Keeping Kenyan Kids in School!

We are thrilled to announce that ground was broken on a community-owned safari ranch last June and two of the tents are completed. We launched this project because all of our poverty reduction work in the area (the building of a kitchen at the local school, the creation of a foster program for our hero Rosina, children's garden and chicken farm) pointed to one thing: there is no local economy! We are working with the tribal leader Leva to manage the camp in a proper manner (tourism professionals are volunteering their time). Leva and his tribe own this camp outright! No foreigner will ever make a single dollar here!

The camp gives us the opportunity to continue what we've already started. We are laying the foundation for a community center/vocational school next to the camp that will give young people more information about how AIDs is spread (this is one of Kenya's hot spots). Children will come to our center to learn English, computer and other skills that will help them climb out of a cycle of destruction that is prevalent in this part of Kenya. The school will also double as a foster care center.

In July we sent a nutritional team down to study the area. Suggestions have been made and we're now contacting several larger organizations for help. Our Director is meeting with the US Ambassador to UN projects in Rome this week.

One of our most recent volunteers, Maddie Carsman of Portland OR, returned home from her service trip to Kenya inspired to raise funds for a bore hole (well) that will benefit 1,800 HIV orphans Mtito. Maddie is just 17 and she has decided to put the onus of the project on her own shoulders! She is working directly with our Executive Director and local managers in Kenya.

The greenhouse we built for the children of Mtito Andei is already producing vegetables! See photo attachment.