Magic of Hope shows raise funds to help children in Tanzania

A virtual card trick helped forge a connection between a Norfolk illusionist and a group of children halfway around the world.

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Last year, through the magic of the internet, Lucas Wilson performed a trick in which playing cards mysteriously appeared in the pockets of children living in a home near Usa River, Tanzania, supported by the Tumaini Children’s Foundation, a charitable organization with Norfolk roots.

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“The kids were screaming with delight,” said Brantford resident Leslie Butler, executive director of the foundation. “They’d never seen anything like it.”

Butler said the illusions Wilson will perform at an upcoming fundraiser at the Lighthouse Theater in Port Dover create a different kind of magic in rural Tanzania – funding for the education and empowerment of children living in one of the East African country’s poorest and underprivileged areas.

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The 2n/a annual The Magic of Hope event will be held on Jan. 8 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world. In 2018, about 14 million Tanzanians lived in poverty.

The Tumaini Children’s Foundation was founded in 2009 by Cherie Szucs, a Simcoe resident who died in 2022. Szucs and her husband Steve, a local realtor, reached out to friends and put together a shipping container bound for Tanzania filled with a rebuilt truck, surplus desks from the Grand Erie District School Board, and bunkbeds constructed by students at Delhi District Secondary School.

Soon they rented a building in Usa River and children started to come. Tumaini (which means hope in Swahili) Children’s Foundation became a not-for-profit charitable organization, which has, over the past 14 years, helped more than 1,800 orphaned, vulnerable and needy children. It currently has 52 residents at the orphanage, ranging in age from five to mid-20s, and another 1,000 children it supports through community outreach.

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Tumaini has since become more of an international effort with volunteer board members from Canada, Belgium Holland and the United States.

“You fall in love very quickly with the people there when you come as a volunteer,” said Butler. “People come and stay because it’s such a beautiful thing.”

Tumaini is run entirely by volunteers, both the board of directors and on the ground in Tanzania. The only exception is a handful of Tanzanians who are paid and work at the orphanage to help cook, clean and care for the children.

The foundation provides a home to children who are without a family, who have been removed from their families due to violence, and when families can’t provide needed medical treatment. It also provides food, clothing, medical care and educational funds for hundreds of children living with their families.

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For students who don’t attend university or college, Tumaini provides marketable job skills for life after graduation.

“We hope they take the help they receive and turn it around – give back to others,” Butler said. “I love what we do. It truly, honestly makes a difference in the lives of children.”

At The Magic of Hope shows, Wilson, a four-time Guinness World Record holder, will be performing a new illusion for the first time.

Funds from the shows will go toward the educational needs of children supported by Tumaini.

To buy tickets for The Magic of Hope, go to lighthousetheatre.com. For more information about supporting Tumaini Children’s Foundation, go to tumainimeanshope.org

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