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. That’s because it follows the Masaka Kids Africana community as they share their story with the world, underscoring how there can be joy within struggle as well as happiness in resilience. Therefore, of course, Founder-CEO Suuna Hassan and his co-founder, loving wife, and proud life partner Madinah Hassan are at the center stage of this short original production.
Suuna Hassan is a Former Child of the Street
A native of Nyendo in the city of Masaka, Uganda, Suuna Hassan admittedly hails from a poor family that always had rather limited resources owing to their village’s standing in society. 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 used to be in, so as to ensure their overall well-being.
Suuna and Madinah Hassan Are Partners in Both a Personal and Professional Sense
It was reportedly back in 2011 when Suuna first came across then-disc jockey Madinah at a club, where they both often hung out owing to their shared innate passion for art as well as 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 youth, them being the future of our world, and how necessary it is to care for them in a stable environment, is what the duo connected over the most in their early days.
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 owing to his background of being from the streets, but the young woman fought for him and their love. Then, in 2013, they together 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 hence became a reality, wherein Suuna handles the activities, expansion, and logistics, whereas Madinah looks after the kids at home to ensure their sense of security. “I create a loving environment amongst them,” she asserted in the aforementioned 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 still aims to sponsor as many kids as possible by giving them 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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