The St. Nicholas Africa Fund is a Charitable Works project of St Nicholas Orthodox Church in San Anselmo, California, a 501(c)(3) organization. Contributions are fully tax-deductible.
What do we do?— We directly help some of the poorest people in the world— mainly in Uganda, Kenya, Congo, and South Africa— all of whom are personally known to us— to finish high school, start businesses, and to meet their education, housing, nutrition, medical, and vocational needs.
People have to eat, NOW— hunger doesn’t wait!
Medical care often can’t wait either.
But beyond the emergencies, the goal is always an income.
Education and training lift out of poverty.
That’s our whole philosophy, from beginning to end.
And we bet it’s yours too.
You can give life, health, and prosperity. You can stop the hunger and pain. You can help people stand when the world is beating them down. The only question is, can you do anything more meaningful? Okay then. Let’s start.
It takes work to organize, and we end up sending out a lot more appeals than we wish we had to— but if your help, getting results is actually pretty straightforward. People know what they need. What they lack is usually just a little money to get going. They need school fees. Capital to open a shop. Basic nutrition. How hard is any of that?? You want to help, but the problem is, you just don’t know anybody there.
Well, we know lots of people, and we know them directly. Of course not everybody— but in our experience, when one person has an income, about eleven people eat. So when you send us a gift— BOOM!— people eat. people go to school. people get over typhoid. It seldom takes much, when the money goes right to the person who needs it. And that’s what we do. We send your money right to their phone. We work directly with our clients. We know what they’re going through. And they send us their receipts. (Well, when reasonable). So YOU accomplish your purpose in giving.
Can you help us?—
or click here!
A thumbnail sketch of how it began . . . and continued
From the start of the program in 2003 through December 2022, we’ve sent more than $558,000— over half a million dollars— in direct assistance to Uganda, the Congo, Kenya, and South Africa, helping scores of students finish school, saving lives, training engineers, and creating jobs. We’re even sponsoring a medical student, the very first from his entire sub-county. He and his sponsors are beginning to think about building the first clinic in his area.
You probably wonder how much of your charitable gifts actually land on the people you want to help. But what if you knew you were directly paying school fees, or curing a case of typhoid, or feeding someone right now, today? That’s what we’re all about— you send $100 and Kasirye eats, Okello pays his school fees, and Margaret has her operation. It’s that straightforward!
The Africa Fund got started in 2003 when longtime St Nicholas parish member John Burnett went to Kampala, Uganda to work for a couple of months as an education consultant for the Orthodox archdiocese there. Not long after, he returned and worked for several years as Dean of its seminary. At that time, he started to support, and then to organize support, for high school students he knew who were in danger of dropping out for lack of fees. Later on, he became Dean of the seminary in Johannesburg, and found himself working with many Congolese and Zimbabwean refugees in a very deteriorated and crime-ridden but lovely slum known as Yeoville. Thus he expanded the program to serve some of his new contacts as well. The fund still supports one university student in South Africa, the son of a Congolese refugee, who expects to graduate in 2024.
But one Johannesburg family— Patrick, Christelle, and their infant son Blessing— returned to the Congo a few years ago. Through a series of disasters, accidents, deaths, and other catastrophes, they soon found themselves running what is now effectively an orphanage with 13 kids, from age 16 down to 3. As of January 2023 it costs about $3600 per month to keep all of them in a very crowded house, in school, fed, and healthy. We’ve helped Patrick and Christelle start a little restaurant, and they manage to defray a small part of their costs, but otherwise, there’s no way they could keep the whole program going. The kids themselves are from four different families, none of whom knew each other before Patrick and Christelle took them in— only Blessing and two-year-old Julianne are their own.
The Fund focuses on helping poor students get an education, but because we have a fairly close relationship with them, we’ve always provided medical, nutritional, and housing assistance as well. We’ve sponsored some of our graduates in vocational or even university programs, and we’ve helped some of them to start small businesses. Our vision and our goal is for them to become self-sufficient. Our experience has been that in Africa, when one person has a job, about ten people eat. Most of the small businesses that our clients have started have proven successful, and one or two at a time, the kids are graduating.
Administration and oversight
The Fund is directed and administered by Mr Burnett himself. We do pay a Program Manager in Kampala to keep an eye on each of our recipients personally, and to make sure that every cent remitted reaches its intended purpose. At home, the program is also overseen by the Parish Treasurer at St Nicholas in San Anselmo.
Because remitting money abroad has gotten very easy since Covid forced everyone to go online, we can now send funds directly to many recipients, or to their parents if the kids are young. Doing this is cost-effective and eliminates paying mobile-money fees inside Uganda. But sometimes it’s still expedient to batch funds and send them through the Program Manager, and he either pays the schools directly, or sends the money to the client so they can buy clothing, food, books, etc. We get receipts whenever possible (Africa’s economies are largely informal, so it’s often not possible), and we keep a strict account of all money transfers. Mr Burnett submits quarterly reports to the St Nicholas Parish Council, and the account is professionally audited and a report submitted to the Parish at the end of each year.
We can’t always avoid money-transfer and bank fees, but those and communication costs are our only overhead. We know each of our recipients face-to-face, and communicate with many of them often. The whole operation is very person-to-person. With us, you’re basically looking into someone’s eyes as you take care of their need.
To sum it up
We strive to support our recipients at least through the end of high school or vocational training, but some kids are definitely university material, and we try to help them, especially in medicine or STEM subjects. Azizi recently got an IT degree in Turkey, and has just completed an internship in Belgium. Samuel is now the manager of a hydroelectric power station on the Congolese border (!), and is paying for his own siblings’ education. Moses graduated from Kampala International University, got a job running the security system at a large business, and just bought a piece of land. Richard is currently a full-time medical student. Typically, we help our kids for about 10 years.
Do you know a charity where you could have a more direct impact? If you do, then please let us know— we want to find out how they do it, so we can do it too!
More than half a million dollars of direct assistance has made an incredible difference in the lives of some of Africa’s poorest people since 2003. A high school certificate is the minimum requirement for most employment, and we’ve sponsored scores of them. The apprenticeships we’ve arranged, the business grants we’ve given, and the emergency food, housing, and medical assistance we’ve provided have helped entire families to stay afloat and even to thrive. We’ve directly saved many lives by taking care of accidents, serious operations, and emergency medical care.
Can you think of anything more amazing than saving a life?
Or than giving the gift of life?
Now that you have an idea of the kind of impact we have, would you be averse to helping us out today?
Would you hesitate even to set up a monthly contribution, if you could?
Click on this Paypal button. You don’t have to have a Paypal account, and it’s safe and secure—
—or just send a check to
Africa Fund
St Nicholas Orthodox Church
102 Ross Avenue
San Anselmo CA 94960 USA.
And contact us from the link at the bottom of this page if you have any questions, comments, or wish to sponsor a student or address a particular need.
