THE AMANI STORY
After graduating from College, Maggie and William (co-founders of Amani) served as Pastors and Non-Profit leaders among low and middle-income communities in Kenya for ten years. Part of their mission working at Christian Chapels International and Tumaini International (local faith-based organizations) involved church planting and non-profit management, overseeing the planting of three Churches, and leading development programs that serve over 1500 AIDS orphans and their families. Maggie narrates, “For most of our time in ministry, we lived in a rented house in the rural town of Masii, South, Eastern Kenya, and woke up daily to the plight of vulnerable children in our neighborhood. Besides the AIDS menace and poverty in the area, horror stories of child sexual exploitation and human trafficking around the country triggered our desire to respond in tangible ways.
In January 2016, the Lord moved us to start a children’s Bible club in our rented house. At the time, we were foster-parenting a three-year-old boy, born of a blind teenager who had been sexually exploited. The Bible club attracted many children who gathered every Saturday afternoon at our house. As we listened to the community around us, we sensed a deep yearning for a holistic Children’s learning center. In 2017, we worked alongside some community members to start AMANI School. The term ‘Amani’ is Swahili for peace, but it can also be translated as Shalom- meaning wholeness, completeness, well-being, or flourishing.
Today, Amani is a fully-fledged elementary school with a population of 100 children. In March 2020, it was incorporated as a faith-based non-profit in Kenya and in California, US. Its primary purpose is to work for dignity, agency, voice, and Justice with and for children at-risk and their families through education, micro-enterprise development, anti-human trafficking advocacy (Justice), and mental health.
Maggie & William Maweu
Co-Founders.
