Building on hope

Father Henry Simaro was 6 when Irish missionaries drove into his blighted village in Kenya and offered him a chance to go to boarding school. Over the ensuing years, he excelled at every level of school, attended college and eventually went to USC on a scholarship.

When he returned to his home country, he found it much the same as when he left it: Millions of children living in ramshackle slums, AIDS and violence taking lives by the day, girls forced to gather firewood at home while their brothers went to boarding school. After Simaro officiated at nine orphans’ funerals in a week, he set out to give others the break that strangers had given him.

Simaro, who still lives in Kenya, set up the African Child Foundation to build and maintain private schools for some of his country’s poorest children. And this Saturday, he’s hoping to get a boost from one of Orange County’s wealthiest communities, as African Child Fund — a Newport Beach nonprofit that supports the foundation — plans to host a fundraiser at the Hyatt Regency Newport Beach.

“The significance of it is, as I look at it, the elementary schools and the middle schools, those years are very crucial to child development,” Simaro said. “When you look at education and their future, that’s really the foundation — catching proper grammar, arithmetic, just a positive attitude in life.”

African Child Fund’s specific goal is to raise $1.4 million to build a private middle school for girls near Nairobi, the Kenyan capital. While the foundation already operates elementary schools and pays tuition to send children to high school, students are forced to go to overcrowded public campuses for middle school — a transition that, Simaro said, causes many students to fall behind and return to slum life.

Already, Simaro said, the prospective Mt. Olive Middle School has more than 300 girls signed up to attend, and the foundation plans to construct parts of the campus as money comes in. Jene Meece, the vice chairwoman of African Child Fund, said her group netted $150,000 at its fundraiser last year, and hopes to equal or surpass that amount Saturday.

From 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, the amphitheater outside the Hyatt Regency will turn into a village marketplace, with vendor booths selling handcrafts and the Kenyan band Milele playing African music. Tickets for the event, titled “Safari of Hope,” are $100 and include dinner, wine and a presentation by Simaro.

Meece, a Newport Beach resident, runs African Child Fund with other members of Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church after Simaro spoke there in 2005. This spring, she traveled to Kenya for the first time and met some of the children at Simaro’s schools.

Listening to their stories, Meece said, she could detect a mix of optimism and fear — the students expressed dreams of becoming members of high-paying professions, but also noted that if they lost their places at boarding school, it would mean a quick return to poverty.

“They thrive on the discipline,” she said. “I think they crave order, because their lives have been so out of control.”

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Fundraiser benefiting the African Child Fund featuring dinner, wine, music and a Kenyan-style village marketplace

WHEN: 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: Hyatt Regency Newport Beach, 1107 Jamboree Road

ADMISSION: $100

TICKETS: Call (949) 463-1390 or visit www.africanchildfund.org

MICHAEL MILLER may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at [email protected].