In this Covid-19 pandemic which has “put a knee” on all of us, Africano has gone an extra mile in her services to the community by providing free healthy food stuff and other essential supplies to the community every Saturday! Even those who cannot get to Africano get supplies deliveredto them by friends. This has been of great help to families at this time when many people have no jobs and others have been unable to work because of COVID-19. My names are Grace Kamara. I am a mother, a grandma, a volunteer in the children’s ministry in my church as well as at “African Cultural Services Inc” (aka Africano.) I love children and l take it as a responsibility to guide and be there for them where and whenever needed. I was born and raised in Africa and l vividly remember being raised and loved by the whole village and as far as l know, the values l have today are not just the work of my parents but it is the collective love and guidance from all the loving people who were around me. I therefore thank Ms. Juliet Najjumba for having recognized the validity of that saying “a child is raised by a village” and realized that it’s relevance is even more important in this country where immigrant families work around the clock in order to make ends meet and have no relatives around to help them with their children. She opened up Africano, where children go for a variety of programs, do their home work, play and tell stories while socializing and learning about their culture at the same time with help from volunteers. The compassion shown to the community by Africano is exemplary! The children love it and so do us parents! It’s our home away from home because it has programs for grandmothers as well who are lonely most of the time because they are retired and other members of their families are working. Let us all continue to support Africano in anyway we can so that it can continue to serve us. Grace Kamara (parent and Grandma)