Dear Friend is a pen pal program which was created and is operated by Katie Burke.

Katie partners certain aspects of the program with Amsha Africa Foundation.

The goal of Dear Friend is to sustain long-term, 1:1 relationships between as many pair of U.S. and Kenyan children as possible, and to help all participating children achieve literacy goals, heighten their cultural awareness, and feel the joy of knowing another child across the world cares about them. This project will preserve the art of letter writing for our generation's children, teaching them to communicate well through the written word.

Any child in either country, between ages five and sixteen, is eligible. Once matched with a child of similar age and same gender in the other country, each child will begin the pen pal exchange. Dear Friend will provide all necessary writing supplies and postage to the parents, teachers, orphanage staff members, and other supervising adults of the enrolled children. All mailings will be directed to the addresses the supervising adults provide at registration; these addresses will either be schools, orphanages, or parents' homes.

Dear Friend will also provide support, ensuring that all children receive letters from their pen pals on a regular basis. (Letters between Kenya and the U.S. typically take two weeks to travel, and we expect that children on each side will reply to letters within a few days to two weeks of receipt.)

To enroll a child, please send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with the child's name, gender, and age. Katie Burke, the Special Programs Director, will personally reply, to facilitate the child's pen pal matching process.

Dear Friend Pilot Project - Cards from U.S. children to Kenyan Orphans

In December 2009, a number of U.S. children created holiday cards that were delivered to orphans in Kenya. Each of these holiday cards was scanned and posted on AAF's Facebook page. You can see these scanned cards by clicking here.

Dear Friend Pilot Project - Cards from Kenyan Orphans to U.S. Children

In January 2010, a number of Kenyan Orphans who received holiday cards from kids in the U.S. replied with their own hand-made cards and letters. Each of these holiday cards was scanned and posted on AAF's Facebook page. You can see these scanned cards from Kenyan orphans by clicking here.

Program Long-Term Success:

The ultimate success for this program will be to help all participating children achieve literacy goals, heighten their cultural awareness, and feel the joy of knowing another child across the world cares about them.

This project will preserve the art of letter writing for our generation's children, teaching them to communicate well through the written word.

Program Short-Term Success:

Immediate outcome from children participating in this program will be to heighten their cultural awareness, and feel the joy of knowing another child across the world cares about them.

Program Success Monitored by:

Supervising adults will be sent surveys after every 3 months to monitor the program's success. The program success will be monitored by the number of correspondences between the participating children, the extent of cultural awareness from the participating children, and if the children are improving their communication and letter writing skills through the program.

Program Success Examples:

More than 200 children from the Kenya, the U.S., and Europe are currently participating in this program and from the surveys their supervising adults have provided, the program is extremely popular and successful. A number of children have significantly improved their cultural awareness and letter writing skills. A mother in the U.S. said that her 8 year old child wants to grow and join the peace corp and is now immensely interested in helping other under previledged children from Africa from the experience gained from this program