African Children’s Choir brings inspiring performance to eastern Idaho
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IDAHO FALLS — Exhilarating. Awesome. Inspiring. Uplifting.
Those were some of the words expressed following a performance by the African Children’s Choir Sunday morning at First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Idaho Falls.
The group consists of 20 boys and girls from Uganda between the ages of 7-10. They began a four-month tour of the United States last month and are traveling the country performing hymns, African spirituals and other music. Tickets to the performances are free but donations are encouraged to help the children.
“This is the main fundraising effort for the children’s education. When they return home to Uganda, this will allow them to have access to quality education and finish university,” tour leader Sandra Nakalanda tells EastIdahoNews.com. “This choir impacts so many children and turns their lives around for good.”
As a child, Nakalanda was in the choir in 2002. She toured with the group and remembers performing at the same First Evangelical Lutheran Church twenty years ago. Because of the non-profit choir, she was able to afford school and graduate with a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Diplomacy from Nkumba University in Uganda three years ago.
“In choosing members, the choir contacts schools in some of Uganda’s most underserved communicates and priority is given to whatever children need the most help,” she explains. “The neediest children gets most priority with the idea that to help one child from a disadvantaged community is to help the entire community.”
On days the choir doesn’t have performances, leaders take the kids to museums, parks, waterslides and other places of interest. Once the tour concludes in January, the children will return home and continue their education.
“I thought their performance was awesome. They had so much energy and it was just contagious,” says Debra Holst, an Idaho Falls resident who attended the concert. “It was exhilarating!”
The next stop for the African Children’s Choir is in Logan on Tuesday but the group will be back in eastern Idaho for another performance at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Grace Lutheran Church in Pocatello. The choir will also sing in Twin Falls on Friday at Kingdom Church.
You can learn more about the choir and see their tour schedule here.
Watch the choir sing part of ‘How Great Thou Art’ in the video player above. The conductor and two children from the choir will be interviewed on ‘7 Questions with Emmy’ this Thursday.