Issue date: 4/24/08 Section: Special Edition

Media Credit: RYAN KEITH,FORGOTTEN VOICES/SUBMITTED PHOTO Prudence, born with HIV/AIDS, was paralyzed since birth and relied on her brother to carry her everywhere. She has since died from HIV/AIDS.

Within the first 24 hours of his first visit to Africa, Ryan Keith, president and founder of Forgotten Voices International, had already made a promise to a grandmother that he would not forget her story. He promised he would not forget how he witnessed her daughter die from AIDS or forget about her two young grandchildren that were now orphaned by the deadly disease.

"That's when I knew this would be more than a trip to Africa," Keith said. "This would be something that would change the direction of my life."

After that first trip, Keith decided something had to be done to help these two children, along with other children who are orphaned by AIDS. He got the idea to start working with local people and local projects and from there started Forgotten Voices International based out of Mechanicsburg, Pa, in 2004.

Now the organization assists on 135 church-run orphan projects in Zimbabwe and Zambia and helps over 2,200 children.

"I saw the best return of investment from [local churches] because they knew all the kids, knew their history and saw opportunity to work with them. No one works with [local churches], particularly in Zimbabwe," Keith said.

For being a local-run organization helping fight AIDS overseas, Forgotten Voices International has been doing remarkably well. In general, 93 cents of every dollar raised goes directly to orphan care. The national industry average of orphan-care projects is only 68 cents on the dollar.

"We work directly with local people. So that enables more of our money to go to kids."

From that 93 percent of the money, 28 percent goes towards school fees and sending the children back to school. 25 percent is for home-based care for the children or their caretakers. 25 percent goes towards education programs for adults, children and care givers. The remaining amount goes towards sustainable projects such as funding farms and funding skills clinics. These projects help caretakers and children learn a trade so that they can start a business and support themselves.

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