Ziggy Marley is giving back while holding down a solo career. He heads and participates in multiple philanthropic organizations focused on children, including the Unlimited Resources Giving Enlightenment, which provides under-privileged U.S. children with a door into the musical world.

Kids make the best African drumming students. They learn faster than most adults. They're better able to comprehend complex polyrhythms and how they “swing.” They convey their understanding to audiences joyfully. They progress faster than most adults, achieving a professional level sooner than you'd expect.

Every Monday at noon disabled individuals from all over the City of San Diego gather for an hour-long music class.

The class lead by professional multi-instrumentalist Dave Millard offers the students opportunities to participate in drumming activities that range from pure rhythm, to Latin beats and flute and vocal drum accompaniment. During the hour that students are at the WorldBeat Cultural Center they practice appropriate social behavior, they act as “mc” for their class and they dance together for the sheer joy of it.

HEAL Africa’s hospital and community development work address the root causes of illness and poverty for the people of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The hospital and the 28 women’s houses in Maniema and North Kivu have provided a safe place for many victims of the war, and have been a motor for combating poverty and promoting community cohesion over the past 14 years.

The Democratic Republic of Congo experiences the equivalent of “a tsunami every six months,” in the words of U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres, Every day there, 1,200 people die from conflict-related causes. With an estimated 4 million deaths in the last decade, the conflict and its ongoing aftermath represent the greatest loss of life in any war since World War II.

Jack & Jill of America, Inc. was founded January 24, 1938 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from a meeting of 20 mothers by the leadership of Marion Stubbs Thomas with the idea of bringing together children in a social and cultural environment. In 1964, as more groups became active, bylaws were drawn up and incorporated under the laws of Delaware. Theorganization was a nonprofit family organization by mothers of children between the ages of 2 and 19 holding membership. Jack & Jill celebrated its 50th Golden Anniversary in January 1988.

Ghetto Youths Foundation was founded by the Marley Brothers to help underprivileged youths who fight the struggle to survive.

Ghetto Youths Foundation, Inc. was organized exclusively for charitable and educational purposes. Research has shown that many ghetto youths are not literate yet are quite articulate and capable of reasoning. Some are also quite gifted. They know their identity but the limited successes and resources for those young people result from many problems including the background of families, the neighborhoods where they live and peer pressure.

Egypt has long been a cultural focus of the Arab world, while remembrance of the rhythms of sub-Saharan Africa, in particular West Africa, was transmitted through the Atlantic slave trade to modern samba, blues, jazz, reggae, hip hop, and rock. The 1950s through the 1970s saw a conglomeration of these various styles with the popularization of Afrobeat and Highlife music. Modern music of the continent includes the highly complex choral singing of southern Africa and the dance rhythms of the musical genre of soukous, dominated by the music of the Democratic Republic of Congo.