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2008: We discovered Rosina when one of our support missions was on its way to meet with the Kenyan Wildlife Service in Tsavo, Kenya. Upon learning that Rosina was seeing to the needs of 1,817 in the area of Mtito Andei, Patrick Firouzian, Global Roots' Senior Volunteer and our lead photographer, placed an immediate call to Global Roots headquarters.
Rosina does not have a home to support her orphans. Instead, she needs to farm them out to local temporary guardians who offer accommodation. Most guardians do not provide money for education and clothing because of their low economic status. The children therefore rely on Rosina's for the expense of school and clothing. Rosina's greatest challenge is to pay for her children's clothing, food and the fees of the local school. At the moment, Rosina survives on donations from well wishers. She also sells bricks made by the children and relief food that sometimes is provided by the government to the region during during drought periods. Most of the children have dropped out of school due to lack of fees or food and are just hanging out.
Rosina is struggling to sustain feeding, clothing, educating, protecting the children.
It is now our mandate to change this destructive cycle, to get every child under 12 out of the brick factory and into school or day care before the end of the year!
Rosina and one of the kids at Baraka's orphanage:
Living conditions in this area are very challenging. Lack of water during dry seasons, more and more emigrants from nearby countries bringing their cattle to share the pastures, increasing drug and prostitution, government instability, surge of AIDS and hepatitis.
Such challenges and such entrepreneurship could not be ignored, and Global Roots mobilized volunteers and donors to support her.
2009: Global Roots continues to fund the subsistence and development of Rosina's project by funding Rosina for clothing, food and building of a fish pond.
2010: Our future missions are scoped, starting with volunteers staying at Rosina's office for a few month, to assess further the next steps to get the children in a good path. See the detail here.
Video
This video shows Rosina and her children. Please take the time to meet Rosina!
Note: is this video slow?Is it unclear? let us know!
Location and population
- Mtito Andei, between Nairobi and Mombassa
- 1,817 children, between 4 and 17 years old
Previous state
Baraka orphanage subsists by:
- children making bricks that they then sell to local builders
- sawing and embroideries that they then sell at local markets
- receiving donations from government for food, a few kilograms of beans per month
- receiving donations from well wishers, enough to pay the rent of the office
The hall and office of the orphanage, already in poor condition, were damaged by winds and needed a repair.
Two orphans outside of the office rented by Rosina. One of them is wearing man shoes as she has no-one to buy her proper ones.
Child standing at the orphanage's door. Many children get abused during adoption, and Rosina is in serious lack of proper facilities and skilled people to help these kids.
Current state (January 2009)
A message from Alex Macharia Kamau, our lead volunteer and project manager in Mtito Andei, Kenya:
January 2009
We managed to buy uniforms to school kids, xmass clothes and construction materials for the hall and offices. the office is already completed and the remaining part is for the hall.
The orphanage has a fishing project that we are looking forward to start for food supplements and income. We have already started the digging and once we get more resources we will have the project started.
Selling fish will bring lots of money based on the research done a government expert I consulted on behalf of the orphanage. The fish pond according to an expert will have over 3,000 without including the small fingerings at any one time, which can be sold at a rate of $2 to $3 per kilo.
Somebody promised ready market for the fish to the nearby tourists hotel in the Tsavo national park and in Mombassa city. Our approximation gives a $4,000 monthly income of which can be used to educate the orphans. Since global roots has already provide clean piped water, the orphan project will also plant vegetables for sale and diet supplement diet to the kids, especially those who are HIV positive.
The hall that we are finishing will be used as a technical class to students who will pay for technical lessons and the income used to sustain the orphanage without depending entirely on donation and well wishers.
Unfortunately we lost a kid who succumbed to death from AIDS.
Am sure God will help us
We are very grateful to Global roots. May the good Lord always bless you and your partners.
Alex
Alex and one child from Baraka's orphanage:
Desired state
The 4 years objective is to bring Baraka's orphanage to a stable, sustainable operating model which ensures the following:
- Sufficient nutrition, no malnutrition
- Decreased death rates due to preventable disease and accidents
- Adequate facilities to host arriving children and shelter traumatized children
- Reduced cost profile, that is, less dependence external costs such as food, rent, energy
- Increase production of food, plants and water (fish ponds, poultry farms, vegetable fields, water treatment, moringa olifera tree farms)
- Increased school attendance and children attending high-school
- Eliminate child labor
- Increased cash flow through sales of fish and plant production
- Regular health checkups and preventive measures to common diseases
- Regular education on AIDS prevention and treatment
- Increased hygiene with adequate clothing and sanitary facilities
- Increased creativity, drive and balance in children
- Insured succession for Rosina
Construction efforts
Alex drove the fixing of the orphanage hall and office, and started the construction of a fish pond. Everyone in the village is involved (men women, kids) under Alex's leadership, so this is a true community project where everyone puts "their skin in the game" towards a simple goal: survival of the group.
Clothing. Giving each child an equal place in the school and in life.
In local schools, children with no school uniforms are sometimes marginalized, which is even harder when the children are already discriminated when they have AIDS and are orphans.
We supplied school uniforms, so every child feels equal and feels part of the group.
Difference made by Global Roots
These are first steps on a long road.
We have established strong leadership and controls in place, and we have a solid platform to build upon. Such projects (fish pond) are a step towards sustainable development and, as Alex writes earlier, will allow the children of Baraka's orphanage to be properly fed and dressed, educated and loved.
Next projects and opportunities
Where there is not much, a single dollar goes a long way. We are doing all we can to maximize donation dollars and will focus on these project in 2010.
Shelter house: Rosina receives a few children per month from surrounding villages. She has to find a home with caring parents for them, and while this search is going on, these children stay in precarious living conditions. It is unfortunately frequent that children get abused physically during their stay at host families, with no place to go a no-one to talk to. This needs to be remedied by creating a shelter house for children to be safe while they get on Rosina's custody or recover from trauma of loosing their parents or being abused.
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Shelter house - one time cost
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Safe House - Land purchase
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$ 21,000
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Safe House - Building and fitting
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$ 7,000
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Total
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$ 28,000
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Nursery: Orphan kids, although they are with loving parents, are often tasked to keep the babies, therefore not being able to go to school. A nursery will allow parents to go to work with peace of mind and children to go to school and grow.
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Nursery - one time cost
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Land purchase
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$ 5,000
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Building and fitting
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$ 3,000
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Total
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$ 8,000
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Nursery - monthly sustaining costs
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Medication, milk, utilities
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$ 200
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Nurse salaries
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$ 100
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Total /monthly
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$ 300
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Education: The biggest challenge we are having at the moment is taking some kids to high school, Those orphans that have graduated to the next level after successfully finishing lower school. We have a few kids who have excelled but cannot access high school. It costs $2,000 to have the 5 top promising kids sent to high school.
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Schooling costs
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Primary school/ child/year
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$ 30
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High school/child/year
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$ 400
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Total /yearly (800 primary+200 high)
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$ 104,000
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Sustainable income: Children making bricks by hand is not an option. We need to get children out of this labor and get them to schools. We will invest in machines to automate the brick making process, so we both increase the dependence and eliminate child labor.
Sustainable nutrition: the fish pond is nearly complete, and we will build more. We will also drill another well to ensure water is available to create farm fields and grow vegetables and moringa trees.
Health: AIDs is alarmingly spreading, the and victims dying daily, children and mothers. There needs to be more preventive actions to educate parents and protect children.
Hygiene: We need proper sanitation around the safe house.
Volunteers: These projects require specialized knowledge in these areas:
- Child psychology
- General medicine
- Nutritional medicine
- Construction
- Green energy
- Water treatment
- Agriculture/farming in dry areas
- Teaching languages
- Teaching hygiene
If you have such skills, and willing to join Global Roots service corps, please contact us.
If you have suggestions on projects, ideas on how to better achieve our goals, please contact us.
Children of Baraka's orphanage make bricks that they then sell to local builders. they use their bare hands.
Can we get them machines? Can we get them to go to school instead? Can we get them more than a few kilograms of beans every month? Can we make sure they are not victims of AIDS like their parents were?
More photos of this mission here.
Please email Rick if you are interested in being involved with the work we are doing to thousands of Kenyan children!
Contributors
Global Roots service corps:
- Alex Macharia Kamau
- Patrick Firouzian (2008)
Project Director:
Project managers and lead volunteers:
- Alex Macharia Kamau
- Patrick Firouzian
Content advisors:
- Rick Montgomery
- Patrick Firouzian
Kenyan advisors:
- Daniel Woodley, Senior Warden of Tsavo West National Park
- Rob Dobson, co-founder of Wildlife Works
- The Born Free team
- Chairman Leva of the Matulani committee
Special thanks to the Matulani community and Born Free for their support.
Special thanks to Hasselblad China for lending their precious equipment for some of the photographs taken during this mission.
Camera and editing:
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