Energy of Hope: The African Orphanage Founded By an American College Student

Most college students worry about exams, grades and what to do during summer break. But 25-year-old Amanda Dye has something bigger on her mind: the 20 orphans in Africa for whom she’s taken legal responsibility.

For the past two years, the children, who range in age from 6 to 16, have had a safe place to call home: the Energy of Hope orphanage in Zambia, a small country in Southern Africa where most people earn less than a dollar a day and many children lose their parents to diseases such as AIDS and malaria.

Dye, who opened the Energy of Hope orphanage in 2007, never expected to take that path. She had planned to be an art teacher, but a volunteer-abroad trip to Africa when she was 19 changed her life.

In Africa, Dye saw something she’d never seen while growing up in the U.S. heartland: children without families, clean places to live or enough food—who sometimes ate bugs, leaves and even dirt to survive. Dye had always loved children and couldn’t get the images out of her mind.

“I couldn’t feel at peace with myself because I knew they were there, and I knew they were hungry, and I didn’t know how to help them,” Dye says.

Of course, Dye knew she could send money, but she wanted to do more. She believed children need a safe home and education, too. So, she began to think about opening an orphanage. But there was one problem: she knew nothing about how to do it.

“There’s no book that tells you how to start an orphanage – there’s nothing,” says Dye. “You just have to go to Africa.”

So, Dye worked while attending college, and saved money. A few years later, the 4-foot-1-inch Dye, her curly blond hair held back by her trademark bandana, got on a plane to Zambia with only a backpack and about $2,000 to look into opening an orphanage. She rented a small house in a missionary camp on the outskirts of the capital city of Lusaka.

Then something unexpected happened. Word got around, and people started showing up, with children. “They would knock on my door and say, ‘Here, take this one,’” Dye remembers, her voice shaking.

Heartbroken that she couldn’t immediately take each and every child who needed a home, Dye became more determined. She sought advice from local lawyers and social workers, who helped her navigate the bureaucracy.

Soon, she found a four-bathroom house being built—something almost unheard of in that area. The house had a security wall, a soccer field, two mango trees and a garden. She raised enough money to rent the house and hire staff to care for the children. In the spring of 2007, officials from the United Nations inspected and approved the orphanage, and it officially opened.

For a little more than $4,000 a month, Dye pays staff salaries and supplies shelter, food, clothing, education, and medical care. In the meantime, Dye still has to finish school – she’s studying non-profit management at William Jewell College just north of Kansas City, and has to juggle classes with the 300 hours a month it takes to manage Energy of Hope, raise funds, and go to speaking engagements.

Every day, Dye telephones the children, and they laugh, sing to her and call her “Mum.” She tells stories about how much the children change in the months after they arrive at Energy of Hope. Many had suffered—the little boy forced to work in fields, a little girl who was made to work in a bar late at night and abused by customers—and it takes time for them to get used to being kids again.
   
At Energy of Hope, each child gets a teddy bear, which doubles as a pillow. The kids help in the garden, growing greens, okra, tomatoes and onions for their meals. When Dye visits, they have fun. Once, she taught them how to bake and decorate cookies; another time, she gave them each a bandana like hers and they all went for a hike through the countryside. Last time she visited, they bought wood and built a huge table so everyone can eat meals together.
   
But life isn’t always so happy. A few months ago, one of the little girls, Feddy, who had just arrived at Energy of Hope, malnourished, weak and HIV-positive, died of chicken pox. In honor of Feddy – who wanted to help people when she grew up – Dye wants to expand. She hopes to buy four houses nearby and hire 40 more staff members so she can care for 129 children in the area who are waiting for homes. She also plans to buy a large piece of land so the orphanage can grow more of its own food, and to let area widows – who often have few options in Zambia – move onto the land with their own children and help care for the orphans. On top of all that, there’s a new local school, built with help from an international non-profit group, and members of the local community have asked Dye to run it.

In order to do all that, Dye will need financial help of between $150,000 and $200,000. “We’re just looking for that one angel donor,” Dye says.

Make a donation to Energy of Hope through Razoo.

By Allie Johnson