Son’s final wish discovered in journal, parents fulfill it in Africa

A little boy’s dreams are being realized thanks to a notebook he left behind before he tragically died.

In 2013, 10-year-old Mohamed Fofana was killed in a landslide during a school field trip when part of a Mississippi River bluff collapsed as he and a few others hunted for fossils at Lilydale Regional Park, reports MPR News.

In the wake of his death, Mohamed’s mother, Madosu Kanneh, happened to stumble upon a journal in which the her son had written. In one of the entries that caught her eye, Mohamed wrote about what he would do if he were president:

“I would do everything, and I would give money so school kids can read. And I would give money to the poor people. I would build soccer fields for schools to play in,” Kanneh said, reading from Mohamed’s small, handmade journal.

Immediately after discovering the book, Kanneh called her husband, Lancine Fofona, to share what she had found

Mohamed’s outlook on the world changed after he had visited his father’s hometown in Guinea in 2010, she said. There, he saw children without shoes or clothes playing soccer.

After being inspired by his written words, Mohamed’s parents decided to make something positive come out of his tragic death.

“Since [Mohamed’s] not there anymore to accomplish that dream, we as parents, we want to make that happen – his dream to come true,” she told USA Today.

The family is using their share of the settlement they received from the landslide to build a new school in Suiguiri, a small mining town in the Republic of Guinea.

The school, which is set to teach as many as 400 children, will have a soccer field, a basketball court and a library, MPR News reports.

Mohamed’s father has recently returned from West Africa, where they laid the cornerstone for the school – the first building block in an effort to make Mohamed’s dream a reality.

“I wish Mohamed was on the side of me to see his dreams come true,” said Fofana.

The initial phase is expected to cost between $150,000 and $200,000. Mohamed’s family has established a nonprofit foundation to help organize and fund the effort. They’ve also set up a website to take contributions and hope that classes will be in session beginning next year.

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