Eliman Gibba and Alexandra Sianis@@http://eugenedailynews.com/2012/01/08/parents-of-girl-killed-in-crash-begin-charity-foundation/@@ are used to being contacted by reporters. It happens to them every year in January, the month their 11-year-old daughter, Nima Gibba, was killed by a drunk driver in one of Eugene’s deadliest car crashes.
Local business owner Eliman Gibba sits holding a photo of his late daughter, Nima Gibba, who was killed (along with three others) when a drunk driver ran a red light and hit the car she was riding in. Nima carpooling home by a family friend, Heather Mulgrave, when their vehicle was struck at the intersection of West 11th Avenue and Bertelsen Road. (Nate Barrett/Oregon Daily Emerald)
This year was no different. The couple spent the days leading up to this Jan. 21 — the three-year anniversary of their daughter’s death — sharing the same memories with reporters and being asked the same questions. But Gibba and Sianis welcome all the media coverage, they say, because it allows them to try and preserve Nima’s legacy.
Gibba likes to talk about his daughter’s love for dancing and art. Sianis, her stepmother, often praises Nima’s “giving spirit.” Both emphasize that they harbor no hatred or even anger towards the person responsible for Nima’s death.
“You raise your children to be forgiving and loving,” Sianis said. “(Nima) would have forgiven, too, so we have to honor her by doing that.”
But this year, the couple is doing more to honor their daughter. They’ve started a charity foundation called Nima’s Wish, designed to help impoverished people, especially children, in West Africa.
“Nima was always giving,” Gibba said of the inspiration behind the foundation. “Always giving, always wanting to help. She loved people.”
The choice of West Africa — specifically Gambia — was motivated mainly by the fact that some of Nima’s heritage is based there. Gibba was born in Senegal and raised in neighboring Gambia before coming to Oregon as a Peace Corps worker during the 1990s. Today, he and Sianis own two restaurants around the University campus, Sunset Hut and World Flavors,@@http://www.registerguard.com/web/updates/27486403-55/gibba-nima-daughter-sianis-west.html.csp@@ which include traditional West African meals.
Eliman flips through old family photos, showing off and repeatingly expressing Nima’s love for water. So in love with water, Eliman and Alex attest, her skin would begin to pruin from being in it for too long. (Nate Barrett/Oregon Daily Emerald)
Engraved on Nima’s gravestone is the phrase “Hanken Nu Bom,” which means “Keep on dancing” in Gibba’s native language. There is also an engraving of Africa, with a star marking Gambia’s location. The family had planned to travel there and to Senegal before Nima’s life was cut short, Gibba said.
So instead, he and Sianis went to both countries in December 2010 to not only visit family but also find ways they could help those in need. They returned feeling a bit overwhelmed by the poverty they had witnessed, but they were determined to help as much as they could, Sianis said.
“I cried every day for the first week,” she said, referring to the reaction of seeing the conditions some Gambians and Senegalese were living in. “I never expected things to be that far behind. But the amazing thing was how sweet and happy the people were.”
A picture of Nima lies on her bed. Her love for water is evident all around the room, which is decorated with a great many blue and ocean-themed objects. Upon the wall facing her bed is a canvas that spans the whole wall. When the light is turned out in the room, another light can be flicked on which activates a blacklight that lights up bubbles and a jelly fish on the wall. (Nate Barrett/Oregon Daily Emerald)
Since returning from that trip, the pieces have slowly been coming together. The couple recently finished filing for 501(c)(3) nonprofit@@http://www.irs.gov/charities/charitable/article/0,,id=96099,00.html@@ status for Nima’s Wish Foundation, while planning a musical fundraiser during spring to raise money for solar panels, efficient wood-burning rocket stoves as well as food and clothing for impoverished Gambians, which they plan to deliver in person.
“We would like to return back to West Africa and hopefully have some funds to start our process of, agriculturally, helping them get on their feet,” Sianis said of their plans for this year, “as well as assess the kids who are neediest to go to school and help them pay tuition.”
Additionally, through the Alliance for Democracy in Africa,@@http://adeafrica.org/@@ a nonprofit based in Gambia, she and Gibba have founded the Nima Gibba Centre for Women and Youth Development, which trains young boys and girls to read and write.
“The Nima Centre through ADA is a great connection; it’s like a pipeline,” Gibba said, referring to Nima’s Wish ability to bring aid to Gambia with little red tape involved.
Eliman compares the size of his thumb to that of baby Nima’s foot print. Nima was born four months premature and spent much of her first months in the ICU. The doctors told Eliman to prepare that his daughter might be in a vegetative state, but survived and pushed through, eventually to be released from the hospital and live the life of a normal girl. (Nate Barrett/Oregon Daily Emerald)
But as happy as they are to witness the fruits of their labor this month, it’s hard for the both of them not to ponder on the “what-ifs” of the night their daughter was killed.
That night, Jan. 21, 2009, Heather Mulgrave, a friend of the family, was driving a carpool of people — including Nima — home from a dance lesson in Springfield when an Isuzu Rodeo driven by Matthew Ellmers, smashed into Mulgrave’s SUV. Nima, Mulgrave, Connie Vermilyea and her child, Jaziah, were all killed.@@http://www.registerguard.com/web/updates/27486403-55/gibba-nima-daughter-sianis-west.html.csp@@
A close childhood friend of Nima’s, Jakobi Mulgrave, was seriously hurt but survived and recovered from his physical injuries. Ellmers was convicted of first-degree manslaughter and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Ellmers, who was drunk, had just been kicked out of a strip club for fighting and initiated the crash by speeding through a red light. Had he or anybody in Mulgrave’s car so much as paused to tie their shoes that evening, the cars may not have collided.
“You just relive every moment of that day, and you just wish you could change it,” Sianis said. “That’s the hard part.”
@@keep this part?@@Members of the public interested in contributing to Nima’s Wish should go to http://www.nimaswish.com or http://www.adeafrica.org/
