Indego Africa Honored as AfriPRO's Charity of the Year

When I first heard from AfriPRO Houston, an organization of African professionals living and working in Houston, that they wanted to honor and raise funds for Indego Africa, I was a bit taken aback. When I explained this to Lyse Hunger (a member of our board of directors originally from Rwanda), she commented that most of them must be expatriates from Rwanda. When I explained that none of them were from there, she almost cried. “To see Africans from Nigeria, Kenya, and other places that have no family in Rwanda work so hard to benefit women in Rwanda is something I have never seen before. It’s unbelievable.” Well, we believe it now.

Last Saturday, my wife Mary and I had the wonderful opportunity to once again don our Nigerian agbada outfits and join with 100+ folks at AfriPRO Houston's annual gala for an exciting evening of African fashion, cuisine, real-life heroes, joie de vive, and dancing till late. (Once the highlife and soukous music starts, just try and stop us from dancing.)

On that night AfriPRO honored former NBA great Dikembe Mutombo for the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital that he single-handedly built in the Democratic Republic of Congo and current NFL star Amobi Okoye for his foundation’s work with kids around the world. It was an honor to be included in such esteemed company, as Indego Africa was presented with AfriPRO’s Charity of the Year award and named as the beneficiary of all of the profits from the gala. And the AfriPRO membership wants to continue their involvement with Indego Africa. For us, however, just getting to know the wonderful people in AfriPRO and attending such a fun event that made us a little bit homesick for Africa was reward enough.

Many thanks go to Ngozi, Humphrey, Ofili, Ugo, and all the other members of AfriPRO for their hospitality and generosity. But most of all for demonstrating that the spirit of helping out across Africa is not limited to your own country, but comes from the heart.

- Tom Mitro, Co-Founder and Board Member

(Photo: Tom, Ilo Mutombo, and Chido Nwangwu)