ABAC to Kenya

The Political Science Club and Baptist Collegiate Ministries have initiated a project known as the Kenya Project. It entails raising enough money to send several ABAC students to Kenya in order to meet, teach, and purchase food and supplies for several orphanages in Nairobi, Kenya. While this may seem to be an unreachable goal, our planning and efforts are making it more realistic than anyone had ever imagined. What started as a small project that we had hoped we could achieve has grown into something much larger. ABAC is backing our efforts, and we have found many organizations at ABAC that are helping our cause.

As part of the project, we are hosting a Kenya Night at ABAC on Monday, February 12. The purpose of this event is to introduce our idea to the students and faculty of ABAC as well as the local community (including churches, doctors, and others). The event is open to the community, so anyone who is interested is welcome to come. Come see for yourself just how viable and important this project is, not only for the students of ABAC, but for the orphans in Kenya as well.

The plan for Kenya night is to have a presentation noting the problems, the solutions, and our efforts to decrease the suffering of those abroad. As is often said of traveling, it is the best way to eradicate ignorance. In that, we feel like this project is just what ABAC and Georgia needs in order to get more people involved, to make them aware of just how fortunate they are. Our presentation is extremely powerful and will invoke a positive emotional response from those in attendance. We have guest speakers lined up from Kenya as well as some students that have travelled to Kenya before.

We have teamed up with Fun Channel America to record all aspects of this project (Kenya Night, event planing, rockfest, trip, etc), from which they can create a DVD of our journey from concept to reality. We will have video feeds from Africa fed directly to Fun Channel America viewers LIVE. In addition, WFXL-Albany is looking into possibly sending their Production Manager and a camera-man with us on our journey to record the entire event. We are going to record the entire trip and present our travels to ABAC so that it can provide all of the students with a learning opportunity that will far exceed anything they ever thought they might see and learn about at ABAC. Copies of the DVDs will be sent to all of our major supporters, so that they may see what their contribution was able to do. We hope that this may ensure the continued success of the Kenya Project for years to come.

The biggest fundraising project we have lined up is the 2007 Kenya Rockfest, which we hope will become an annual event; making the Kenya Project an annual occurance as well. We have already lined up an all day concert, in which almost all of the preliminary costs have been taken care of by sponsors, donations, fundraising, and careful planning. For every 1,000 people who purchase tickets, we will raise more than $15,000 dollars worth of revenue for this project. On top of that income, we are going to receive 10% of all vending sales from our vendors, which include Pizza Hut, Subway, coffee shops, American Legion, etc. We are tentatively expecting between 2,500-6,500 people at the event. If 3,000 people attend the event, we will have raised enough money to call the project a success.

Thus far, we have received thousands of dollars worth of support, donations, etc. from dozens of companies, individuals, and organizations. We have received rent-free billboards, free printing, newspaper articles, free radio advertising, free TV commercials, and have even gained enormous interest and support from individuals at the FOX affiliate in Albany, Georgia. We have done all of the hard work necessary to make these events and the project as a whole a major success. We do, however, need to find ways to increase the financing for the project and the increase the turnout for these events in general. As I mentioned before, the success of Kenya Night and the 2007 Kenya Rockfest will directly affect the overall success and future of the Kenya Project here at ABAC. Therefore, it is vital that anyone willing to assist us in our goal do just that. It could make all of the difference in the world!

For more details on the project and on the 2007 Kenya Rockfest, check out www.KenyaRockfest.com.