As I have maybe mentioned to several folks, it’s a bit hard
to get into the holiday spirit here in Kenya, for us, at least, since we have no
family here aside from ourselves…plus the weather is so not wintery I keep forgetting it is even December. I realize of
course that people live in places with weather like this and celebrate
Christmas and it really has nothing to do with the weather, but since I’m a
Midwesterner, the weather does set some tone for the holiday season. Otherwise,
the holidays are usually all about family and close friends; spending time
together, baking cookies, singing, decorating our tree, and taking walks on our
property in wintery weather. We have managed to decorate a teeny bit this year
and I have baked some cookies, but I’d say it’s a bit minimalist….which is
fine, actually.
In fact, our holiday attention has been focused on providing some joy to orphans and others with almost nothing. I have spent several weeks recently decorating 3000 cookies, and packing 800 gift bags for the various orphanages that are recipients of kids from Sally Test Pediatric Center, where I volunteer. We are delivering them on Monday. I can't wait to see the kids' faces! We decided as a family that we would spend this Christmas day at the
Kitale Children’s Home, which we and our church in Columbus, have been
supporting in various ways, for about 6
years. Thanks to the generous donations of the UU Congregation of Columbus,IN
and a few others, we are going to bring the 15 or so orphans who are left there for the holidays some gifts
and treats, all things that they never get (new clothes, new dictionaries, new
pens and some homemade cookies). We are looking very forward to it and are very
grateful for the donations and good will.
Last year at this time, I posted some “alternative gift
ideas” and some thoughts on sharing with folks who really need it. There are
folks and organizations round the world who have great needs, and like
everyone, we are being bombarded by requests for help/donations. However, since
we are here, and the needs are great, we are going to make our donations here. We
feel blessed and lucky to have this opportunity here in Kenya and believe that
the least we can do is to make some children’s Christmas day a bit brighter.
On an ongoing basis, there is a ton of need here in Kenya.
Over this past year, we have focused in on a few ways for people at home to
help with various projects that we are involved in. In fact, we have been
working on setting up a nonprofit, with 501 © 3 status, but we have not yet
accomplished that, for various reasons. We do have an account set up in Columbus,
but we have not yet received our status approval from the IRS. Our company,
EcoSource Sustainable Initiatives, is focused for the time being on helping
individuals and organizations here in Kenya become more sustainable.
The Kitale Children’s Home is one of our recipients because
they need help making their farm more sustainable and getting more of their
kids into school. This past year we (again with the help from our Unitarian
Universalist Congregation at home) were able to purchase them a bunch of fruit
trees and some water tanks for collecting water, and we had their pump fixed.
This will enable them to grow more of
their own food to feed the children (mangoes, papayas, passion fruit, guavas,
and avocadoes do well here) and also they will not have to pump so much water
up their hill in order to water the trees, gardens, and animals , saving them
fuel costs. We plan to provide them with fencing for protecting their trees
from their cows, and some more trees once we get a few more funds. They have been
very grateful for all of our help. Theirs is a long term need situation. This
couple started this orphanage with little help at the height of the AIDS
crisis. They used to have two…one in a Nairobi slum, and one in the countryside
in western Kenya. Without an ongoing
financial sponsor, they are in a constant state of need. They don’t just need
trees and fencing, however. They have 70 children whom they are trying to
educate and several who need sponsors. To us, this is all part of their mission
and our efforts to help them keep them going and able to help the kids. Please
consider sponsoring a child who is ready for High School. The fees are about
$800/yr (paid in 3 parts).
Aside from the Kitale
Children’s home, we want to provide urban gardens and edible forests for
families here in Eldoret who don’t have the means to get them set up. For $100
we can buy a lot of trees and employ someone (always a good thing) to plant
them, plus a little fencing to protect them. We are in the process of helping a guy that we
met who is a polio victim, has no use of his legs, but has a family and a small
place to live that someone donated to him. We are planting a garden, putting in
some trees and fencing, and trying to help them find a water source.
Another pet project is the reforestation of the Pambo Sabor Forest near Eldoret. 90% of
Kenya was deforested and thankfully there are groups here hard at work to
reforest, but there will never be enough trees and habitat for all the
wildlife, birds, and pollinators. This country has one of the highest levels of
biologic diversity in the world, but due to fuel and cooking needs, trees are
still being cut down all over the rural areas. Our goal is to help reforest
this one small swath of “highlands rainforest” nearby.
It has taken us awhile to hone in on how we could contribute
here because there is so much need it’s
almost overwhelming some days. So, we decided to go about it this way. We welcome anyone’s help or thoughts on any
of these projects. We feel pretty passionate about them and strongly that
through reforestation, education and sustainability efforts, we can actually
help the folks who need help in a real sustaining way. Please let us know if you’d like to make a
donation and we will send you our PO Box in Columbus. Your donation will be tax
deductible in 2014. Sorry for the delay but some things are out of our hands
(many, in fact!). WE plan to pursue other sources of funding as well but for
now, we have to do this little by little, drop by drop, and every little drop
counts! Thank you if you have already supported our efforts here financially. It really means a lot to us and is quite heartwarming. Be safe and have great holidays. Happy New Year!
