Rose.  If/when he is accepted to be an RA, the room & board portion of his tuition will be reduced 75%, thus reducing his overall tuition by roughly Usd$8,000 per year.  Unfortunately, Hope-Joy cannot become an RA until he completes 1 year of school so he needs to come up with a solution for the near-term fast.  The balance of his Spring 2020 tuition is currently Usd$11,750, which is due in early April.  If Hope-Joy fails to settle this tuition balance before April, then he will become ineligible to register for the Fall 2020 Semester and thus will run into complications with his F-1 Visa status, ultimately putting his entire scholarship at risk.

 If you can find it in your heart to contribute to Hope-Joy's College Tuition Fund, then it will bring Hope-Joy one step closer to overcoming this challenge.  The short-term goal is to raise Usd$11,750 before April 2020, which covers his Spring 2020 tuition balance and qualifies him to enroll in the Fall 2020 Semester.  The longer-term goal is to raise the full Usd$70,000 in order to cover the remaining tuition for his entire 4-year education.  There is no such thing as a too small, so please give whatever is in your heart because every bit helps.  In addition to financial contribution, please share this GoFundMe link with your personal network so we can help spread Hope-Joy's story.  Hope-Joy and his family are some of the most loving & hard-working people we have ever met and their story deserves to be known.  We feel honored to call them our friends and will go to the end of the Earth to help them on this journey.

God Bless!

Tim & Erika Pawul