It is so good to see my work here finished and put to good use. All the members of the community came to see the new bright blue building and to listen to the words spoken within. I feel as if a seed has been planted here at Gift Academy and will only grow to provide for the orphans here. Tomorrow they are starting the foundation of three new guest houses that Huruma House is building for them. This will generate income for them and allow more foreigners to come here to visit and help. We had a meeting to discuss the future of Gift Academy and some of the concerns about its development. The Director expressed to me that because there are more substanianl capital going into Gift Academy it is important that security measures be put in place to protect the children as well as the new appliances such as the computer, generator and the cows. Who would do something against an orphanage I wondered? But it is true there are theives here who come in the night and take things. I was very much disturbed because the Gift Academy sign on the main road was taken down. Who would take the Gift Academy sign down? Is somebody jealous? I hope it was not taken down out of malice. Well there are more important things that we can take care of such as feeding the children! I found out that they had no food for the children today for supper so we quickly got two of the caretakers to run to the market and buy two bags of maize. It costs around Ksh 3000 or US$25 to feed a child for a month here. During the meeting I found out that the income from the cows is about Ksh 4000 a month. They use this money to buy food. I'm wondering how are they feeding all 22 children if they only are making enough money for 1.3 children to eat a month. Well the answer is that they dont. Sometimes the children will skip meals and just fight off the hunger and trust in God that their next meal is coming. Also half of the milk goes to the children so that they do not suffer from malnutrition. At a glance though the children look healthy. No one is starving but they are hungry... Today though everyone was happy and fed. The maize should last them for about a week or so. Then it is back to survival. Hopefully the kinyozi/phone charging and dairy give them enough income to stay relatively fed. I hate to leave them but I have to get back to Bwaliro. Hungry people there too. As for me well I'm about to eat dinner and the first thing I'm going to do is thank God for food. It could be me not eating tonight...
The three houses they are building are meant to be rented out to professionals living in Rongo. It is going to cost $14,300 to build the three houses, and they are expecting to produce about $225 in rental income per month. The money for construction was given to them as a zero interest loan, and they are going to repay the loan by giving $125 each month to a feeding program hosted by Mogesa Church of Christ in Kisii.
ReplyDeleteOur goal for Gift Academy is to put enough income-generating improvements in place there that they can be self-sustaining and not have to rely on continual foreign assistance.
Up until very recently only 10 orphans were actually living at Gift Academy and another 31 were coming there for school and living with their guardians. Once they got the dairy cows they decided they could handle more children.
Also, $25 per month would keep a Kenyan child very well-fed and also supply clothes, medicine, and school supplies. So, the $25 number they quoted is just a goal they are shooting for, not the minimum that will allow the child to eat.
Our next project after the rental housing is to help them build a posho mill there so that they can mill their own maize and earn some income by milling the neighbors' maize. It's going to cost about $6000-$8000, though, so it's just a matter of coming up with the funds.
Thank you so much for all your work there, Luke. It's amazing what you guys accomplished during your brief stay.