The Hope for Africa Children’s Choir will bring its international music ministry to the Asbury United Methodist Church in Lake Mills, Iowa, in a concert at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 2. This concert is open to the public, and a love offering will be taken. All donations will go directly to the children’s choir. The choir’s presence is part of a multi-annual conference tour. The Hope for Africa Children’s Choir consists of 22 children ages 6 to 12 years.

The Orphans and Vulnerable Children’s Ministry of the United Methodist Church was initiated to address the challenges facing the East Africa Annual conference. The East Africa Episcopal Area comprises of 5 sovereign states of Uganda, Sudan, Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi with a total population of 116,117,987.

The orphans and vulnerable children’s ministry, of which the choir is a part, is an intervention aimed at addressing the challenges the parentless children in the conference are faced with. The ministry sets out to create and operate the following “all inclusive centers” that provide a holistic environment to the orphans and the vulnerable children. The centers operate schools (Pre-primary, Primary and High school), dwellings, and other facilities that go with it such as a water sources, toilets, and health facilities. The centers care for children aged 2 to 12 years.

Civil history

For more than two decades these countries have not enjoyed stability and peace. Uganda has had civil wars for over twenty years and about a quarter of the population has lived in restricted camps. There is a whole generation that has had their entire life in internally displaced people’s camps.

In the case of Rwanda the country is yet to fully recover from the impact of the 1994 genocide. For Burundi, it has had numerous coups and civil wars. Equally, Sudan has been subjected to more than 50 years of civil war in the South and Darfur is just recovering from the SPLA/M rebellion. This part of the country has no infrastructure worth to talk about. Of late Kenya, which has been relatively peaceful, has just had political and social unrest due to the post election crisis.

Worse still, the region has been hit by diseases such as the HIV/AIDS epidemic, malaria, and of recent Ebola. These diseases have left millions dead resulting into growing numbers of orphans and widows. Thus, a number of households are in the hands of either the aged or children. All these events have greatly impacted on the social, political and economic prosperity of these countries.