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A member of the African Children's Choir sings in a performance. The choir works to raise money and awareness to help educated African children living in poverty.

"It's a long-term investment; a long-term commitment... and it's working."

Choir uses voices to uplift audiences and the lives of poor African children through education, faith

By: Kelly Curran

Posted: 2/27/08

Anthony Were has a case of the flu, but his spirits are high, his voice pleasant and calming. He is resting at his home in Nairobi, Kenya, just past 7 p.m. his time. He hasn't had dinner, but insists on the phone he is content.

He talks in a soft voice, but he frequently laughs; the genuine, infectious laugh of a child. It's easy to forget that he is thousands of miles away, tucked into his cozy couch in his surely quaint home, amidst a country experiencing such turmoil. You can't hear it in his voice, picture it in your mind, or begin to imagine the political tension occurring in the place he calls home.

"I was born in Kenya," said Were, a radio journalist. "I hope to live and die here."

He shares stories of Nairobi; stories that create the sense of a carefree community that somehow seems so similar to life in Texas. And he speaks of the African Children's Choir and the tremendous role it has played in his life.

He tells about his three closest friends, his new job, his mother, his childhood. We talk about that notorious, golden arches seen around the world, McDonalds.

And then he talks about a church that was recently burned because of political unrest in Kenya. The church sat just outside the slums where Were lived as a child.

In 1990, the church as a physical entity and a place of God, symbolized the start of a new life to Were and other high-spirited children more than ever before.

Were was 8 years old then. He and many other children anxiously gathered inside the church awaiting to audition for a children's choir. Word of the auditions had spread by way of mouth.

"My mum heard about it from a missionary," Were said.

It was a choir that promised so much more than an opportunity to sing.

Were was chosen to become a member, along with other children who desperately needed help. Most were living in extreme poverty and had lost one or both parents to disease.

"It was a relief for our families to have someone to be able to help us," Were said. Ironically, it was the children helping the parents.

Ray Barnett, the founder and president of the African Children's Choir, had started the choir six years earlier, in 1984.

That year was a time of turmoil in Uganda, following the rule of Idi Amin. Thousands of children were left orphaned. American Ray Barnett was visiting Africa. Barnett picked up a young, African boy on the side of a road and offered him a ride. The child found a safe place of expression during the ride with Barnett, and Barnett found a lifetime of inspiration in the boy.

"The little boy sang and sang the whole way," said Dawna Hodgins, publicity coordinator for the African Children's Choir. It was his voice in the car that day, said Hodgins, which prompted Barnett's efforts to help rescue the children in war-torn Uganda and other parts of Africa.

Twenty-four years later, the choir continues to tour, and Texas A&M is its next stop. The children serve as ambassadors for their countries and educate the world, while helping their family and friends back home.

"Education is a way out of tragedy and they want to portray this to the world," said Lindsay Byrd, Development Director of Special Events at the Children's Museum of Brazos Valley.

"Those selected for the choir are the ones who need help the most; they have nothing," Hodgins said.

The children tour for 12 to 15 months. "They have a job," Byrd said.

They are accompanied by chaperones, many of whom are former choir members. Each chaperone raises their own financial support in order to tour with the choir.

After the choirs tour, they return to Africa and attend Music for Life Primary School. Barnett and his organization provide free schooling for the children all the way through University or trade school.

"It's a long term-investment; a long-term commitment," Hodgins said. She pauses. "And it's working."

There are 7,000 children are being cared for and educated through the African Children's Choir Organization. Past choir members have accomplished great things. They are teachers, pastors, doctors and journalists. One boy was fascinated by roads in America and he is now a civil engineer who builds roads in Uganda.

One choir member wants to be a rocket scientist when he grows up. "I just love that," Hodgins said. "Why not?"

The performance, "A Journey of Hope," will include dancing, the incorporation of instruments, elaborate costumes, the voices of the children. It even tells the story of the organization's beginning, and how one of the first choirs was able to convince border control to let them escape Uganda in a time of crisis.

"Go prepared to be awed and touched," Hodgins said.