Touching moment : Bill Clinton reunited with Bill Clinton

President Clinton reunites with 14-year-old Bill Clinton, right, who was named after the president during his visit to Uganda in 1998.   CREDIT: Official White House Photo I Clinton Foundation

Former President Bill Clinton is motivating another Bill Clinton to overcome the obstacles of poverty and achieve his dreams.  The two Bill Clintons were reunited recently when President Clinton travelled to Uganda.  They first met 14 years ago when a baby in a Ugandan village was named after the U.S. president because he was born on the same month Clinton first visited the East African country.

In 1998, President Clinton was photographed smiling as he held his young namesake in his arms.  When he returned to Uganda last month to visit health and education projects supported by the Clinton Foundation, he asked to meet the boy again, according to Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper.

The 14-year-old boy, whose full name is Master Bill Clinton Kaligani, was then flown by helicopter to meet with the former president in his private plane in the town of Entebbe.  It was Kaligani’s first time to fly, and he told the newspaper he was thrilled to meet the man who encouraged him to stay focused on his dream of getting a medical degree.

“I feel good. He told me he also wanted me to be a doctor, that I should work hard and pass in my studies,” said Kaligani.

Kaligani’s mother said the former president promised to support the teen’s dream by funding his education.

On Clinton’s trip to Africa in July, he and daughter Chelsea visited organizations partnering with the Clinton Foundation to save and improve lives.  In Uganda, they met with staff and students at the Building Tomorrow Academy which is providing education for students whose families cannot afford it.  They also met with patients and employees at the Starkey Hearing Foundation working to provide hearing aides to people in developing countries.  Their final stop was a medicine distribution center where they discussed the foundation’s efforts to expand access to treatment for diarrhea, a major cause of child mortality in Africa.