Our History

Amani Africa is a grassroots organization striving to establish sustainable peace in Central African post-conflict communities by engaging youth leaders in cross-cultural dialogue and providing opportunities to orphans and street children through education and training.

The seeds of Amani Africa were first planted when Charles Nkazamyampi established the first soccer team for street children in 2001 in Kigali, Rwanda. As an athlete himself, Charles had seen firsthand the transformative power of sports to bring together young children from different cultures, communities, and backgrounds. Charles realized that many of these children living on the streets had no other support or guidance in their lives. They desperately wanted to belong to a community and to participate in activities where they could interact with other children and positive role models. Charles formed the Sports and Culture for Peace Foundation in order to reach out to these children.

Charles met Gasana Mutesi at a Kigali conference about helping the large number of genocide orphans in the region. Gasana had also been working in human rights activism for years, serving on the National Youth Council and other community initiatives. She immediately offered to help Charles with SCPFâs activities.

Shortly after the first soccer team was established children began to arrive at the sports fields every day, requesting to participate in the activities. While Charles couldnât coach all of these children alone, he quickly found Rwandan teenagers and young adults who came out to the fields on the weekends to help as volunteers. What began as an informal soccer team in the Kigali slum of Nyamirambo rapidly grew into an organization with over 20 teams. After the soccer games were over, Charles and the coaches would lead games about HIV/AIDS education and engage the children in discussions about human rights and peace-building.

A group of young girls living on the streets approached Gasana and asked for her help in forming a traditional dance club. Gasana recognized the potential in reaching out to girls through their participation in dancing and singing clubs. These groups also teach girls about Rwandaâs beautiful history of dance and music. Female university students offered to coach and mentor the girls groups.

UNICEF and the international organization Right to Play approached Charles with plans to help implement his activities and training modules of sports and development across the country. Charles was asked to serve as a Right to Play Athlete Ambassador in 2003. Government officials and civil society leaders from Burundi witnessed the profound impact that the sports activities were having on children in Kigali communities and asked Charles to bring his programs back to Burundi as well. Years after his parents were killed in his small village of Bugabira, Burundi, Charles returned to this community to establish a soccer team for street children.

In 2003, Charles and Gasana decided that they needed to address the problem of homelessness among these young children. With their very limited savings, they rented a small home in the Kigali slum of Nyamirambo. They purchased bunk beds and bedding, and 17 young boys who were previously living on the streets moved in. Gasana began approaching her friends in the government and private sector to collect donations to pay for the school fees for these boys. Today, Amani Africa pays for over 250 children to attend school.

In 2006, the decision was made to change the name of the organization to Amani Africa. Amani means peace in Swahili. With the help of Elizabeth Davis, who first worked with Charles and Gasana as a volunteer, Amani Africa was registered as a 501c3 nonprofit organization in the United States. Amani Africa also received status as a nonprofit organization in Burundi in order to formalize the programs that had already been taking place in this country.

All of the Amani programs are focused on engaging young children and teenagers in the peace-building process in Africaâs Great Lakes region (Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo). Amani Africa (formerly The Sports and Culture for Peace Foundation) has received funding and support from UNICEF, the Steamboat Foundation, the Holton Foundation, and Right to Play International.

Amani Africa has not written any posts yet.