We came to Africa for the animals.  But we fell in love with the children.

We came from all over: from California to Connecticut, from Wisconsin to Texas.  Tourists on a great adventure to the heartland of the Masai Mara.  What we didn’t know is that we’d take part of Africa home in our hearts.

 It was a side trip, really.  An optional morning visit to a local school to meet some of the students.  Our guide, Tony – Antonio Marangabassa – suggested we might bring some supplies:  pens and pencils, paper, perhaps a soccer ball.

 Moved by the experience of touching Africa’s future, many of us wanted to do more.  We listened as Tony and his wife Eunice told us of their dream of bringing a better education for Kenya’s children – particularly for girls, for whom schooling is still secondary to serving the farm and family. 

Tony and Eunice dreamed of providing more supplies, raising scholarships for students to attend high school and college, and – ultimately – a new school to instill knowledge, morals, and hope to children regardless of gender, regardless of tribal or ethnic background.  A school to instill hope in a better Kenya.

 In 2002, African Angels Children’s Education Fund was founded to help the Marangabassas’ dream of a school of hope come true – to help Angels in America fund education for Angels in Africa. 

 In 2003, the Texas not-for-profit corporation was recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a Section 501(c)(3) charity.  Tax-deductible donations began to feed the dream.

 In 2008, he dream was realized  with the opening of the Makhanga Hope Academy, which contiues to grow toward its goal of training Kenya's next generation of leaders, regardless of gender or ethnicity.

 In 2013, the dream was recognized, as the Board of Education honored the Hope Academy as the Best Private School in the Bungoma North District, an honor it continues to win year after year!