Background

Danny:

Wow, well what a few days it’s been. John and I have been able to get past the initial impressions of Kenya and the orphanage to start to get used to this place that will be our home for the next 3 weeks. I realized we haven’t really give much background information about the organization we’re working with (much do to the fact that we didn’t know all that much), but I’ll try to do so now and bring you up to date with some of my experiences since arriving.

Watoto Wa Baraka (The Organization):

WWB as an organization is only about 2 years young. It was started by the director, Geoffrey, with just a couple children and has now grown to a mid-size NGO (non-government organization) that encompasses numerous community development programs and, of course, the orphanage. My good friend, Kaitlin Pigott, came here about a year and a half ago with her boyfriend, Aaron, to manage the program and really made great strides for the program. What once just supported a few children now supports 20 on site and the infrastructure has grown from just a couple small concrete huts to much more (more to come later). This was how I came to know of the organization. Kaitlin actually reached out to me for donations, and I decided to donate my time instead. With my break this summer before business school, I thought this would be a great time to come help out, and fortunately John decided to join me.

The Kids:

Of course, this is the most important part of WWB’s mission. When John and I were picked up at the airport, we were told how excited the kids were to meet us (especially because there is both a Daniel and John here) and interacting with them has certainly been the most rewarding part of the trip so far. There are 20 orphans as part of the orphanage. They range in age from 4 to 14. Given the widespread poverty, prevalence of HIV, reliance on sustenance farming, and the resulting undernourishment of many kids, there is no shortage of potential entrants to the orphanage. However, WWB maintains strict requirements that the children must be orphans (no living mother or father – obviously, but it’s very strictly enforced and many people lie about this), HIV negative, and not have extended family members that could potentially provide for their needs. There is a field director, Boniface, that knows the community very well and handles the identification of new kids. For those kids that don’t meet the criteria but are orphaned, there is a sponsorship program run through WWB. Currently, there are 77 kids in the sponsorship program. These kids are not taken to join the orphanage due to space constraints, HIV infection, an extended family with sufficient means, or other unique situations. There is also a preference not to have more than one child from the same family admitted, so there are just a few brothers and sisters. Each sponsored child is matched with an international donor/sponsor for about $19/month. This money really goes to the organization, but the child and sponsor are connected as pen pals. The sponsored children are monitored by the organization to make sure they’re being taken care of properly, are getting enough food, and doing well in school. Some sponsored kids come to the orphanage sometimes for meals. There are two brothers we met at dinner last night that are older (15 and 17 maybe) who live with a mentally challenged uncle, so they come for dinner or else they wouldn’t eat. However, no money is given to the family. Instead, clothes, some main food stamps, and other materials are provided. I spent a few hours walking around the community with Boniface today, meeting some of the kids extended families and other potential sponsors. There are many tough decisions to be made about whether to support a child, with so many families struggling. However, it’s important for WWB to employ a sustainable model, and simply providing for each kid isn’t so.

Programs:

This is a very proactive and progressive environment, so there is a lot going on but here are the programs underway with a quick description off the top of my head (I’ll do them more justice as we get more involved):

• Orphanage – provides meals, shelter, support, etc. for 20 kids
• Sponsorship program – described above
• Microfinance – really cool program with the local community. Wiki “microfinance” if you’ve never heard of it, but the basics of the program are that local people (mainly women) that don’t have access to banking services and don’t really save money are encouraged to save through WWB. Boniface manages this program also, and on some of our visits today he explained the program to local women. Women traditionally haven’t had access to banking services, but they are more likely to save than men – thus the focus on women. They are encouraged to make small “deposits” whenever Boniface visits them, and over time they earn interest. This is either money or as is soon to be more common – rabbits. WWB has started breeding rabbits, and if a woman saves a certain amount over a certain amount of time, she will receive a rabbit, which can be eaten. This is done at a very small scale (thus, micro). A woman may save 100 Kenyan Shillings a week (about $1.50), but it is a good habit. Hopefully, this money will then be available for when the family needs to make a larger purchase, and WWB counsels on wise purchases that can create future value. If a woman has a strong tradition of saving, loans are made also. For example, one woman took a loan for a new water pump that saved her family the 20 minute walk to the bottom of the hill for water, which would drastically increase her crop yield. A lady that we visited today just made her first deposit and showed us some beautiful blankets she knits. Perhaps, someday she can save enough or get a loan to buy enough yarn to make a lot of blankets and sell those (perhaps to the willing volunteers here). I’m very interested in helping out here, so I’m sure I’ll write more about it in the coming weeks.
• HIV/AIDs education – there are community education programs around HIV. This includes education on transmission methods, consequences, and there is a focus on finding “community liaisons” to do much of the work. John is very interested in this effort. 80% of the kids here are orphaned due to AIDs taking one or both of their parents, so it is certainly a relevant and critical cause.
• Women’s Sanitary Napkins – many local women don’t use sanitary napkins, so WWB has been involved in educating local women and providing materials. Something tells me John and I won’t be helping out much here J.
• Bio-gas – incredible. Previously, natural gas was used for cooking in the kitchen. Now, manure from the cows is shoveled into this big well-like thing and stirred. Somehow (no idea how this works) methane gas is harvested and used to heat all stoves/ovens for cooking here.
• Sustainable farming/ranching – The vast majority of the food eaten here is produced on site. On site here there are 4 cows from which milk, manure, and someday meat is taken. There are a couple goats. Chickens everwhere (eggs with breakfast sometimes, I’m told). 2 ducks. 2 pigs (the bastards are loud in the morning, actually all the time). Rabbits. Then there is a 3 acre farm that is run by the staff here. The farm includes Maize, cabbage, tomatoes, beans, grass for the cows, and a lot of other things that I can’t remember the name of. Most of the meals are vegetarian, and they’ve been pretty good so far. Only rice, some spices, and a few other things are brought from outside. There are many fruits grown in the area also, so John and I have supplemented our diet with local oranges, pineapples, mangoes, bananas, and papaya.
• Irrigation – there is a project underway to irrigate the farm area. Right now there is a well that provides water to the farm. But it must be drawn by bucket and distributed to the plants. The new system will pump water to a suspended tank and gravity will distribute water by hoses to the plants. Local craftsmen are working on this now and it should be finished before we leave.
• Computer education – there is a new building (note: I’m being liberal with the use of the term building) being build as a computer lab. Someday, locals can come to learn how to use a computer and the internet. Volunteers are helping with the construction of the building (window panes, painting, etc.). We picked up a guy, James, outside of Nairobi on our way in on Friday. He will be doing the tiling of the building. James was a nice guy, but insisted that John and I pay for him to come to the US. We’ll see about that – of course, he insisted that we take his cell phone number. Joking aside, he is an example of a pretty successful Kenyan – someone we hope the kids will grow to be. He finished high school, learned a skill, and has become marketable in it. The sad part is that he’ll never really have the means to do much more than support himself and his family – but here, that’s a great thing.
• Random construction, maintenance – much of the work here is focused on upkeep of the property and other random additions. For example, next week we will help finish one of the German volunteer’s projects – a soccer goal for the kids.

Staff:

Besides Geoffrey, who handles a lot of the donations and budgeting side of things, there is a full-time staff here. I already mentioned Boniface, who manages the sponsorship program, microfinance program, new orphans, and the general progress of the kids. Jeroga manages the farm. Zach cares for the animals and drives. Graces is the cook, and Donna supervises the kids. They are all Kenyan, live here at WWB, and are paid a meager salary.

Volunteers:

Of course, there is much more to do than the staff possibly could, so the volunteers do the rest. I was actually surprised by how developed the volunteer program is. There is a couple from Oregon who have committed to managing the orphanage for the year, replacing Kaitlin and her bf. A cop and a school teacher, they decided to take a year away from it all and work here. They have a 5 year old girl and a 4 year old boy, who are here also. Needless to say, it’s easy to pick their kids out from the others. Quite a place to spend a year for a 5 year old, but they seem to really fit in and get along with the kids. Then, there are about 10 other volunteers here at any time. Right now, besides John and I, there is a guy from England about my age, a 45 year old ex-used car salesman from Arizona, 2 girls from Colorado in college, 1 girl from Pennsylvannia, a couple from Germany, and another 2 girls from England just came today. It seems that John and I are on the shorter end of stints here. Most seem to stay around a couple months and come for a variety of reasons: see the world, mid-life crisis, college program, interest in development/environment/Africa/kids, etc. It makes for a fun environment.

Weather:

Our orphanage is located in the Makuyu district, which is about one or two hours north of Nairobi. Here the weather is very pleasant. We are just leaving the dry season evidently. It’s right on the equator so the weather is pretty similar year round. It is very pleasant at night and in the mornings (probably in the 60’s), then gets into the high 70’s by the height of the afternoon. It’s a much welcome change from the KC and Atlanta summers. This along with the fertile soil makes for very productive farmland. Some of the best in Africa. I explained to Jeroga, the farm staff guy, that I’m from the equivalent in the US, but I had no clue about farming (I think that may have volunteered me for farm work).

Community:

As you can imagine from the above, the vast majority of people are farmers – really, sustenance farmers, meaning they farm just enough to feed their families. The past few years have been drought years and have obviously caused huge problems with hunger and required large amounts of government aid. Pretty much the whole area is just farm after farm. Each family has a few acres maybe, stamped out by a line of trees here or a dirt path there. Then there will be a concrete house with maybe 2 rooms with a tin roof. A latrine and a cow pen usually round out the place. Within what we call Makuyu are several towns. A town is a clearing in the farms where the road gets a little wider and there are a few shops. Usually a hotel (which means restaurant – uhh, yeah), some fruit stands, a little shop with random staples (of course Coke, but warm), maybe a hardware store (concrete and paint only) or tailor, and for some reason there always seems to be a hair salon. This I don’t get because anyone under 14 here has their head shaved – boys or girls. There is also sometimes a church, which looks like everyone must sit out in the street because I don’t think more than a few people could get in there. Schools seem to be randomly set apart. There is public schooling through university, but only the best students can go. Most of our kids go to primary school. About half of the secondary (HS) school kids are boarded for school, so the idea is that there would never be HS age kids at WWB because they would be at boarding school down the road. People here seem to have a pretty pleasant disposition. You definitely get a lot of looks as a Mazungo (I think every word starts with Ma-, so I get them mixed up, but I think that’s the word for white person which usually has a “rich/snob” connotation). It helps when you’re walking around with a staff person or kid. But people smile as they pass and say hello, in whatever language you greet them in. Definitely more of a Georgia vs. NY attitude. And people walk pretty much everywhere. Kids walk to school, parents to work. On our field visit today, we walked a girl home from school and it was easily an hour walk. Very very few have a car and bikes are very rare also. Some bikers charge a small fee to sit on the back of their bike, but that’s probably just done on longer trips. As far as language goes, every educated (and the vast majority are) Kenyan knows 3 languages. They grow up learning their native language. Here it is Kikuyu, which is the largest tribe in Kenya. All of the kids tend to use Kikuyu first. Then they are all taught English in schools and more recently (past 15 years) Swahili is taught also. All of the kids seem to be pretty conversant in English. Even the 4 year olds know what you’re saying and respond to most things in English. The oldest can carry on seemless conversations. Other people, especially older ones, aren’t as versed in English (or don’t care anymore).