First, a little bit of background – in February 2000 we went on a family holiday to Kenya to celebrate my husband’s 40th birthday. Our whole family went expecting to spend two weeks in the sun, and possibly go on safari. The hotel was beautiful but were struck by the unbelievable poverty. Thinking it would be a good exercise for our children we asked our tour representative, a charming man named Victor, to bring us to a local school, and it was a very humbling experience – even though the children had nothing according to our western standards, they were so happy!
In 2004 we returned to Kenya and enquired about the school we had visited before. When we arrived at the school it was dilapidated with the walls falling down and the young nursery children sitting on the mud floors, as they had no chairs or desks. We approached four people in England who originally set up the “Friends of Mikoroshoni Primary School Charity” with a view to raising £15,000 to rebuild the nursery. With the help of friends, family & business associates we started fundraising and in May 2005 laid the foundation blocks for a new two storey school in Shanzu Village, home of Mikoroshoni Primary School. The money was raised by many various methods – sponsored walks, dances, donkey derbies, BBQ’s, all with one aim – to raise money for the project.
In September 2005 with approximately £42,000 raised, eighteen workers flew out to Mombasa. Everyone paid for their own flights, their own hotel and all their own food. Everyday a matatu took them to & from the village, with eight grown men packed into a rickety “van-with-seats” (which led to many memorable journeys), and even these fares were paid for by the workers too. The point we strive to get across is that every single penny raised in the U.K. & Ireland went directly to the school in Kenya, with no administration costs involved. The blocklayers, joiners, plumbers & painters worked in temperatures of 90F everyday, and local villagers were completely amazed to see mzungus doing tough manual work!
After a four week period the new building was complete with four classrooms, running water and a toilet block. There was even enough money to refurbish the existing classrooms, erect a new fence around the school and the icing on the cake was a bright blue roof on top of the new building. The villagers were so thankful, and it was such an amazing experience for all those involved – the children were queuing up hours before the school opened just to get sitting in their new classrooms!
In October 2006 we returned to the school, and everything was immaculate. The children were still singing and smiling, and seemed even more optimistic in their new school. They now had electricity, and with lights in each classroom the older pupils are staying at school until 8.00pm studying for their exams – how encouraging this was!
On this visit, we learned that the population of street children in Mombasa is approximated at 2,000, which is around 3% of the city’s population. As the world marathon is in Mombasa next year, the government has promised to remove all of the street children. But they have made no indication whatsoever of how they will achieve this. With this in mind, and after seeing the success of the school, it was decided to take on a new project. We have decided to buy a two acre plot of land in Mtwapa (a district north of Mombasa) and plan to build an orphanage for forty children. The plot is good farming land, which will aid in providing a self-sufficient project after a five year period.
In February 2007 all the appropriate paperwork will be completed and “The Good Life Orphanage” will be laying its first foundation stone. This webiste will act as an online diary, or “blog” to those of you new to the concept, and aims to document the progress of this mammoth task. It will be updated regularly, with help from our friends in Kenya, and will provide a comprehensive catalogue of this wonderful project.
This looks like a good start to a great blog – I can’t wait to see what happens next – good luck!
What an unbelievable achievement for all the people involved. I willspread the word of what you are doing in the hope that other people can help by contributing to such a great cause.
Hazel x
working with the school project changed my outlook on life and the outlook of my family. We wish we had done this type of thing earlier and will be 100% behind raising fund to build orphanage
Steve and Gaynor
kev – Im new to this, What did you mean about link the link? Im sorry about the misstake , witch song do you want me to take away? Any tip how to not make the same mistake again? carpediemjustnu.blogspot.com
Great work. Very proud of you all
Vincent
SUCH WONDERFUL WORK YOURE DOING, I WOULD LOVE TO GET INVOLVED.
I’M LOOKING FOR VOLUNTARY WORK STARTING FROM MARCH 2008. ARE YOU LOOKING FOR PEOPLE?
I’VE ALSO JUST HAD A STRANGE (MEANT TO BE) MEETING THROUGH WORK WITH SOMEONE WHO IS VERY INVOLVED IN PROJECTS IN KENYA. HE SAYS CAN HELP WITH BUILDING MATERIALS, DONATIONS, MEDICAL EQUIPMENT, CLOTHES FOR CHILDREN. DONT WANT TO LEAVE DETAILS ON BLOG,WILL GET BACK TO HIM WITH YOUR WEB ADDRESS, OR MAYBE BETTER IF I GET PERMISSION TO SEND YOU HIS EMAIL IF YOUR INTERESTED? ABI M (abimacd@hotmail.co.uk)HOPE IVE DONE THIS RIGHT, SORRY IF IVE SENT IT TWICE!
good luck what about uk orphans
Hi Mary and Kevin
Hope Everything is going well out there, me nana and my dad have been reading through the update of your website.Cant Wait To Come out there in Febuary.
Love You Lots
Lauren x
hi mary & kev,
good job.feels good to be part of this project.very very worth cause.promise to deliver furniture by mid feb.08 for first batch.
good luck & god bless
johnny & kanak
Hi i am a masonry conservation contractor based in Scotland and interested in helping make a difference in Africa. I am especially interested in the construction using traditional and sustainable materials and building methods. I am very impressed with your commitement to this project and i would be interested to see how i would go about taking a team of craftspeople over next winter.
Well done!
Steven Laing
hi,mary & kev,
by now you must have heard about election violence,as its flashing in all media’s.very unfortunate.please dont let this incident dampen your resolve.those orphans need you even more.can assure you that kenyan citizenry will bring peace which they so much deserve.we will bounce back and make sure it never happens again.also together with your kenyan friend’s,we assure you have our full support and pray this fantastic dream come true.
regards,
johnny & Kanak(Mombasa-Kenya)
Dear Mary and Kevin
We are so glad to have met you last week when you came to give us a talk about The Good Life Orphanage. We so admire what you have alread achieved so far and we wish you all the very best with the project into the future. In the meantime we will continue to support your project with further fund raising in the future.
God bless you both and all who work so hard towards the success of ths project.
With our very warm regards
St Hilda’s UCM