Kimmie Weeks was the leader featured in 4REAL Liberia. Acclaimed international youth activist, he was barely nine when the civil war erupted in Liberia in 1989. During that time, amid r...

Kimmie Weeks was the leader featured in 4REAL Liberia. Acclaimed international youth activist, he was barely nine when the civil war erupted in Liberia in 1989. During that time, amid rampant human suffering and violence, he and his mother faced starvation and poverty as they struggled to survive. After drinking infested water, Kimmie fell ill, was pronounced dead and was almost buried alive.

Miraculously, Kimmie lived. A year later, he began working to alleviate poverty and human suffering in Africa and around the world. Among his goals: a world where all children have access to food, medicine and shelter.

In December 1998, Kimmie published a report on the training of children by the Liberian military. Several attempts were made to assassinate him. Fearing for his personal safety, Kimmie fled Liberia in early 1999 and has since been granted political asylum in the U.S.

Weeks has been featured in The New York Times, the BBC, TIME For Kids, The Washington Post, among other media. He was also profiled along with Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. as an international peacemaker in the book Peace in Our Lifetime. Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf recently presented Kimmie with Liberia’s highest honor for “outstanding sacrificial services to the people of the Republic of Liberia.”

Over the years, Weeks, now 25, has formed partnerships with and led organizations that have provided education to over 1 million students in West Africa. He has led efforts to increase schools and playgrounds, as well as business opportunities for women and children in war-torn African countries.

In 2002, Kimmie, founded Youth Action International, a Philadelphia-based organization dedicated to rebuilding war-torn communities in Uganda, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and Burundi.

Youth Action International

Youth Action International, or YAI, was established in 2002 to develop and implement programs that help alleviate the suffering of children affected by war or living in difficult circumstances and to empower them to reach their full potential. YAI is a growing network of young people using grassroots techniques to support the vision of war-affected communities as they strive to support their children. Our programs are strategically developed to break cycles of violence and poverty.