In 2013, a group of volunteers—I among them—went to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau in West Africa. We witnessed the dust streets, the faces devoid of expression, the villages devastated by drought, and the patients short of medical care. Since then, the brown land of West Africa has been our spiritual home, and the memories of hungry children surrounding our cars have been branded on our hearts with a burning-hot flame of passion.

After returning to the United States, we immediately applied for the “Africa Cries Out” non-profit 501 (C) 3 organization, and the US government quickly approved it. We are now seven years into this journey. Along the way, Dr. Faye sacrificed his precious life for the leprosy patients in Kedougou. Many of our comrades given their youth to the suffering land, and we are getting old.

Perhaps one day, we will no longer be able to make these trips. But we will never stop. Our children and friends, like they promised, will definitely take up the banner of "Africa Cries Out" and continue to serve the needy in the jungles of West Africa.