Kriti Mehrotra
Directed by Vieira Lopez, Netflix’s ‘Masaka Kids, a Rhythm Within’ is a documentary that shines a light upon the power of art and culture in the most difficult of circumstances. It follows the Masaka Kids Africana community as they share their story with the world, underscoring how joy can be found within struggle and happiness in resilience. Therefore, of course, Founder-CEO Suuna Hassan and his co-founder and loving wife, Madinah Hassan, are at the center stage of this short original production.
Suuna Hassan Endured Significant Hardships in His Early Years
A native of Nyendo in the city of Masaka, Uganda, Suuna Hassan comes from a family that has always had rather limited resources, due to their village’s social standing. However, it was after his mother sadly passed away when he was “very young” that things went from bad to worse as his father soon tied the knot to an allegedly abusive woman. According to his account in the show, he has two distinct scars on his face that came at the hands of his stepmother, so he eventually decided to run away “rather than die at home.”
Living on the streets was far from easy for Suuna, but he knew he had no other choice and gradually managed to befriend others like him to form a group that collected scraps for sale. Their sole purpose of doing so was to ensure they could buy food every day, yet because the entire ordeal was deemed officially illegal, the kids were allegedly often beaten if caught. “I started getting tortured by the situation,” he stated in the documentary. “But whenever I thought about ending my life… I would see my mother asking me why I wanted to kill myself.”
Therefore, Suuna found the courage to persevere, unaware that a song he would secretly sing to himself about his experiences would also strengthen his heart while giving him true hope. That’s how he realized he would undoubtedly move forward from this dark period one day, and he did – he sold clothes to earn money before ultimately launching his own barbershop. It was after all this that he began to recognize he could do a lot more, driving him to help those kids who are in a position he once was in, so as to ensure their overall well-being.
Suuna and Madinah Hassan Are Partners in a Personal and Professional Sense
In 2011, Suuna first met then-disc jockey Madinah at a club, where they often hung out due to their shared passion for art and music. As per the latter’s account, she loved two things at the time – being a disc jockey and caring for kids – yet, she never imagined she would bond with someone on the latter aspect. However, the duo connected most over the topics of the youth being the future of our world and the necessity of providing them with a stable environment. Suuna and Madinah thus became romantically involved not long after, with the latter eventually even going against her family’s wishes to tie the knot with him in a cozy, intimate ceremony. According to the couple, her parents didn’t accept their romance primarily because of his background, but the young woman fought for him and their love.
In 2013, they established a non-profit organization from their home, with the sole aim of caring for and supporting the underprivileged children in their vast community. Masaka Kids Africana thus became a reality, with Suuna handling activities, expansion, and logistics, while Madinah looks after the kids at home to ensure their sense of security. “I create a loving environment amongst them,” she asserted in the documentary, making it clear that her efforts are what make their community a tight-knit family. While most children under the couple’s care often have a parent or relative outside, and while they also have kids of their own, Masaka Kids Africana is a true family in its entirety, too.
Suuna and Madinah Hassan Continue to Help as Many Children as They Can
Since there are more orphans in Uganda than anywhere else in the world due to the AIDS/HIV epidemic, decades of civil unrest, poverty, and lack of resources, they are also the most unsafe. Therefore, Masaka Kids Africana continues to aim to sponsor as many children as possible by providing them with basic medical care, clothing, food, shelter, and education to ensure their bright future. Moreover, it provides them with opportunities to pursue various art forms or home science projects because the founders understand that different children have different aptitudes. When the non-profit organization first started growing through its music/dance videos online in the late 2010s, all Suuna and Madinah were focused on was simply providing for the children.
However, once the exposure began bringing in donations, they used it to figure out a way to enlist all the youngsters in school before expanding to a proper facility where they could house everyone. Suuna never had the chance to attend school, so his priority was always the kids’ education – after all, both he and his wife believe it to be the stepping stone for empathy, perspective, and success. All they want is to help as many youngsters in bad situations as they can, which is why they unabashedly refer to themselves as the “ambassadors for the children in the ghetto and on the street.” Since then, Masaka Kids Africana has not only continued to accept donations to empower the kids of Uganda but also shared their mission with the world through public appearances.
They won a Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award for Favorite African Kidfluencer (or Social Star) in 2022, have performed at the Global Village and Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival in the UAE, and were even invited to Barcelona in 2024 by FC Barcelona and the FCB Foundation. Suuna has since also clarified, “When people see us on social media, they think we only dance and sing. We also do other cultural activities. All children don’t have the same potential for dance and music. Even we grown-ups don’t have the same intelligence… There are those who are good in football. There are those good in tailoring. Some are good in carpentry. Others are good in poultry and farming. So our core cultural activities include these things too.” In other words, the couple ensures to cater to everyone’s needs to the best of their abilities.
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