Feed 1,800 orphaned children in rural Kenya.

Esther is an HIV+ orphan and the oldest of 4 siblings, all of whom are also HIV+. Their mother passed away when Esther was just 7 years old. Their father then married another woman and moved away leaving the children under the care of their grandmother and grandfather. The needs in their household are immense, especially considering all their HIV status - which means they have to eat well. It has been a struggle for the grandparents to put food on the table as they get little income from what the grandfather earns in his job as a watchman.

In spite of her hardship, Esther is a focused and determined child. She looks to the Makindu Children's Center as her second home. In her own words, she says she longs for the days that she goes for clinic with her brother, because they get to go to MCC to enjoy a nutritious hot meal! Once fed, they pick up their vouchers from the Centre for their clinic health check-up and monthly meds. They walk from their home village of Kaunguni, 17 kilometers from the Centre and Makindu HIV Clinic. The clinic at times runs out of multivitamins which are very essential for HIV+ children. If so, the Centre has a supply on hand and Esther and her brother can get multivitamins there.

Esther is the epitome of courage and determination amidst all the challenges she faces at home. As the oldest sibling, she is often tasked with responsibilities from supervising the other children to helping with chores. She sleeps on an old mattress and often goes to bed hungry but rises to challenge of taking care of her family and of herself. She loves to play and sing when she visits the Centre and always volunteers to do duties or run errands.

Links:

• Makindu Children's Program

Sofia, aged 4, and Omondi, aged 7, are siblings living with their impoverished elderly grandmother, two other siblings and four cousins in a small mud hut. Omondi and two cousins are HIV+. The grandmother does her best to provide basic provisions by selling fruit at the local market. Sofia and Omondi are enrolled in the Makindu Children's Program and receive a daily meal at the Makindu Children's Centre of either vitamin-enriched porridge or a plate of rice, beans and supplemental fresh organic vegetables grown at the Centre's shamba (farm/garden plot). These daily meals are key in keeping the the kids healthy and well-nourished, and enable Omondi to adhere well to his anti-retroviral medications for his HIV. These daily meals for Sofia and Omondi at the Centre also enable the grandmother to better afford the food necessary to feed her other grandkids that are not enrolled in the Program.

Recently, some of the families in the Program received a goat. Sofia and Omondi's family was one such lucky recipient. The goat is now providing the entire family with much-needed milk on a daily basis, ensuring each member of the family gets the calcium so critical to the healthy bone development for the children and bone health for the elderly grandmother. The family is hoping to breed the goat, and plans to sell the goat kid for supplemental income for basic needs. The family that purchases the kid goat will then also have the critical calcium and nutritional benefits of daily goat milk, thereby strengthening the health not only of that family, but of the entire community.

One of Sofia and Omondi's older cousins is enrolled in a goat cheese making class, paid for and sponsored by Makindu Children's Program. Making and selling cheese will help supplement the family's income and further provide tasty nutritious dairy so often lacking in the diets of poverty stricken children and adults in rural Kenya.

Please help us continue to provide food, nutrition, goats and economic opportunity to hundreds of desperate families in the Makindu region plagued by the AIDS pandemic. Health begins with daily nutrition. 

Links:

• Sofia & Omondi recent report