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My husband sister and I went to Kenya over the summer and lived with an orphanage. We had the opportunity to raise money before we went and help the orphanage out by building desks for the kids, purchasing new text books and learning materials, building a chicken coupe and buying 50 chickens to help them raise their own money. We also set up a food supply for them to help prevent hunger, but there are 56 orphans and they went through that supply so quickly! Our goal is to raise money here in the states, purchase the orphanage so that they will not be in jeopardy of getting evicted and help the orphanage become self sustaining. Right now they are so reliant on donations from others for their survival. We want to educate them in becoming self reliant and once we raise enough funds to get them going I know they will be uplifted and eager to learn and work hard to maintain their business. Throughout the blog you will find posts on our experiences while there as well as updated information on the orphanage and what we are doing to help. We hope to start our own NGO, but that process may take up to a year, so in the meantime we are looking to partner up with an organization that is willing to help us! Then we can start raising funds and get to work!
For more information on the organization we were a part of while in Kenya please visit
www.fadhili.org

Neemaland Kings and Queens Palace Orphanage

We are pleased to introduce Neemaland Queens and Kings Palace Children’s Orphanage to you. In the year 2000, Sister Grace Omundi took in her first orphan; a seven month old baby girl who had been abandoned on the street, and named her a queen. Just a few years before, Grace and her three children were out on the streets themselves and have experienced the dangers and hardships that come from living a street life. Through hard work and perseverance, Grace was not only able to make a living and provide a better life for her family but was also able to help the street children and orphans that she encountered daily.

In 1996, she began a street children feeding program and for five years she fed hundreds of children. Between the years 2000 – 2004, Grace identified some orphans and vulnerable street children and began gathering them twice a week at the Satellite police station where she provided them with meals and religious counseling. In the year 2004, Grace took three orphans into her two-bedroom home made of mabati. She now had four orphans and her three children to care and provide for. Soon after they moved into a four bedroom house which enabled her to take in fifteen more little girls and change their status from orphans to that of queens. Through the support of a volunteer from the United States, they were able to move yet again into a larger self-contained house that had eight bedrooms. The property also houses another eight rooms, separate from the main house, which serve as the children’s sleeping quarters and classrooms. Grace felt so blessed to have a larger home for her family and the orphans to live that she felt inspired to take in more orphaned children and provide a home for them and a better life. In the span of six months she acquired twenty-six more boys and girls making a total of fifty Kings and Queens. She then officially named the orphanage Neemaland Queens and Kings Palace and strives to ensure that the children feel loved, special, and at home. The Queens and Kings are provided with food, clothes, a bed in which to sleep, and an education.

Grace and her family are working towards turning this orphanage into a true palace where the children have desks and chairs to sit at during class, qualified teachers to educate their minds, better sleeping facilities so there is no need for each bed to be shared between four children, a variety of foods to ensure that they are getting enough of the required nutrients to improve and maintain their health, healthcare so they can grow up strong and able, and counseling to help them work through their emotional problems caused by their tragic and undeserving pasts.

The challenges faced by Neemaland include:

· purchasing and therefore securing their current housing facility
-They are struggling to pay the rent and are facing possible eviction from their current home if they cannot soon buy the property. The landowner has already put the house up for sale and if they cannot afford to buy the property they will have no choice but to leave, and the Queens and Kings will have no place to live.
· lack of food

· clothing
-They lack warm clothes for the cooler months and many catch as a result of this.
· shoes

· school uniforms
-Many of the children do not even have a uniform for school.
· sleeping accommodations
-There are four children per bed.

· school desks
-There are no school desks or chairs for the children to work at during class which means that they sit on the cold concrete floor during class. If they had chairs and desks they would be better able to focus on the material being taught and perform better in school.

· school materials
-Many do not have pens or pencils. There is only one textbook per subject per classroom and 6-8 students must share one textbook between them. There is only one chalkboard eraser that is shared between 5 classrooms.

We humbly request and plead for any aid that can be given in the areas listed above.

Mission Statement:

To identify vulnerable children, give them a home, provide them with daily physical, spiritual, and emotional needs, set a Godly example, and help them to recognize their potential creating hope for a brighter future.

Vision:

To realize a bright future for orphans and vulnerable children by providing food, clothing, housing, education, counseling, and training toward becoming self-sufficient.

Objectives:

· Provide adequate nutrition, clothing, health care, love, and excellent education to
vulnerable children

· Create awareness of our situation and acquire more resources

· Provide guidance, counseling, and spiritual support

· Raise funds to pay staff; especially trained teachers so as to ensure quality and
consistency in their education

· Maintain the current site and support the orphanage staff

Goals:

· Provide the children with adequate food, education, and love

· Purchase the home so that we can build onto it, which will create more housing
facilities to accommodate more orphans and more classrooms. This will also enable us
to create a private school that will accommodate outside children; a small school fee
will be charged to outside children attending the school, which will help us to become
more self-sufficient.

· Pay teachers and other staff

· Establish a business that will provide a steady income to pay utilities

· Investigate the feasibility of a chicken or goat program and other programs that help us
work towards self-sufficiency.


NEEMALAND PROPERTY INFORMATION

Rent
Payable quarterly:
70,000 Per Month
210,000 Shillings
3,000 Total USD

Property
Buying the house, the land its on and the other structures:
7,500,000 Shillings
107,150 USD

We are back!

We arrived safe and mostly sound a couple days ago. We are happy to be home but it was a bittersweet goodbye. We were busy working and playing up to the moment we had to step on the plane to go back home. Jordan arrived in Kenya on the 15th and the kids welcomed him with songs and dances. The Kings were excited to have a boy volunteer around=) That week we took the kids on a field trip to a park. Jordan brought a bunch of games and toys from the states to give to them. We hired a bus and the kids kept their faced glued to the windows as we drove. They hardly ever get to leave the orphanage. It was a great day full of games and laughing. They were pooped by the end of the day, many fell asleep on the bus ride home. It was a lot of fun. I handed out the bows that my friends and I made for the girls and they spent the whole day wearing them, it was so cute. The rest of that week we helped build the chicken coupe and started working on finding chickens (a very frustrating task, way more difficult than predicted, after numerous failed attempts we finally had to leave money for them and are expecting to have them delivered this Friday, we are crossing our fingers) Then we left for a 4 day Safari from Friday to Monday. It was truly amazing, we saw sooo many animals up close in the wild. We had to stop as giraffes or herds of zebras crossed the road. We saw whole lion families just a matter of feet away from our van. On the last day we visited a couple lakes and got to see more animals, like the white rhinos and tons of different kinds of birds. We saw giraffes "wrestling" with each other, banging there heads into each other and swingin their necks around each others' bodies, it was soo funny. I was able to snatch some video of it. We returned home Monday evening and was rushed by the kids when we came through the gate. Its nice to be missed=) The rest of that week we worked on getting the chicken coupe finished, and to get the carpenter to start on school desks for the kids, since they have school on cold cement floors. We also were able to get them a bunch of new text books thanks to people who donated money for them! We got a lot done that week and prepared to go on a vacation come the next week since our program ended on the first and we would have had to pay for the extra nights we stay. We booked a train ticket to Mombasa, a city on the coast. The round trip ticket for all of us was barely over 100 bucks. It took about 14 hours to get there, we traveled over night and got beds so we could just sleep on the way. Unfortunately our train was like 6 hours late, so that put a bit of a damper on our start, but when we arrived it was nice and sunny and the beaches were incredible; white sand and teal water. We took a fairy and matatu (crazy vans) to get to Diani Beach. We stayed in our own little cottage with 2 bedrooms a bathroom (with running water...except it was like half salt water, kinda gross), it also had a small living room and kitchen and it was about 100 feet from the beach. We only paid 16 bucks a person, not to shabby! we went on a boat ride and visited old town and fort Jesus. At Fort Jesus they put on a show of the history of the fort and then we had an awesome dinner on the fort grounds, it was pretty cool. the next day we went out snorkeling to Wasini Island. A boat took us out to a couple different spots. The water is so clear and the fish are amazing. the only downfall was that it was rainy and a bit cold that day. We saw whales and dolphins on our boat ride out there. Then they take you to the owner of the company's property and they serve you a buffet and we ate all the crab we could. It was awesome. The next day was bit rainy as well, but we still swam around in the ocean, the waves are bigger in bad weather so it was way more fun=) That night we went out to a restaurant that is inside a huge natural choral reef. It was amazing! The food was great and i couldn't get over the atmosphere--we were inside this giant choral reef, so cool. The next day we hung out in the sun while it lasted, got a bit more fried and then prepared to head back. It was a great trip. It was nice to be warm for once since Nairobi was so wet and miserable. We caught the train back on Sunday night, arriving back and the orphanage in the morning. The kids were happy that we weren't gone for good, but we had to brake it to them that we would have to say our farewells that evening as we had to leave for our flight the next morning at 5am. We cried that night as we thanked them for everything and a good number of the queens broke down too, it was a night full of tears. I didn't want to leave those little ones, it broke my heart every time they said to me with an angry and hurt face "don't go, just stay, don't go" I wish I could have stayed a bit longer, but it was time to head out. I can do more for them here than I can over there. I miss them like crazy, but I know I will return there someday. Thank you for all of your love and support and prayers. We really felt like we were being watched out for and we are so grateful for that. I still am planning on fundraising for the orphanage and the organization so I will keep everyone posted on our future plans! Love to you all!

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Update

Dear friends and family,

Hey there! I am e-mailing you to ask if you would like to be part of our lifelong mission to help this orphanage and cure hunger in this area. We are hoping to start up a website and I have no idea how to go about doing so. I would like it to have paypal, pictures, videos etc.on the site. I need to know if you or anyone you know would be willing to help us with that and to help with managing the site. Everyone here would appreciate it so so much, they got so excited when I told them I was going to try and produce a website for the orphanage. Eventually it would have links to the feeding program here, other orphanages and sponsorship programs.Let me know if anyone has any ideas or are able to offer their services. I understand there will be a fee to purchase an address, so I would probably be able to cover that cost. I appreciate any advice!! Thanks a million!

As far as an update goes, this week seems to be going by so much quicker than last! Sunday we went to church which was just a 5minute walk. everyone there was so great and welcoming. We talked to the Bishop and may go volunteer at his medical clinic in one of the largest slums here in Nairobi next week. He spoke proudly of his ultrasound machine and how he has the opportunity to show woman their babies before they are born...obviously ultra sound machines are super uncommon in the clinics here. We may attempt to view a birth if we start gearing ourselves up for it now! We shall see!! After church we went to the monkey park with some other volunteers. You buy little bags of peanuts to feed them and they climb all over you. They will stay perched on your shoulder as long as you are feeding them and if you aren't careful they will snatch the bad right out of your hands! They are so quick! If my pictures uploaded correctly (the computers are so old and slow here) you can see the different shots of us at the monkey park on our blog. Everyday we wake up at about 7ish. The children start their day with songs and prayer at about 6:00, so I suppose that is when we actually wakeup, but we finally get out of bed at 7. They eat breakfast (porridge) after prayer time and then we help with all the dishes while they go to class. Sometimes we help teach, usually English (grammar, reading, etc) and then we do some office work which involves typing letters for Grace (the owner/mom) to send to different churches and organizations for donations, we also are organizing all the children's files which will hold their exams and their history or any medical information.

We are close to some of the other volunteers and so we try to hang out with them a couple times a week. Some of them have been here for months so it is awesome to learn the ropes from them. They take us into town and show us the best places to eat, tell us how much things should cost so we don’t get ripped off, etc. On Monday night they have Monday Madness at the Cinema which is a movie, soda, popcorn, candy and a hot dog all for 380 schillings, which is like 2 bucks. So we went and saw the movie Hancock. It was a lot of fun! I am glad that we have some great volunteers here to hang out with so that I don’t start speaking in slow choppy English to everyone because that is what I am used to. I wish the little ones could understand us better! We are trying to learn Swahili and we know some basic words, but its hard!

I started not feeling well at the start of the week and it progressively got worse. On Wednesday morning I woke up with an awful stomach ache and threw up all that I had in me. The rest of the day was spent either in bed or in the bathroom…so gross. I got a fever and when things worsened I called the missionaries for a blessing. They are really great, one is from Las Vegas and the other is from Canada. It was so frustrating to be in so much pain and to hear the children outside and not be able to be with them! I felt comforted after my blessing and knew that my illness wouldn’t last much longer. When I told Grace that my stomach might be able to handle a little bread and maybe some fruit she went out and came back with tons of fruit and some wheat bread. She then whips out this blender from who knows where and made me tons of this fruit drink that lasted me the whole next day. She sat on my bed and said she was staying until I finished my smoothie...I didn’t succeed and made her drink the rest. I took some medicine and a sleeping pill and went to bed early. Jaimie said that the queens were asking about me and praying for me, which was so sweet. I am still a bit nauseous and am not eating much, but I am not in any pain any more which is great!! I don’t think my body is agreeing with the food here unfortunately. Not sure if I will start eating what they cook again or not. I may just stick to some bland basic things to be safe. The food is alright, it’s usually just rice with beans or peas in some sort of stew and cabbage. It is just basically the same stuff every day for lunch and dinner so you get sick of it fast. They eat a ton of Ugali (corn mais) which is quite bland but will defiantly fill you up fast. We bought ice cream for the kids the other day and they absolutely love it! They took over 30 minutes to finish their two small scoops because they were trying to savor it and make it last as long as possible. Some of these kids have never had ice cream before! They were so appreciative and even prayed over it thanking God for their ice cream. I want to take some of these little ones home with me!!! They are so awesome, not to mention adorable!

We would like to thank Andy and Wendy for donating money for the chickens! We are going to be able to build a chicken coupe and buy about a dozen laying chickens as well as a good supply of chicken feed. We will name it the Neemaland Rice Chicken Coupe (or if you think of a better name, which I am sure you can, just let me know) =) We hope everyone is doing well and if you haven’t checked out the blog yet, that is where you can find updates and pictures! (www.volunteerkenyaafrica.blogspot.com)

Love,

Jaimie and Carly

Update 7/12/08
Today we went to town to the Masai Market to buy some things and I HATE bargaining! They are nice but so overwhelming! I got a few things, one of them including a very large wooden Giraffe which I love! I spoke too soon when I said I was feeling better. Friday night we (about 10 volunteers from the same organization) went to an American cafe to have dinner and I finally got my appetite back and was so excited to eat! Well just minutes after Jaimie and I polished off a Sunday I felt so ill. I can't seem to eat anything without my stomach killing me, hopefully I will figure out what is wrong with me soon! Jordan flies out soon and I am so excited to see him and have him here with us!!! Tomorrow we will go to church again and hopefully to the animal orphanage where they let you hold baby tigers and take pictures of you petting a cheetah (after feeding time of course) =) Touch base later!
Love,
C&J

The Situation!!!

Things are going well here and the longer I am here the more I realize that this experience is not going to last just this month, but it will turn into a life long mission for me. Today we had a meeting with the family that runs the orphanage. We sat and talked for about an hour and we discovered so much more need than we were even aware of. A couple months ago a volunteer came from the states and was placed at the orphanage. Within the week she was there she moved them to a larger home and has been paying their rent. She promised them that she would raise money so that they could own the house. Just this past week this volunteer said she was unable to help them anymore, so now they are stuck. When they moved into the larger home they doubled their amount of kids just within a month. They are at 50 now and are having trouble accommodating all of them. Many of them sleep four to a bed. What is sad is that there are an endless amount of orphans here and if they had room and food they could double their number again just within the month. The most important thing now is helping them own the home so that they can build more classrooms and start a school so that they can earn some income from class fees. The schools here are overcrowded so they would have no problem gathering students to attend their school. These kids that would come to the school have parents and can afford school fees. then they could generate income to hire teachers and staff, plus the orphans will benefit from the better teachers and interacting with other kids because they are at the orphanage all day everyday and never get to go anywhere. Some kids try to run away because they aren't used to being "trapped" in one place all the time. We hope to take them on a couple filed trips soon. Anyway, the orphanage is in danger of shutting down, they may soon be evicted because they cant afford rent. The family works, but they can't make enough money to make rent. I hope to raise enough money to help them with rent for a few months and then work on getting them a loan to buy the home and land, it is only about $1200 a month rent and the home is selling for $112,000. The home owners are listing the house soon and the family is praying constantly for a miracle. I came here not only for the experience but I know I was put here for a reason, I felt it before I left and its been confirmed to me day after day here. I need to help save these kings and queens so that they have the chance for a brighter future. I was organizing all their files today and I read their brief histories. It was painful to read, to see the death certificates of some of their parents, to read about how many of their parents have died from HIV, some as recent as last month. Some of the children have been abused, locked in a room with no food for days and then beaten. Little king Bensen came to the orphanage just a couple weeks ago and I believe he has some mental problems from the kind of torture he endured from his previous guardian....he is such a sweet sweet boy and I have a very difficult time understanding why someone would hurt such a small child. Young death here is so common and it brakes my heart that these children watch their parents die or have their parent leave them or abandon them on the street because they can't care for them any longer. I can see the pain in their eyes at times, but for the most part they are happy children who work hard, all having their roles and responsibilities in the home. they study and play and thanks God a number of times a day for all they have and I have not seen a tear or complaint from them yet. I love their strength and courage. I love their laughs and their never ending hugs. I love listening to them sing and watching them dance. I love hearing their prayers and songs of praise. I have only been here a week and already they are a part of me now and I sense they always will be. My heart is heavy knowing what I know about their pasts. Knowing that they don't have birthdays because they don't know them...some of them don't even know how many years old they are, the family has to guess. Some of these kids have no history because they were dropped off with no information. I don't mean to sadden any one, its just the reality and it gives me more reason to focus my energy on helping them. We are off to give them ice cream now, some have never had it, so gotta run before it melts! Love to you all!

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