RYAN KEITH,FORGOTTEN VOICES/SUBMITTED PHOTOWithin the first 24 hours of his first visit to Africa, Ryan Keith, president and founder of Forgotten Voices International, had already made a promise to a grandmother that he would not forget her story. He promised he would not forget how he witnessed her daughter die from AIDS or forget about her two young grandchildren that were now orphaned by the deadly disease.
“That’s when I knew this would be more than a trip to Africa,” Keith said. “This would be something that would change the direction of my life.”
After that first trip, Keith decided something had to be done to help these two children, along with other children who are orphaned by AIDS. He got the idea to start working with local people and local projects and from there started Forgotten Voices International based out of Mechanicsburg, Pa, in 2004.
Now the organization assists on 135 church-run orphan projects in Zimbabwe and Zambia and helps over 2,200 children.
“I saw the best return of investment from [local churches] because they knew all the kids, knew their history and saw opportunity to work with them. No one works with [local churches], particularly in Zimbabwe,” Keith said.
For being a local-run organization helping fight AIDS overseas, Forgotten Voices International has been doing remarkably well. In general, 93 cents of every dollar raised goes directly to orphan care. The national industry average of orphan-care projects is only 68 cents on the dollar.
“We work directly with local people. So that enables more of our money to go to kids.”
From that 93 percent of the money, 28 percent goes towards school fees and sending the children back to school. 25 percent is for home-based care for the children or their caretakers. 25 percent goes towards education programs for adults, children and care givers. The remaining amount goes towards sustainable projects such as funding farms and funding skills clinics. These projects help caretakers and children learn a trade so that they can start a business and support themselves.
“It takes the whole idea of us saving Africa and puts it on its head and says local people are saving Africa and it’s our job, through religion and responsibility, to help them do that,” Keith said.
The toughest challenge, according to Keith, is to get people in the United States to give money and get involved. The United States portrays Africa “as too overwhelming, too daunting, and that nothing can be done.”
“That is surprisingly one of the toughest things to help people understand that every statistic that they hear about Africa has a story and every story is connected through a story of hope and a future and promise. Every kid will eventually be a mom and a dad and that’s probably the most surprising thing that’s been very difficult for the typical person to grasp.”
So, what can an average United States college student do? “The most important thing that people like you and your peers can do is to learn and stay in school and learn as much as you can because the challenge of AIDS and orphan care is complicated and it involves real solutions and not just people who want to help. We need to know what we’re doing and know what we’re talking about.”
Keith never did break that promise with that grandmother either. He has kept an eye on the two children, Peterson, who is now 11 years old, and Prudence, the little girl. Prudence has since died from being born infected with HIV/AIDS. Now, every time Keith visits Africa he makes sure to see Peterson, play soccer with him and just talk.
“When I wake up in the morning and I’m having a bad day or we have problems or donors aren’t cooperating or something’s going wrong, there is nothing going on in my life that compares to Peterson. And if he can get up and put a smile on, go to work and go to school, I can do the same. I should do the same. I must do the same.”
