Dear Friends,

I came to Tanzania in 2012 with the objective to volunteer and teach English to kids with my dear friend, Kelly McNamara. In 2014, I came back with Veronique Houdrouge hoping to find that same orphanage based on my geographical memory of that place. After 4 hours of research, we managed to find the children and the wonderful Julieth Kivuyo, director of the orphanage. Seeing their powerful smiles, and at times, profound sadness linked to their lack of food, education or health issues convinced me that we must dedicate ourselves to improving the lives of impoverished communities and offer them a chance of a brighter future. We have built an incredible friendship with the children but also with Julieth, a fascinating and restless woman that considers herself as the mother of her seventeen kids. That is why, with my sister Johanna Houdrouge and my mother, Veronique Houdrouge, we have decided to create Children of Africa as Africa is a continent very dear to our family, with the objective to develop projects in Senegal in the future. Thanks to the incredible support of our members, we have made incredible progress on our first project and have been able to change a child’s life in a fast and efficient manner, such as providing them with sponsors for education. Only with your support can we continue to help those children and complete our ongoing project, which is building an orphanage. The discovery I made when meeting these fascinating kids and a person like Julieth Kivuyo has transformed me. You could transform the lives of those children and we hope, it will change yours too.

Jennifer Houdrouge