A man with a mission to rescue is making a big difference. His organization, Sahbu, raises money to help send children to school in West Africa.
Mitch Weight lives in Pleasant Grove with his wife, Bethany and seven kids. He also owns his own marketing company and has developed his own humanitarian effort after adopting two children from Liberia.
The Weights adopted the two boys just over a year ago. While on a trip to pick them up, Weight saw first hand the need in the country and especially the need for educational opportunities for young children.
The family sprang into action and quickly formed a non-profit call Sahbu, which mean bald man. Sahbu is the also name his adopted sons call Mitch Weight.
The foundation relies on monetary donations and works to facilitate the opportunity for kids to go to school in Africa at already existing schools.
Currently on a mission in Africa, Weight spoke with FOX 13 and described how such a small financial investment can truly change the life of an African child.
"You can send a kid to school and feed them and clothe them for an entire year and change their future for $120," Mitch Weight said via phone.
In a recent visit to Africa, Weight met two young girls on the streets selling cookies. The girls, named Zoe and Baby, were 5 and 6 years old and lived in a big city mostly unsupervised.
"They wake up in the morning, they go out to sell, they get one meal a day at around lunchtime and then they go out to sell into the evening," Weight said.
Weight is working with a social worker to reunite the girls with their father in a rural village outside of town. He said the reunion not only brings that family back together and the girls are both in school thanks to the backing of the Sahbu organization.
Although not yet a year old, the Sahbu Foundation has sent over 100 kids to school. Weight said it is more than an education, it is also a chance to get African children off the streets and out of hard labor.
