Matsiko children's choir is voice for the voiceless

Intermountain Catholic

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The Matsiko Children's Choir, 29 orphaned children or children at risk from Uganda, entertain a full Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Sandy August 10. The children sing in their native language and in English and they dance energetically. Their goal is to obtain sponsors for children like themselves throughout Uganda, which has been troubled by civil war, disease, and abject poverty. IC photo by Barbara S. Lee

SANDY — The film shown on the wall of Blessed Sacrament Church in Sandy showed a young Ugandan boy. He talked about the death of his father, and that he sometimes still cries about it. Then, that same boy steps out of the crowd of Ugandan children and young people who are singing and dancing at the church.

"That boy is me," he said. "And there are thousands like me in Uganda, and we need your help."

The Matsiko Children’s Choir – 29 voices – sing and dance to tell their stories. They sing of life in war-torn Uganda, where diseases like malaria and AIDS have taken their parents and left thousands of children orphaned and at risk.

Their goal is to recruit sponsors for children like themselves – Americans and others who will pay a given amount of money every month to help support a Ugandan orphan through the International Children’s Network.

The Matsiko Children’s Choir travels the country by bus visiting churches, schools, television stations, and other organizations, telling their stories and singing about life in Uganda. They laugh and play. They stay in homes when they are invited. And they invite people to visit their village of Matsiko, to see how they live, and perhaps sponsor a child. They provide voices for those children who have none.