Silver Room Show to Benefit African Education

Link Community Development USA, a nonprofit dedicated to improving educational systems throughout Africa, will hold its first ever benefit concert, CHI ♥ AFRICA, on Nov. 30 at The Silver Room, 1442 N. Milwaukee Ave.

According to event coordinator Chloe Reiss, Link was started in South Africa in 1989 by a group of Cambridge University students working to support education. One of its first projects was the unification of South Africa's multiple education systems into one uniform system.

Today, Link is an international nonprofit with chapters in Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda, Ireland, Scotland, with its international headquarters in London. Reiss said the U.S. chapter, headquartered in Chicago, is the most recent addition to the Link network, having started up in 2008.

Reiss said Link's goals revolve around improving the quality of schools in sub-Saharan Africa by focusing on the quality and methods of education, rather than the physical infrastructure of the schools.

"We don't build any schools," Reiss said. "We assist in making the school system better, [creating] a better quality learning environment. We've had projects in the past of solar panels, we've focused on health education projects, training teachers, training school administrators. It's more about assisting and improving the quality of education than bringing up more infrastructure and all that."

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Link volunteers work directly with local governments in Ethiopia, Ghana, Uganda, Malawi and South Africa to implement training programs and other improvements. Reiss said most of the improvements originate within the affected countries themselves, and Link volunteers help to provide support and resources for them.

"It starts in the country with local government, and then in collaboration with local Link staff, it's sort of supervised with England, Ireland, and USA," she said.

Friday night's event will open its doors at 7:30, with a bar, a taco bar, and a photo booth open for business. Chefs Ryan Nilson and Jeff Adamek will be providing the food, while Gabriella Parra will be tending the bar and Kristie Kahns will be volunteering her services for photo duty.

"The food is all homemade, too," Reiss said. "I got lucky to have people who are doing whatever they're going to be contributing as their main job. For the photo booth, I have a professional photographer. I have professional chefs, I have a licensed bartender, we just kind of tried to have everyone well specialized in what they're going to contribute with for the night."

All proceeds from food, beverage, and photo sales will go to Link, according to Reiss. The main act, local rap group Sidewalk Chalk, was named The Chicago Reader's best Chicago hip-hop act of 2010. They will take the stage at 9:30. Tickets are $7 in online presale or $10 at the door.