The inspiration of one student had a domino effect among her university classmates that has grown into a budding nonprofit and a summer relief trip.

In January, during her junior year at the University of North Texas, Lindsey Bengfort spent some time in Africa with a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization. She was particularly affected by what she saw when she visited the Kroo Bay slum in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Bengfort, who graduated from Sanger High School, recalled that the smell and sights were overwhelming.

DRC/Al Key

President and co-founder of the nonprofit organization Kroo Bay Initiative Lindsey Bengfort, center, stands behind Janiece Black, left, and Jeremy Schmidt, right, at Banter on West Oak Street on Wednesday. The three UNT students will be going to Africa to work with underprivileged children.

View larger More photos Photo store

It was “mind-boggling” poverty, she said.

Trash and feces covered the ground and the water, and there was no electricity or running water to the shanties that were home to many of the people, Bengfort said.

As her group was headed to the youth center in the neighborhood, children came out of their homes and repeatedly spoke the same word, but she couldn’t quite make out what they were saying.

At the youth center, she repeated what she thought she heard the children saying to the counselor.

They had been trying to say, “hallelujah,” he told her.

The reality of that was so emotional that it was like hitting a brick wall, she said.

“The people were so nice and so lovely … [and] had so much hope, even when there was no hope at all,” Bengfort said.

After Bengfort came back from her trip, she started reaching out to others about what she saw. With the help of friend Ryan Schuette, who graduated from UNT in May, she was able to launch the Kroo Bay Initiative, or KBI, a still-incorporating nonprofit group.

The co-founders plan to do what they can to support the educational needs of children in Kroo Bay. Bengfort serves as president of KBI, and Schuette is chairman of its seven-member board.

Schuette, who will head to graduate school in Uganda next month, got involved because he said both he and Bengfort were invested in development work in Africa, and because he’s an advocate for education.

He looks at KBI as a way to help people who lack opportunity.

Preventable diseases fester in Kroo Bay, he said, and without education, the children of the area who survive will not be able to get out of poverty.

Bengfort and Janiece Black, a board member who will be a senior at UNT in the fall, will head to Africa on Monday for a three-week study abroad.

They plan to stay a fourth week in Sierra Leone after the class concludes to meet up with UNT student Jeremy Schmidt and a friend, Nicole Ishee.

The four students will bring school supplies to Kroo Bay children and will assess the area’s future needs, Bengfort said.

Kroo Bay community members gave the group permission to document the trip, so Schmidt, a film student, will record footage of their efforts.

He feels that once the documentary is completed, it could serve a unique and needed tool to raise funds for the organization.

The trip is mostly self-financed, Bengfort said.

Generous parents have also helped, Black added.

To help raise funds for the trip, Schmidt visited churches to give a presentation he created to show the purpose of their trip.

Black, who is studying international development, said the trip is “up her alley.”

“I’ve always had a heart for poverty … as long as there’s a need, I can serve,” she said.

Black feels she’ll get firsthand experience from the trip. Instead of learning from a book, she’ll “see someone who’s actually living that kind-of life and ask them what they need.”

The initiative’s members say they hope to do so much more with KBI, including renovating the existing schools and equipping them with solar panels, building new schools, helping with teacher pay and providing scholarships for students who can not afford to go to school.

“I’m pretty tied to KBI,” said Bengfort, who plans to go to graduate school in Freetown.

“I just want this to work, to do what I can, to help as many people as I can,” she said.

Ultimately, Bengfort hopes they can educate enough of neighborhood’s children to get them out of the slum and into a good job.

KBI members are planning fundraisers, including a concert, in the fall to help raise funds for their ongoing plans.

AMY DODD THOMPSON can be reached at 940-566-6876. Her e-mail address is athompson@dentonrc.com.