A benefit concert that showcased Indian and African music marked the first fundraising event for the Jane Adeny Memorial School for Girls (JAMS) Sunday at the House Cafe, 263 East Lincoln Highway.

The founders of JAMS, associate professors Teresa Wasonga and Andrew Otieno, were in attendance. The event began at noon. It cost $25 for adults and $14 for students.

A buffet of African and Indian dishes were provided in addition to raffle tickets. Jill Sanderson, women’s studies graduate student, said in an email that the aim of the fundraiser to was sponsor one girl’s tuition for a full four years.

“The monetary goal for the concert is to raise $3,400 to provide a full scholarship for one girl to attend JAMS for four years,” Sanderson said. “The awareness-raising goal is to bring more attention to the efforts of Teresa and Andrew as they work to sustain their contributions in Kenya.”

In terms of fundraising, the event was considered a success by Diana Swanson, associate professor and chair of the JAMS advisory board. The amount of money raised far exceeded their goal, allowing for additional benefits to be purchased, Swanson said.

“We made $4,700,” Swanson said. “That’s a lot. Today was our first fundraising event, and we had the goal of a four-year scholarship. We met that goal, but then we exceeded it enough to buy a whole set of twelfth grade textbooks.”

Swanson said there is still work to be done and students can help. Swanson said a number of student organizations have donated their time to host and volunteer at JAMS events, including Engineers Without Borders.

“There aren’t any student organizations involved with JAMS long-term,” Swanson said. “We started to talk to a service fraternity who’s interested in doing a school supply drive in the fall. We’ll be talking to them about that and we’ll gear that up in September. Some students in some classes have done little service projects to collect supplies, backpacks, and things like that. We’ve had that kind of assistance. Mainly it’s been students here collecting supplied, notebooks, pens, backpacks, bags, things like that.”

Swanson said local residents have contributed to the cause, as well. This includes people from the First Congregational Church and the House Cafe.

“A lot of people in the area have been contributing to scholarships for the students or contributed money for other means for the school,” Swanson said. “We’re really gearing up now. …At this point… the school has been in operation for two-and-a-half years now. We’re going to start gearing up for some grant writing and some bigger fundraising. We’re going to need to build teacher housing, some duplexes and science buildings. We need science classrooms. Those are the two big things that are still left to do.”

NIU’s own Women’s Studies Program and School of Music worked hand in hand with JAMS for this first fundraiser. Music was provided by associate professor Fareed Haque, music graduate student Tembo Matthews and percussionist Kalyan Pathak.

“We played some north Indian classical, some north Indian folk music,” Pathak said. “Then Fareed played some classical guitar and then we played music from Zambia–music mostly from Zambia and a little bit from other parts of South Africa. I played the Indian tabla and the West African djun djun. I’ve been playing with Fareed for more than 10 years.”

The second fundraising event for JAMS is called the Memoirs Project and its aim is to purchase textbooks and equipment for the upcoming school year. For more information, contact Sanderson at [email protected].