A full house of around 300 people recently attended a concert, which featured The Singing Children of Africa, who had travelled from near Mombasa in Kenya. The concert was held at the local chapel of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Huddersfield. The young people sang and danced to the delight of everyone in the audience, including The Mayor of Kirklees, Councillor Jim Dodds and the Mayoress, Carol Dodds.
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The children represent their school, which is called Jolaurabi, and the associated orphanage. In Kenya, there is no State support for education, or children who do not have parents, and so these bright children do what they can to support themselves, but rely heavily on other people. On this tour of the UK, the children were singing for their supper, raising money for the upkeep of their school and orphanage.
The children sang and danced for over an hour to the beat of African drums. Their singing and dancing was vibrant, enthusiastic and fast! Many in the audience felt breathless on their behalf, although the performers showed no signs of tiring. Their repertoire included Toto's "Africa", and Michael Jackson's "We are the World" as well as songs particular to them.
The Mayor, Councillor Dodds, has always had children's interests at heart. During his time in the army he ran a youth group and he has since been involved in setting up the Kirklees Youth Games which encourage children to participate in sport. At the end of the concert he said, "What a fantastic performance the children have given, and what a lot we can learn from these happy children who are full of humour, energy and have such a zest for life.