Latest Additions to the Orphanage 01/12/08

A phone call on Monday 1st December could never have prepared us for the day ahead. The Department of Children in Kilifi has two orphaned children who needed rescuing immediately, off we set for the Vyambani Area which is about 30 miles from the orphanage in the interior. We met the village chief as he needs to give hs blessing to the children coming into our custody, first surprise not just two children but a family of six whose father had died four months previous and the mother had died in childbirth on 19th November, the new baby boy died three days later.


The village people were trying to look after them, we were taken into the jungle about 20 mins from the village to their house and at the side was the grave of the mother & the new born baby, three boys, 11, 4 & 3, and three girls 8. 6 & 2 years old. We were told by Department of Children that we could only take the youngest two, then we were told by the chief that we could take them all apart from the 8 & 6 year old girls as they were going to another orphanage, after animated discussions with the Department of Children, they agreed we could take the three youngest children, then the heartbreaking part we had to tell the oldest 11 year old boy that we could not take him as he was too old for our orphanage.

The chief asked us then to take he five children to the courts for committal orders & we had to leave the older boy behind in the village, a lot of tears from us but the children were just so excited to get into the minibus, they had never been in a car before & never saw a road, when we went over Kilifi Creek Bridge they were screaming with delight, we then had to take our three youngest & give the older girls to the woman from a girls orphanage. The three little children never cried just climbed into the back of the minibus and we continued our journey.

Onto Zion Clinic ,which is also run by a charitable organisation from Sweden, for the usual malaria & AIDS test & Thank God they were negative, so we now have another three children in Maguire House, they only speak their native tongue & when they saw the TV in the communal area last night they were asking what is this??

It broke our heart to split the family but as the village people said they will help look after the big boy & it is easier to feed one mouth compared to six. Things like this make us really appreciate what we have and also thankful that by the support we receive, we can help these poor children by giving them a chance when all else has failed.

Back in Kenya

Hello to everyone from a very hot & sultry Mombasa, Kevin arrived back on 23rd October and I followed on 13th November, just in time to be Best Man & Best Maid at our friends Nico and Christines Wedding on 15th November. It has been a very hectic time, we are amazed at the support we are receiving from everyone in UK, Ireland and Europe. The money raised makes it easy for us to do our job out here and make a safe secure home for the orphan children.



We opened Maguire House on Friday 28th November and thanks to a donation from Damian & Helen we had a party for everyone, the children had a wonderful time. Our visitors from Dromore, Co. Tyrone, Pat, Marie & Anne did the honours and cut the ribbon on Maguire House, named in memory of Kevins' father Jack so it was also an emotional day for the family.



Luckily as a result of our donations we could afford a much needed minibus which was also handed over to the orphanage on Friday. The recreation area is now complete, it is dedicated to the late Ann Powell, a TV was delivered on Friday and the children spent the evening watching The Jungle Book, they were in awe as many had never seen a TV.






As we always say your donations are making a massive difference and over the next few weeks you will see just how important they are !!!

Fund Raising at Guardian Angels

Again Guardian Angels Parish has supported the Good Life Orphanage in different ways over the last two months.

A special end of term mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School celebrating 150 year anniversary of the apparition of Our Blessed Lady to Bernadette at Lourdes ended with the unveiling of two new statues, Donna singing Ave Maria and a presentation of a cheque of £225 to Mary Maguire for The Good Life Orphanage - Thank You

On the final day of term Debbie O'Boyle along with Year 5 pupils from Guardian Angels School presented Sharon with a cheque for £510 which they raised by doing all different things including selling balls for the orphanage- Many Thanks to You all.

John & Monica Cullen were given books by their son & daughter-in-law, Peter & Sue, they arranged a book sale in the Parish Centre & made £126, great work & thank you John & Monica for your continuing support.

Lucy O'Boyle ran The Great Manchester Run and raised £100 - Well Done Lucy

Also a special thanks to Andrew & Jill Smalley - we appreciate your help & support.

Oh What a Night!!

We are very lucky to have a wonderful Parish Priest, Father Paul Cannon & his very efficient secretary/organiser/jack of all trades, Sharon Beech. Along with other members of Guardian Angels parish they organised a wonderful evening on 27th June with Mr Jimmy Cricket.

Jimmy and his entourage, wife May, daughter Jamie, Peter and D.J. Jimmy Nicholas aka Elvis arrived a Guardian Angels and gave a wonderful performance, all free of charge.


The local ladies made tasty canapés and the bar staff made alcoholic & non-alcoholic cocktails. Everyone was made to feel very welcome and generously supported the raffle.

Again every penny raised is in the bank ready to go direct to Kenya and with support like this we know the orphanage will be a great success.

Fund Raising in Northern Ireland Part 2

Since the beginning of our project The Northern Ireland Contingent have gave us unwavering support. Just recently Vincent managed to get another unbelievable donation from DAFA, which will be wisely spent developing our building project.
Roisin and Fionnulagh O’Neill were busy fun raising again and donated some of their Birthday and Holy Communion money to the orphanage. They also organised a Holy Communion Disco which raised £80. Thanks again girls. Their mummy Donna and Granny Marie rallied all their friend & family and on the 12th July packed bags at the local ASDA in Omagh raising funds for the orphanage.



As we have stated many times, every penny goes direct to Africa, nothing is deducted along the way for airfares or administration, so every penny raised in Tyrone will be spent on the project !!

Pride of Eireann Awards - Manchester 13/06/08

Whilst Kevin was in Kenya, I attended The Pride of Eireann Awards at the Palace Hotel in Manchester on 13th June 2008. It was a brilliant night and I was absolutely amazed to receive an award for our charity work at The Good Life Orphanage.
We are so lucky to have a wonderful committee here in Manchester who supports us, Anne-Marie O’Malley, Catherine O’Gara, Karen Kilroe & Mike Flynn are our backbone and without their help we could not succeed in making our dream reality by building The Good Life Orphanage.
A special word of thanks goes to our dear friend Joe Casserley from The Full irish Radio Show who nominated us for the award. See you in Kikambala soon Joe.
Also to Eamon, Colin, Tim & last but by no means least Kay Flynn for listening to us chatter on about how to raise the profile of The Good Life Orphanage. Thanks for your input as well as the scones & jam from Anne-Marie & Catherine's mum- makes the meetings run soo smoothly!
Please go to www.bernieobrien.com to view photos from the night

Kevin's Surprise Visit June 2008

A last minute change to the design plans of the community centre meant Kevin paid a surprise visit to the orphanage in late June. He was amazed at the progress of the children, the vegetables, the chicken and the new buildings.


Jackie, the orphanage manager, had everything running like a dream. House-mothers Grace and Jane with the help of our lovely house auntie Purity had the houses spick and span. The biggest transformation was the children, Moses, Caleb and Joshua are healthy, happy young boys. Jane, Gracie and Naomi are demanding little divas and babies Michael, Paul, Roisin and Kay are coming on a treat. A lady from the local village Jocelyn is also employed to help the house mothers and she is doing really well.



The one-acre plot is now producing vegetables and fruit for the houses and whilst Kevin was there the local women came in and killed some chickens, their payment was the head and feet of each chicken they killed!! David and Onesmus are doing a great job.
To see such positive changes makes everything worthwhile and every person who has supported us so far can see just what a difference their donations are making.

Asanta Sana from everyone at The Good Life Orphanage

The Williams Family

On Monday 19th May, our local parish Guardian Angels had arranged for a viewing of the new 27 minute DVD we had taken whilst in Kenya. We were very pleased to see everyone and very surprised by the special presentation they had arranged for Kevin & myself. The Williams' Boys, Leon, Ben and Jack had completed the 1km Run the previous weekend and gave us a cheque for £200, it was a wonderful achievement for the boys who came along with Mum, Dad, Grandma, Grandad and Uncle Chris to present the cheque. The boys worked very hard telling each and every person they met about The Good Life Orphanage.

A special Thank You to Mum Terese who thought she would be walking around the 1km with Leon but ended up running it as well. Also congratulations to Dad, Tom , and Uncle Chris who completed the 26km run for Cafod.

Asanta Sana to you all !!!

New Queens of the Car Boot

We have had to relinquish our crowns as “Queens of the Car Boot”; the Co. Tyrone contingent has taken over. Marie, Donna, Rosemary, Emma, Roisin, Fionnaulagh & Sinead are the new queens. They have surpassed our feeble attempts and are now very experienced & successful Car Boot Queens!!!



A special thanks goes to Pat Watters whose new garage is now Marie’s stock room for the car boots. There are clothes, children’s toys, prams, shoes and lots of bric a brac everywhere. Also Anton who arrange the display for the jewellery, which attracted lots of customers.
Well Done to you all xx

1st Official Visitors 14th May 2008

Because of the post election violence tourists have stopped visiting Kenya, there is a very serious knock on effect as many charitable projects have very little financial support, an email from Jackie told us different!! Our Ist Official Visitors were two very important & lovely people.


We are very lucky to have met some very good friends via Trip Advisor website, Edna & Brian Elliott hail from Plymouth. The support a local orphanage near ours The Lioness Cubs but still found time to visit our orphanage with food and gifts for the children and staff.


People like Edna and Brian are hard to find and we count ourselves very lucky to have their friendship.


We were amazed to receive these photos, it shows the progress of the children and our farm project.


Asanta Sana to Edna & Brian

Fund Raising in Northern Ireland

Whilst we have been busy in Africa, our very strong support network has been raising money for the project through many different & diverse ways!!
Firstly Eamon & Audrey Maguire used their own interest in traditional Irish Music and dancing to organise a very successful night at St Patricks Hall, Dromore, Co. Tyrone. Never mind the endless rain & hail they sold all the tickets and showed the short DVD of the orphanage so far to get even more money.
Marie Watters & daughter Donna O’Neill tramped the streets of Tyrone selling tickets for a beautiful painting of an Easter Lily to raise funds again. The draw was made on with local councillor Anne Quinn.
Last but by no means least Vincent Maguire who organised a Gala Night in The Mellon Country Hotel outside Omagh. The MC was Gary O'Brien from TV Chanel 'At the Races'
The forum consisted of Ferdy Murphy, trainer...Timmy Murphy, jockey. John Carr, Champion Hurdle winning trainer and Ireland's top amateur Jason McKeown
Also present were legendary gambler Barney Curley, Mr Barney Eastwood; world boxing champion Dave Boy McCullagh, Tryone manager Mickey Harte, Tyrone footballing legend Frank Mc Guigan and a host of local personalities.
The night was a great success with a phenomenal amount of money raised.
It is the hard work of these people that ensure the development of the project and without them raising the funds we could only carry out limited work in Kenya.