Born in Monrovia, Liberia, in 1981, Kimmie Weeks was nine years old when he experienced the First Liberian Civil War at first hand. He and his mother, Estina Ntow, were forced to leave their home and marched with many other displaced Liberians to a refugee camp set up in university buildings. A classroom filled to capacity with 30 people became his home. While in the camp, Kimmie became deathly ill - dehydrated due to cholera, he also contracted chickenpox and yellow jaundice. He saw no doctor, no nurse and was administered no medicine except for a few herbs. When other refugees sharing the classroom with them could no longer find a pulse in Kimmie, it was decided, over his mother's objections, that he had died. He was thrown still alive onto one of many piles of dead bodies in the refugee camp. Kimmie's mother refused to accept that he was dead. She searched until she found his body and resuscitated him, beating on his chest and shaking him until he regained consciousness. That same night, Kimmie vowed to dedicate the rest of his childhood and adult life to making the world a better place for children.