In what will be remembered as one of the most successful social media campaigns, Kenyans have raised over Sh6 million to save the life of a student fighting cancer.
The social media campaign dubbed #1milliForJadudi began on Tuesday when a popular blogger Biko Zulu wrote an article on Emmanuel Otieno (Jadudi).
Emmanuel, a third-year student at University of Nairobi urgently required Sh1 million for surgery in India by Saturday.
The tumor in his brain had already been operated on several times before-completely draining his family's funds.
Despite the challenges that had resulted from the tumor, Jadudi kept attending classes and remained determined to fight for his life.
It is perhaps the bravery of the young student that saw Kenyans on social media, especially Kenyans on Twitter (KOT) pick the campaign and spread the message to as many people as possible.
The hashtag #1milliForJadudi trended on Tuesday and Wednesday.
See: How Kenyans on Twitter are Helping Brave Student Fight for His Life
Kindness and support proved to be the true nature of Kenyans as thousands of people started contributing as soon as they got the message.
Here is a breakdown of how the miracle was achieved:
At 10:30 am on Tuesday, the article was posted on Biko Zulu's blog.
Five hours later, Kenyans both from within the country and Diaspora, had contributed the Sh1 million required, but that was not enough.
By 4 pm on Wednesday, the outpouring donations had hit over Sh5 million.
By the time the campaign was being officially closed today at around 10 am, Kenyans had contributed a total of Sh 6,111,638.
More and more people kept coming in to help, Kenya Airways offered to cater for the air travel expenses for Jadudi and his mother to and from India for the surgery.
On Tuesday, when the plight of a young student was highlighted by a blogger, he had nothing but hope.
Barely 48 hours later, Kenyans had united to help him fight to regain his life by ensuring his travel, accommodation, preview, surgery and post surgery care costs are all covered, -the very power of social media yet again, comes to the rescue of a Kenyan.
The entire team at Kenyans.co.ke wishes Jadudi a speedy recovery.
Here is a tweet by Jadudi thanking KOT:
Am overwhelmed by #KOT's support, i dont know how to thank you. Am stronger than ever. I feel healed already. #1MilliForJadudi
— #1MilliForJadudi (@Jadudi) August 4, 2015
