Matsiko Children’s Choir to perform in Temecula and Murrieta

Twelve-year-old Gloria Akello loves potato salad, roller coasters and French fries. She tried them for the first time earlier this year. Her dream is to graduate from a university and become a renowned heart surgeon.

“The doctor’s who put on the white coat, that looks cool,” she said excitedly. “Back home, my brother and sister live deep in the village. They don’t go to school because they don’t have someone to help them… I do.”

Gloria is one of thousands of orphaned and at-risk children from Uganda relying on International Children’s Network and their sponsors to help fund her education.

International Children’s Network is a nonprofit agency helping orphaned and at-risk children further their education through sponsors and the network’s sponsorship programs. Started as a small church youth group in 1997, the nonprofit has grown dramatically from youths performing community service, to a group traveling countless miles helping disadvantaged children in other countries.

“Our purpose is to help them become independent,” said Don Windham, co-founder and president of the network. “We’re not like other sponsorship programs. We don’t stop when the children turn 18. We’re helping them all the way through.”

The network has developed several outreach programs over the years to help create an awareness of the children’s hardships and the network’s sponsorship programs, including the Matsiko Children’s Choir.

Matsiko gets its name from the Ugandan word for “hope.”

In hopes of spreading the word on the importance of sponsorship, Gloria and the rest of the Matsiko choir will be holding more than a dozen performances during the next two weeks at several schools and churches throughout the Temecula and Murrieta area.

The choir is made up of 25 orphaned and at-risk children from the remote bush villages in Uganda, East Africa.

The group of 15 girls and 10 boys travel throughout the U.S. with International Children’s Network,  performing traditional African dance, singing and native drumming, in efforts to promote sponsorship and its benefits toward children’s education.

“None of them would be going to school if it wasn’t for sponsorship,” said Jennie Windham, the network’s director of sponsorship.

Schooling must be paid for at all grade levels, which is beyond most families abilities, Don said.

“It’s tragic.”

Children sponsored through the program have been able to further their education, attend and finish college as well as medical school, Jennie said.

If it wasn’t for Gloria’s sponsor, Uncle Gary, the choir and the network’s efforts, Gloria said she would probably still be in the village hoping to someday be able to go to school.

“I know I wouldn’t have what I do now,” she said. “I love my sponsor very much. He has supported my life and my education. He is a great man of God because of that.”

Last year the choir performed at Lisa J. Mails Elementary School in Murrieta and received a great response from students and staff, said Karen Parris, spokesperson for Murrieta Valley Unified School District.

“The performance offers a great lesson for children in our schools,” she said. “It talks about the importance of education and really helps students appreciate some of the things they take for granted here, things like free education.”

Performances for students will be held during school assemblies, with one performance open to the public at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 13 at Antelope Hills Elementary School, 36105 Murrieta Oaks Avenue. All church performances are open to the public.

View Matsiko Children’s Choir tour schedule.

Yazmin Alvarez can be reached at yazmin.alvarez@swrnn.com.

Tags: Antelope Hills Elementary School, International Children's Network, Lake Elsinore, Matsiko Children's Choir, Menifee, Murrieta, murrieta valley unified school district, SWRNN, Temecula, temecula valley unified school district, wildomar

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