The African Children's Choir brings a message of resiliency, dignity and beauty as they perform on tour in the U.S. On Oct. 24, the African Children’s Choir will perform at the Cache Valley Bible Fellowship in Logan.
Tina Sipp is the choir manager. When she heard the children perform for the first time, she was captivated by their spirit.
“I honestly couldn't tell you anything about the program. I don't remember any song. I don't remember a costume. I don't remember a dance. But I remember their spirit," she said. "To this day, I think that's what captivates people the most is they just have such a message through their own little lives. very unassuming, very unintentional. You know, they're just being themselves. And it's so pure, and so genuine."
Sipp said the African Children’s Choir is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 1984 by Ray Barnett, who worked with a church in Uganda, Africa.
“He was asked to give a little boy a ride. This little boy had lost both of his parents in the civil war in Uganda," Sipp said. "And in the jeep, the little boy sang praise songs the whole ride. Ray was captured by that same resiliency, that same dignity, potential, beauty of the African child.”
Sipp said Barnett wanted to help some of these orphaned children and provide an education and home for them, so he founded the choir as a way to raise money.
The program’s mission is to help Africa’s most vulnerable children today so they can help Africa tomorrow. By giving the children an opportunity to participate in the choir and go on tour, Sipp said it allows them to cast a vision and see beyond their limited exposure at home.
“To me that's far beyond giving them an education — that's their heart’s changed, you know, their heart has become what we hope for them, that they will have productive meaningful lives," she said.
The African Children’s Choir is typically made up of 18 to 20 children ages 7-10, and the selection process is based on need. After selection, Sipp said children go to the choir training academy, where they spend a year focusing on their education and choir rehearsals. After this, the children will go on a choir tour for several months and return to continue their education. The children are financed all the way through the university level.
“It's a much further reaching work than just the choir that you see on the stage," Simp said.
Sipp explained the money that is raised goes back to support not only the children in the choir, but hundreds of children in the organization’s other educational programs. She said the program has helped educate 58,000 children. To learn more, visit africanchildrenschoir.com.
