My Nonprofit Reviews

I became acquainted with AED about eight years ago, and was tremendously impressed with the dynamism, persistence and focus of this small community-based NGO with an international mission.

In 2015, completely out of the blue, Julie-Anne Savarit-Conzensa, Executive Director and Co-Founder, contacted me about helping to write an application for a grant from USAID to help build and equip a new facility for AEP's Amos Youth Center in Kafue, Zambia. Julie-Anne had spotted me and my previous grant work with USAID on LinkedIn.

Although I was semi-retired and had no previous experience with Zambia, I was quickly taken with the story of AEP: how it had sprung a decision in 2002 of a small group of high school sophomores in Radnor, PA. to do a service project for their peers in Malawi who were growing up with poverty and the AIDS/HIV crisis in their country. Advised by their soccer coach, who happened to be from the town of Kafue on the outskirts of Malawi's capital, Lilongwe, Julie-Anne and her small team eventually gathered a large collection of needed items, such as computers, school supplies, and books; created a 501(c)(3) non-profit; raised some funds; and determined to travel in July 2005 to Kafue to deliver their gifts personally.

What they experienced on that trip, as they visited with their local counterparts, revealed a deeper need to create and institutionalize more and better opportunities for the youth of Kafue such areas as education, health, personal development, and recreation. With the support of their coach's brother Amos and the local community, they envisioned and planned, with the result that, on a return trip a year later, a new Learning and Development Center, was established. By 2008 it was officially registered with the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services as the Amos Youth Center (AYC), renamed in memory of the local co-founder who had passed away during the previous year.

By the time I got involved, the AYC was a thriving operation offering a wide variety of well-attended programs at a rented location and, with support from contributions from a growing network of donors, AEP was sponsoring the secondary and college education of a number of local young people, a few of whom had returned to help out at the AYC. But the space they occupied had grown woefully inadequate and plans were being developed to build and equip a brand-new building designed to their specifications on a plot of land donated by the local government. My job was to work with Julie-Anne on pulling together all the ideas, building plans, equipment requirements, staffing needs, etc., many of which were prepared by pro-bono professionals, into a grant application that would meet the requirements of USAID's American Schools and Hospitals Abroad program.

While the proposal was not funded, our work advanced project planning considerably and gave AEP and AYP a framework for a Capital Campaign that is currently underway. In the meantime, the Amos Youth Center continues to operate in its cramped rented facility. Even with these limitations, as is described very well at https://www.africaneducationprogram.org/ the talent, skills and dedication of the AEP/AYC staff and volunteers have and continue to make positive life-changing differences in the lives of hundreds of Kafue boys and girls and young men and women.