Miserable millionaire donating all to charity
Karl Rabeder has traded unbridled luxury for life in a two-room flat.

Posted by Karen Datko on Tuesday, February 9, 2010 7:15 PM
This kind of story gives you faith in humankind, or makes you feel you’ve entered the Twilight Zone.



Generous: Karl Rebeder is giving away his £2.7m fortune

An Austrian millionaire is giving away his fortune and all his personal possessions because 'they never made me happy.'
Karl Rebeder, 47, from Linz, claims he will use the money from his household accessory business - worth £2.7 million - to fund orphanages and other help-the-poor projects in South America.

'I had the idea on holiday in Hawaii some years ago,' he said.
'My cars and plane have already gone and the rest follows very soon. I can't wait to be free of them.
'Since the sale of my company in 2004 I have been supporting several orphanage projects in central and South America.
'From this developed, less than a year ago, a greenhouse project which gives orphans the possibility to have agricultural training, to take up a small loan in order to make themselves independent vegetable growers.


'I set up a new non-profit micro-credit organisation to distribute these small loans to help these poor but industrious people.'
He told Austrian TV viewers of his plan to raffle his luxury Tyrol villa by lots - with all money going to the mymicrocredit.com foundation he started late last year - and shedding his fortune on the Stoeckl am Samstag chat-show programme, presented by Barbara Stoeckl, in an interview due to be broadcast in May.
The blurb for her show says; 'One of the central topics of the programme is relief actions, which portrays people who are actively involved in the humanitarian sector.
'Karl Rabeder is one of them and was therefore invited by Barbara Stoeckl to talk about his current and future plans in her show on May 16th.'
The luxury villa with breathtaking views over 'Sound of Music' countryside is being raffled for £1.3 million.



Prize: Rebeder is raffling off his luxury Tyrol villa

Rabeder claims he is happy living in a small flat and surviving on the equivalent of £800 a month.
'My then-wife and I were on the plane together coming back from Hawaii in 2004 and I realised that I was dying through consumerism,' he recalled.
'It has taken me until now to realise that I don't need money and possessions.
'I learned as a child the value of money and how to get by without it.'
Rabeder's father was a painter, his mother an office worker.
He founded his first company in 1986 and soon became rich, adding; 'I thought the more money I had the happier I would become, but it was not the case.'
He now lives in a two-room flat in Innsbruck, is divorced and added; 'The worst that can happen to me is that I have to take a small job to get by.'
It is unclear how his immediate family feels about his philanthropy.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1249414/Austrian-millionaire-gives-away-2-7m-fortune-personal-possessions-happy.html#ixzz0fBTsihdJ

[size=14pt]Man donates only house, land to motherless kids • Becomes tenant again [/size]
By SEYE OJO

Wednesday, February 10, 2010
It is one story that will first shock you to the marrows. And then the tears will start streaming down your cheeks.




http://odili.net/news/source/2010/feb/10/505.html


Without doubt, what he did would make the most charitable of friars green with envy. A man donating his only property in Lagos – a four-bedroom duplex and a parcel of land – to motherless kids isn’t a sight you witness everyday. But that was exactly what Babajide Fowowe did.

He donated his only house as well as the one-and-half plots of land he owned to the Lagos State government to serve as home for motherless babies. He then sought the services of an estate agent, paid for a small apartment and became a tenant.

So what could have prompted this man to embark on that seemingly stupid venture? Is it true, as some people have insinuated, that a few bolts must have been unscrewed in his head?

Fowowe is insisting that there is nothing wrong with his brain. His actions, he said, was not without a good reason. It was, he asserted, in fulfilment of a sacred vow he made to his late wife, Kehinde Olubukola, who died in August last year.

The couple got married on April 22, 1995. They had no child of their own till death did them part six months ago.

Olubukola did not die alone. When she lost her life in that auto accident, she was four months pregnant. She died with the baby in her womb.

Before their wedding, Babajide and Olubukola had courted for 11 years. Until the tragedy that claimed the wife, they had enjoyed a 25-year relationship that had plenty of love and peace, even though the soothing cries of a baby were absent in the house.

Olubukola and her husband were involved in a road accident in August last year. While the husband had no serious injuries, the wife sustained a spinal cord injury that eventually resulted in her demise.

Long before her death, Olubukola had sought to know from her husband what would become of their house, their land and their other belongings if any of them died since they did not have a child of their own. They then agreed that the house and the land would be donated to the government to serve as home for motherless children if either of them died.

The property is situated at No. 21 Olasehinde Williams Estate. It has since been christened Olubukola Fowowe Memorial Children Centre. The duplex and the land are in the same compound.

Fowowe, an event manager, recently handed over the documents of the property to the Lagos State government during a brief ceremony held at Oke-Ira in Ojodu Local Council Development Area (LCDA) of Lagos State. Deputy Governor, Mrs. Sarah Sosan, received the documents on behalf of the state government.

Wife of the Lagos State governor, Mrs. Abimbola Fashola, a Special Adviser to the governor, Dolapo Badru and the twin sister to the deceased, Mrs. Taiye Guanah, were on hand to witness the event.

Mrs. Guanah and her husband lauded their in law for fulfilling the vow. They described the action as a demonstration of the pure love and affection shared by the couple while the deceased was alive.

“Today, I am starting my life afresh in a rented apartment because my wife’s wish must come to pass,” Fowowe said. “But it is a thing of joy to me that we are giving out what cost us a lot. We are following the Biblical injunction. We know we shall reap the reward soonest because God is a covenant-keeping and covenant-rewarding God.

“The decision to bless motherless children with this property made up of a four-bedroom duplex and an undeveloped plot measuring 861.867 square metres was taken between my wife and I a few months before her demise. Though we were married for fourteen years, the marriage was without a child.

“One day, she asked me what would happen to all that we laboured to put together if any of us died. My initial response was that the question should not arise because we would not die but live. Later, we agreed that the property would be given to motherless children if any of us should leave before the other. That night, she cried and we embraced each other.

“We got married on the day her twin sister also got married, and for many months, the two couples, all four of us, joyfully stayed in one little room tucked away in Oke-Aro area of Lagos because that was what we could afford then. I cannot question God. But the questions that bothered me when she died were, after 11 years of courtship and fourteen years of marriage, why did she die alone though both of us were involved in the accident? And why did she die with her four months old pregnancy?”

Mrs. Fashola was full of commendation for Fowowe for fulfilling a vow made to a partner even after her demise.

“Let me assure you that this property will be put into good use,” she said. “I pray that God Almighty will continue to bless and strengthen this family for their contribution. May the memory of Mrs. Kehinde Olubukola Fowowe continue to live on. I enjoin other organisations as well as individuals to emulate the kind gesture of the donor by supporting the state government in the resolve to build a new Lagos through improvement in the welfare of our children.”

Lagos State Deputy Governor, Mrs. Sarah Adebisi Sosan, said the development was a great lesson for her. She expressed hope that God would definitely reward the donor for the sacrifice.

She said: “For a woman that has been looking for a child for 14 years to have her prayers answered only to die four months into the pregnancy shows that only God is all-knowing. It also shows that life is fragile and that everything on earth should be handled with care. Our ultimate goal should be to please God and live with him eternally.”

Badru, an aide to Governor Fashola noted that it takes somebody with the fear of God and love for humanity to fulfil such a vow. He also has a word for people who see Fowowe’s action as an act of foolishness.

“What if the man sleeps and doesn’t wake up again? What if both of them had died in that accident? What would have become of this property? Obviously, it would have been left to some family members to fight over and would not in any way benefit humanity like it is meant to do today.”

A feasibility study, he said, would be carried out before the centre will officially kick-off.

http://odili.net/news/source/2010/feb/10/505.html

Goes to show that money can't buy happiness.

I think he is manic depressive and going through an episode or something. He can have the money invested somewhere and still live like he makes only $50,000 a year. I don't get it

The one with the Nigerian guy is very touching but it makes more sense to me than the other guy. I hope they both find peace

Wow

Money isn't everything.
There are problems money couldn't and can't solve for me.

Kudos to both of them.