Choir tour gives Ugandan kids a new perspective

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on March 20, 2025.

Photo by Isaac Aijuuka The African Children's Choir is celebrating its 40th anniversary during their Canadian tour, which includes a stop in Pincher Creek early next month.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The African Children’s Choir is celebrating its 40th anniversary during their Canadian tour, which includes a stop in Pincher Creek early next month.

Through their tour, 18 children in the Ugandan choir will be hosted by local families and will be able to share and learn about new customs, food and culture.

Tina Sipp, choir manager, says Music for Life, which is a non-profit organization that developed the program of the African Children’s Choir, originated from a simple yet life-saving gesture from the late White Rock, B.C. resident Ray Barnett towards a little boy in war-torn Uganda, during a trip in the late 1970s.

“When Ray was doing work with the Persecuted Church around the world, one of those trips took him to Uganda in the late 1970s, and he was asked to give a ride to a small boy who have lost both of his parents in the civil war, and he sang praise songs the whole ride,” says Sipp.

She says that this brave gesture of resilience from a boy who had lost both parents impressed Barnett so much, that he decided to help.

“He said that if these children could somehow travel to the West, people could see their resilience, hear them sing and perhaps inspire them to help. And that is how the African Children’s choir came about,” says Sipp.

She says the choir was founded in 1984 and since then, they have been able to help multiple children as the organization focuses in raising funds to help destitute children receive quality education.

“The missing link for many of these children is education, that’s what most families are unable to provide due to financial hardship, and these are families that are just trying to have an evening meal on their table,” says Sipp.

She says that since they have to pay for uniforms and school supplies, many children go through life being uneducated and then they become uneducated parents, which is what they are trying to stop from happening.

“We are trying to break that cycle of poverty for as many families and people as we can, by providing the education that families cannot afford for their children,” says Sipp.

Throughout the last 40 years, they have helped educate 59,000 children and are hoping to be able to educate many more with the help of these concerts, sponsors and donations.

“Because of their background, these children have very little vision of what it could be as they are not exposed to the outside world,” says Sipp. “Some of them only have a three-to-five-mile radius of exposure to the world.”

She explains that the tour with the choir brings them to the West and exposes them to different cultures, customs and experiences. Where they have an opportunity to learn about the world and expand their vision of what could be.

“When they come to us, they don’t know any English. When we work with them in Uganda our education system is in English, so when they come on tour they get emerged in English, which helps them increase their vocabulary and skills,” says Sipp.

During a tour stop earlier this month in Langley, B.C., the children were able to take part in a few “very Canadian” activities.

“They got to sing the national anthem at a hockey game, they got to ride the Zamboni, and they got to cheer a hockey team and then were going on a ferry to Vancouver Island,” says Sipp.

These experiences help them in many ways when they go back home, from developing new hobbies to possible career paths.

“When you collectively summarize all those experiences, the children go home with motivation, desire, hope for the future, and a wide range of possibilities,” says Sipp.

She says this also helps them in their future education after choir, when they go back to school compared to their peers who stay there without being immersed in the language fully.

“When they finish tour, they go back to Uganda and they will go to our primary school up to Grade 7, and then they go to a secondary school for six more levels and then their education is paid through college level,” says Sipp.

Their Pincher Creek tour stop will take place at Creekside Community, located at 637 Charlotte Street on April 4, at 7 p.m.

While there is no charge to attend, they are welcoming donations.

To learn more about the program, visit https://africanchildrenschoir.com/