A GoFundMe account that was set up towards financing towards the repatriation of Sharon’s remains back to Kenya has received immense support and has attracted well-wishers, from different walks of life towards the noble course.
What was meant to be a fun day at the beach for Sharon Jepkosgei Kigen and her friends at the Simmos Beach Macquarie fields quickly turned into a tragedy when Sharon, a Kenyan student at Catholic University-North Sydney drowned and attempts by the emergency team to resuscitate her failed and her body was transported to Lidcombe hospital.
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In a bid to raise the funds to transport her remains back home, Kenyans in Australia led by Tabitha Chepkwony, opened a GoFundMe account.
“It is with great sorrow to announce the death of Sharon Jepkosgei Kigen who drowned at Simmos Beach Macquarie fields. Sharon arrived in November 2022 and was an international student at Catholic University-North Sydney. Family and friends are fund-raising to enable the body of late Sharon to be repatriated to Kenya”, reads the page.
According to a local news outlet, twenty-three donations were made in less than two hours, raising over Ksh156,000 ($1,241) in less than 2 hours Further they said that about Ksh100,000 ($793) of the donations were made in a record 10 minutes of the fundraising.
The account has so far raised $5780 with 124 donors out of their targeted $20,000. Family and friends continue to meet at Family and friends continue to meet at 54a Elliston Street Chester hill NSW 2162 in Australia.
This is the second incident in less that 6 months of a Kenyan drowning abroad. In September 2022, Hellen Wendy, a Kenyan nurse based in Canada drowned in a swimming pool while on a Facebook Live video. She drowned as her friends and family who had joined her livestream watched helplessly.