Hi, my name is Laura.

I started this crowdfunding campaign on behalf of my friend Jocelyn. I’m from the Netherlands, she’s from Tanzania. We met while studying together in South Africa back in 2009, became close, and stayed in touch ever since. She is one of the sweetest, unapologetically happiest and most positive persons I know. She simply radiates kindness.

Fast forward: Jocelyn just turned 39, lives in Dar es Salaam, raising her two sweet boys on her own. Despite all the challenges, she’s been doing everything she can to give them a good life.

And then the unimaginable happened.

Amid recent political chaos and protests in Tanzania, innocent people were shot and Jocelyn was one of them. She was simply driving with one of her sons to visit a friend when violence broke out, and she was shot by the police. She died. Her youngest son was with her and survived.

I want to help her two boys rebuild their lives after this horrific event and I have contact with her sister Jacqueline. The boys will live with their grandmother. Elgin is in boarding school and Eugene is in primary school. I want to support them, they deserve safety, healing, and a chance to live a good life. Money won't bring back their mother, but I hope it will help providing them help, care, education.

I feel heartbroken and powerless, but this is something I can do, and I hope it will make a difference.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for any support you can give. The world can feel so cruel sometimes, most of the time lately, but kindness like yours reminds us there’s still hope.

This is us in 2009. Rest in love, kipenzi.