AMURT is running a youth program in its own building in Restinga, one of the underprivileged satellite towns around Porto Alegre in the south of Brazil.Some of the youth are referred to the program by government institutions; others come due to the program’s reputation.
With major financing from the US Government, AMURT is dramatically expanding its work to address the problems caused by HIV/AIDS in three provinces in Kenya. Specifically, AMURT will organize care and protection for 3,000 orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) within their households, care for 1,000 people living with HIV/AIDS who are homebound, start youth clubs that impart life skills, youth empowerment and vocational training to 900 youth, and reach one million people with messages related to HIV prevention.
“Why are we going wrong?” raps Suleiman Mohammed, the leader of the AMURTZO Rap Group, “I’m talking to them but they are losing their minds, why are we going wrong?” Suleiman says that he was “going wrong” until he entered the AMURT program. Like many of his peers, he could not generate the money to pay for his education and had to drop out of school and drop into bad habits. However, he always worked on his creative talents, hoping that one day opportunity would knock at his door.
In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, AMURT and AMURTEL focused on providing emergency supplies to the survivors. We distributed more than US$300,000 worth of food and non-food, medical and recreational items in the first three months to thousands of tsunami survivors in different parts of Aceh.