The founders of the Amani Learning Centre 2005
How We Began
We are a group of students and adults based in Evansville, Indiana. Our names and faces have changed over the years, as has the way we have had to meet due to Covid and board members being located in other states!
However, we all have been intent on helping to realize and expand upon the original dream of a Kenyan, Rev. Peter Mageto Maiko. He and his family lived in Evansville from 2003-2006, before moving back to Kenya.
Peter’s original dream was to improve the quality of life in his community, by making books available. Since 2005 we have worked in the village where his parents and siblings still live. One of our members, Lynn Renne, has led mission trips to the village since 2006, beginning to hold medical camps once or twice a year with U.S. teams, in partnership with local Kenyans, in 2010.
Amani Partners Kenya, Inc is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Evansville, IN, established in March 2017, and focused on improving education and health care in an area of southwestern Kenya.
Our main focus lies in the many villages in the hills above and around Ekerenyo, Kenya, one of which is where Peter and his 9 brothers and sisters grew up. (Please click on “Peter Mageto had a Dream” in menu for more more about this story.)
Amani (Ah-mah’-ni, or “Peace” in Swahili) Partners Kenya, Inc. has actually been raising money since before it became a non-profit organization.
In 2005, thanks to partnership with Kenyan leaders and builders, a library was built, called “The Amani Learning Centre.” Peter’s brother, Jared Maiko, oversaw this building project, and The Beacon Group, led by Jim Coy in Evansville, provided the non-profit organization to receive and disperse funds. The Learning Centre is now filled with books and computers, and provides study space to students in surrounding village schools, along with many teachers and other adults. We provide money for staffing the Centre with a librarian and security person.
From 2010-2020, yearly and bi-yearly week long Medical Camps have been held in the Learning Centre, offering medical, dental, eye care and lab screening. People from all over the U.S. joined our teams and worked with local area Kenyan professionals.
In 2017, a cataract surgery program in Nyamira county was initiated, working with the government hospital about 30 minutes away, staff, Governor and Minister of Health. Dr. Michel Gelinas from Wisconsin has been the guiding force behind this endeavor. Surgical instruments and equipment have been supplied, helping the eye surgery center of Nyamira become one of the best in the region. Eye screening and eye glass fitting will be done in the Amani Health Centre. We are working with two new young Kenyan Opthalmologists who have been appointed to the government’s Nyamira District Hospital.
Also in 2017, Amani Partners Kenya became a non-profit organization, raising funds to build the Amani Health Centre, that when completed, will serve a wide area of the population with dental care, general medical care, a pharmacy, pre-and post-natal care, child and eye care. Also having guest rooms and a dining room, it is being built in the same compound as the Learning Centre.
Peter’s brother, Clement Maiko, an engineer in Nairobi, has been the spark behind this project, working tirelessly and making frequent trips to the village to oversee the work. The building was completed and had its grand opening in February 2022.