The Amani Blog
Fashion Show Meeting Time! 9 Feb 2009
Hello friends and advocates of the Amani Life Project!
So, as you may have guessed we have an exciting fundraiser coming to town. We’re doing a prom dress fashion show (and I hear rumors that other articles of clothing may be sneaking into the fashion show also) later in March, which is about a month and a half away! In order to get everything planned in time, we must meet and discuss and talk and plan. The meeting is being held tomorrow night at Katie’s house at 7pm. For directions or more details, please email me at amanilifeproject@gmail.com and I’ll be glad to help you out!
Please, please join us if you can! We need all the help we can get, and we promise to get you out of there before American Idol!
Love, Whit
Story from Bo 30 Jan 2009
Here’s a story that keeps me up at night.
March 10, 2008
When friends from our home church returned from Africa after adopting two teenage girls, they reported having seen several men hanging around the orphanage gates. A social worker at the orphanage told them the men are predators who wait for the young girls to be released from the orphanage when they age out, which could be anywhere from age 15 to 18 depending on space in the orphanage. This is the beginning of the pipeline for approximately half of the supply of children for human trafficking and the sex slave trade.The director of a well known American adoption agency, told me that he has personally witnessed the predators at the gates of European orphanages, already armed with the names of the girls and the dates they are scheduled to be released.
A pastor who adopted from Russia reported observing two fancy black limousines arriving at the orphanage while he was there. The finely dressed men had come to pick up a strikingly beautiful teenage girl from the orphanage. He couldn’t help but wonder why they would kiss the orphanage director as they left. Was it their thanksfor this incredibly valuable prize they had just been given? Millions of girls like her have been lured into sexual slavery with lucrative job offers from finely dressed men just like these.
So many people have given so sacrifically of their time, their love and their finances to care for these children for as long as 18 years. Its a shame that so many of them will go from the institution directly, shortly or even eventually into the waiting arms of predators and slave traders. But that’s exactly what happens to most orphans and foster children today if they are not adopted.
www.howtoadopt.org/TheGreatNeed/ Paragraph 5
Does this information surprise you? Make you frustrated? Angry? Passionate?
Perfect.
With Great Hope for Change,
Bo
And here’s a note from me, Whitney – there are more details coming very quickly for the newest Amani Fundraiser. Stay tuned, and until then, keep your heart beating for these brilliant children!
January- what a wonderful month! 23 Jan 2009
January has brought with it an event to capture attention here in Bend and let everyone know what Amani is all about. This event will be summarized by this awe-inspiring clip from The Office. Take it away, Kelly…
Stay tuned for more info!
Love, Whitney
Welcome! 29 Dec 2008
Hello!
Welcome to our blog – the place where all the new events and announcements will roll in. If you’re new here, the Amani Life Project is a non-profit organization that exists to send orphaned girls to college. Right now we are focusing on 2 girls out of the 152,000,000 orphans there are to choose from. One is Essy and she’s dreaming of becoming a doctor and the other is Judy, who is hoping to spread her wings and fly – literally – by becoming a pilot. While we want desperately to send these girls to college immediately, we refuse to let the teenage/young adult women of America just sit by and watch. We need them (YOU) to be involved in every way possible! So really, Amani exists for two reasons: those across the oceans in an orphanage, and those at the next table over in Starbucks. We want to make a huge difference in the world, and we want to do that by giving resources to the strongest girls we’ve ever known – and to the ones we have yet to meet. I hope you’ll join us in our effort to send these girls to college.
If you’d like more information, email me at amanilifeproject@gmail.com or see our website, amanilifeproject.com. Thank you!
Whitney
About Amani:
It’s easy to tune out the statistics. They are, after all, just numbers on a page. Except when they’re not…
These statistics are REAL and so are the people they represent. So believe for a moment that you can look outside the window of our great country and catch a glimpse of the faces behind the numbers:
- There are 143 million orphans in the world and that number is growing exponentially.
- Every year more than 14 million children “age out” of an orphanage or foster home with no where to go. That’s one every 2.2 seconds.
- 60% of all girls who age out of an orphanage in Russia are lured into prostitution.
- 10-15% of all children who age out in Russia commit suicide before their 18th birthday.
- Less than 1% of orphans ever have the chance at higher education – only a fraction of those who do get that opportunity are girls.
That last little fact is the one that we’re working to change. Imagine a world where a girl could grow up with no mom and dad and very little hope, and then discover that far more fortunate women far away had decided to care and save and give and that she…suddenly…has a chance.
Imagine.
The Amani Life Project exists to give orphaned girls a healthy transition into a safe and secure life (“Amani” is the Swahili word for “safe”). It also exists for you...to help you understand what’s happening in the real world and to become a part of something really big. Together, we can give orphaned girls a chance to become an entirely different kind of statistic; a BRILLIANT and BEAUTIFUL success story.
And really, wouldn’t you like to matter? Wouldn’t you like to use your resources; money, time or talent and invest in something important? A life could be changed because you focused even just a little of your energies on social justice.
Yes, you would! Because that’s who you are.
So, here’s the deal. We have some amazing young women in Kenya who have some pretty big dreams. They dream of becoming pilots and doctors and businesswomen and teachers, but they have zero dollars or connections or hope to make that happen without us.
They have a dream and we have a plan and together, we can make a miracle!
