Windjammers Support Kenyan Children’s Rescue Program
Windjammers and Maestro Charles Cozens are thrilled to offer a musical tribute in support of Mully Children’s Family, Kenya, the Largest Family in the World. Windjammers, founded in 1993, is a premier Canadian pops wind orchestra conducted by Mr. Charles Cozens. All the members, including the conductor, volunteer their considerable professional musical skills and time in support of selected charities as Cystic Fibrosis and the Mission Aviation Fellowship. At the core of this generous orchestra are the 40+ talented, versatile musicians who delight themselves and audiences with a great range of pops music. This October 2023, they are thrilled to offer The Villages of The Way, supporting Mully Children’s Family (MCF) of Kenya. The music program will feature jazz, gospel jazz, and African pops music organized around the villages in which MCF have family homes to house, clothe, feed, and school children rescued from the poverty that kills. Currently, in Kenya, it is estimated 9.5 million children live in conditions where the death rate is one in five. Disease, starvation, illiteracy, homelessness, and deprivations in the slums lead to sex trafficking, shortened lives, criminality, addictions, prison, and exploitation.
Dr. Charles Mulli, abandoned as a 6-year-old child lived as a street boy of the slums. Then as a young teen, touched by the love preached at Christian worship, he committed himself to follow the values taught by Jesus of Nazareth. With a brilliant, self-disciplined mind and an unwavering faith in God, Charles, by the age of 30, had become a successful wealthy Kenyan entrepreneur in transport, real estate, gas and oil. A devout Christian he was husband to Esther and father to their 8 children. However, despite his family, community status, and wealth, he became increasingly stressed by the horrific state of children living in the conditions from which he had escaped. He chose to sell all his business and stopped working for money. Rather, he worked, under God, as he would say, to rescue, rehabilitate and reintegrate the highest risk children of Kenyan. Over thirty-four years he and his wife have housed, clothed, fed, and educated 26,000 children who otherwise would have been lost. He created a remarkable family program that rehabilitates the children in a holding environment of love, hard work, courage, honesty, integrity, positive (no physical punishment) discipline, spirituality, perseverance, and curiosity. The environment is modelled on the first century communities of those devoted to Jesus of Nazareth, originally known as People of The Way.
Rescued children stay in the MCF support until they reach their educational potential (including advanced degrees) in their village homes that provide education, sports, talent development, leadership training, music, poetry, and faith. At reintegration, the children enter the workplace to make a dignified living with strong community leadership. One can find MCF beneficiaries in many professions and skilled trades throughout Kenya and beyond. Currently there are 11 MCF “Villages of The Way” supporting 6,200 children. For more information visit www.mullychildrensfamily.org.
Windjammers is honoured to support MCF, with all proceeds donated to MCF through MCF Canada. The concert will take place at Trinity Presbyterian Church, Toronto 28 Oct 2023 at 7.30 PM. Tickets at $27.96 each will be on sale through Eventbrite early September.
Further information can be found on the Windjammers website: www.windjammers.ca , or MCF Canada website: www.mcfcanada.org.