Young men and women in East Africa face significant obstacles to their education and future well-being.  AIDS, the lack of economic opportunity, the high cost of secondary education, and the sub-standard facilities of most secondary schools combine to prevent many young Africans from rising above the subsistence level of living.  Many secondary schools are grossly under funded and very few have electricity, running water, flush toilets, or a working kitchen.  This combined lack of both funding and facilities no only squanders the educational potential of many East Africans, but exacerbates the spread of AIDS and other serious diseases by inhibiting the low cost interventions and training that can occur at the secondary school level.  As a result, many young people are not only at higher risk for serious diseases by are forced into unemployment or subsistence level jobs with little opportunity for raising their standard of living.

Elewana is a project to foster the transformative and inspirational power of relationships among young people to create positive solutions to these concerns.  In the United States, secondary school students are only dimly aware and typically even less concerned for the plight of their African contemporaries.  Yet many American students yearn for a way to have an impact on the world.  By first pairing schools and then facilitating interactive relationships between the respective students and administrations, Elewana supports individuals and scholastic institutions as they become agents of change in each other's lives.  Elewana addresses the significant lack of funding and resources faced by East African schools by drawing together scholastic institutions whose students and faculty can help each other in a relationship of love, mutual respect and support.