Africa's Lasting Imprint on the Heart of Steve Peifer, '77

Thursday, Oct. 4

How does a corporate executive who once oversaw 9,000 computer software consultants end up feeding lunch to starving African children and teaching computer skills to them? 

Find out at 2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 4, at the Barsema Alumni and Visitors Center as NIU alumnus Steve Peifer, '77, shares his journey. Please RSVP below to this event, presented by the NIU Alumni Association in partnership with the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.  

Steve and Nancy Peifer began their journey in 1999 as dorm parents at Rift Valley Academy in Kenya. They returned to Africa a few years later and established Kenya Kids Can. 

The mission of Kenya Kids Can is to provide lunch to children whose parents were forced to choose between educating their children or feeding them. There are 25 schools involved with the program and there are over 16,000 lunches served daily. In addition, Kenya Kids Can operates solar-powered computer centers in public primary schools.

For his efforts, Peifer was honored as a CNN Hero for being a champion of children and received a counseling award from Yale in 2007. He also won the Excellence in Education Award from the National Association for College Admission Counseling in 2010.

Peifer tells the story of his journey to Africa and the creation of Kenya Kids Can in his book, "A Dream So Big: Our Unlikely Journey to End the Tears of Hunger."