The Amani Children's Foundation

When I entered college in 2005, I entered as a member of the Robertson Scholars Program. Each year the program welcomes approximately 30 students (half at UNC, half at Duke) for an extraordinary expense-free four year collegiate journey. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is my home school along with about 14 others in the Class of 2009. One of those classmates goes by the name Rob Stephens. Rob is from Winston-Salem, NC and is an absolutely incredible individual. I could write an entire blog on our friendship, but I won't!

Upon entering the program, Rob and I became fast friends. We spent our first summer living and working together in the Mississippi Delta interning at the Delta Center for Culture and Learning. I've told many that that was the best summer of my life, and that still holds true. We learned a lot and endured a lot while we were there in the Delta and it proved to be an unforgettable experience.

In our sophomore year Rob began to tell me more and more about a foundation his parents had founded. It was called the Amani Children's Foundation. He had recounted his time spent in Africa and the adoption of his Kenyan brother (Joe) and sister (Bui) when we were freshmen, but he'd never gotten into the details. Since he gave them to me, I'll give them to you!

The Amani Children's Foundation was first created to raise awareness about the growing number of orphaned children in Sub-Saharan Africa and to build partnerships with groups and individuals in the United States to work towards decreasing the impact of this issue. This organization is primarily focused on serving children who have been orphaned by AIDS by providing various types of support for them.

Currently, the foundation is supporting New Life Homes in Kenya. The group has been working since 1994 and has rescued over 800 infants with most of them being adopted. They are a best practice example of how to raise infants in a loving environment. They are a highly respected organization in Kenya.

There are 6 New Life Homes in Kenya and Amani supports the operation of the homes in Nakuru, Kisumu, and Mombasa as well as assisting the other homes. The Kenyan government would like to see a home in each of the 8 Kenya provinces, and there is a great need for that. Rob tells me that some of these babies are found lying abandoned on the side of the street crying because their families just can't care for them. That was all I needed to hear, I knew I wanted to get involved!

That spring, Rob approached me wondering what kind of fundraiser we could have for the Amani Children's Foundation. We decided on a benefit concert. We wanted a venue that would a attract people so we reached for the stars and started with one of the most famous live music venues in the world, the Cat's Cradle down in Carrboro, NC. Miraculously we secured the venue! Then it was on to recruiting acts. While recruiting, we noticed that all the artist fell into one genre of music. Acknowledging that, we called the event "The Amani Children's Foundation presents: Hip Hop Helps."


With help from other student organizations and local sponsors, the concert was a great success. We were able to collect over $2000 in donations. It takes approximately $1000 to care for a Kenyan orphan in a New Life Home for their first year of life. We were pretty proud of ourselves. Keeping up with the tradition, we had two Amani benefit concerts this year.

Each time we've had an event to benefit the foundation, my mother has sent a donation. This got her signed up for the Amani Children's Foundation newsletters and she began to learn more and more about the foundation. In a way, we've both been connected to the program for a couple years. So when this opportunity rolled around, we both jumped on it!

Please read more on the Amani Children's Foundation on their website and find out how to get involved!