The donations from friends in Australia and Brazil that volunteers Clau and Dine (Brazilian sisters) raised to the Light Orphanage Centre, came to a total of US$3,500.00 dollars, which was equivalent to Ksh $297,500 (Shillings - Kenyan currency). All the money was spent with things bought for the orphanage and its school as below.
NEW BEDS, MATTRESSES, BED SHEETS & BLANKETS
Before: the wooden beds were broken and filled with bed bugs in the cracks. The mattresses were old, smelly and also filled with bed bugs and fleas.
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| Old bads and mattresses |
After: six durable metal bunk beds replaced the broken timber beds. Bed bugs don’t go into metal.
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| New boys dormitories |
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| New girls dormitories |
NEW DURABLE PLASTIC BAGS
Before: most orphans had no bags to keep their clothes in. Some of them would store their clothes in plastic bags and some others just leave on the floor inside or outside their rooms.
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| Lack of bags to store clothes |
After: 41 durable plastic bags were bought for the orphans to keep their clothes in.
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| Children showing off their bags |
NEW SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS
Before: there were not enough school textbooks in the orphanage school.
After: now, textbooks for different subjects were bought for all grades, including for class 8, which will open next year (2013). In addition to the books, school charts were bought for nursery and pre-school classrooms.
After: now, textbooks for different subjects were bought for all grades, including for class 8, which will open next year (2013). In addition to the books, school charts were bought for nursery and pre-school classrooms.
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| School textbooks |
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| School charts |
STUDENT PROFILES
Profiles were made for each border and non-border attending the school within the orphanage. Binders with plastic sleeves were bought for 74 students.
NEW MATH SETS
Previously, the students could not learn Geometry due to the lack of appropriate school material. Math sets were bought for all student attending grades 4, 5, 6 and 7.
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| Maths sets |
NEW SCHOOL BAGS
Before: most students would carry their school material inside plastic bags.
After: now, all borders and non-borders have good quality school bags, which made them really happy!
NEW SPOONS
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| Dine giving school bags to everyone |
Before: all students would eat their lunch with their ‘dirty’ hands, due to water shortage in Kenya and lack of spoons.
After: now, all the children have spoons to eat their lunch. They were very happy with the spoons too!
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| Metal spoons for everyone |
PAINTS
Before: the borders’ dormitories were dark and sad. Then we bought colourful paints, to bring life to them. The boys chose blue colour and the girls chose pink.
After: now, although they still have no electricity, their dormitories are a lot brighter, during the day and the evenings, as reported by most happy borders.
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| Children helping to carry gallons of paints |
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| Dine painting the girl's dormitories |
NEW TOYS
Before: The orphans used to make their own toys. Their balls were made of plastic bags or with many pairs of socks, all tied up together. They were really quite creative! The little ones played with whatever they would find within the orphanage, mostly things that were no longer used or thrown away.
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| Child playing with plastic lids |
After: The children could not wait to start playing with their new toys. I cannot express in words the look on their faces when we handed them over the toys. All I can say that they went MAD and start screaming with happiness and had the biggest smiles on their faces. The purchase of toys to the orphans was requested by a very special donator, who made the biggest cash donations to the orphanage.
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| Soccer ball for the boys |
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| Hula-hoop for the girls |
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| Skipping rope for everyone |
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| Lego for the little kids |
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| Board games: Monopoly and Memory Cards |
FOOD AND BOOK DONATIONS
Before: the children had the same food day after day, consisting of sukuma and ugali. Sukuma is kale (greens) and ugali is a mixture of maize flour and water, which is not nutritious but helps to fill the children’s tommy. There was not stock of food within the orphanage, food was bought on a daily basis as money was available. When there was no money available, the orphanage’s founder Charles would go into debt, borrowing money to buy food for the children.
After: My sister and I came to work as volunteers in Kenya through and organization called Network for Voluntary Services ( http://nevos.org/ ). After some of the NVS staff paid a visit to the orphanage and saw the children’s’ living conditions, they returned for a second visit with a van loaded with food and storytelling books. The small Library within the orphanage was transformed into a storage room, after the ninety kilo bags of food from NVS. Their food donation included beans, lentils, rice, maize flour and cooking fat.
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| Ninety kilo bags of food and book donations |
A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO ALL OUR FRIENDS IN AUSTRALIA AND BRAZIL
On our last day in the orphanage, which was also Clau's birthday, we handed over to the orphans their school bags and most of the toys. We also bought muffins and soft drinks for everyone, which we ate after they sang Happy Birthday to Clau!
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| Celebrating Clau's birthday with the children |
We were overwhelmed with the generosity of our Australian, English, Swedish, American, Bolivian and Brazilian friends, whom contributed so much to improve the children’s lives in this orphanage. We had tears in our eyes many times, after receiving donation after donation from all of you. We can honestly say that my sister and I never expected to do anything as big as we did in this orphanage in Kenya. We felt a huge sense of fulfillment doing what we did for the orphans and the other kids from the slum attending school in the orphanage (and without your financial support it would not have been possible!).
ANOTHER SPECIAL THANK YOU!
To our host father Wangure, who took my sister and I for a visit to the Light Orphanage Centre and convinced us to work there. He was also the person who invited NVS organisation to visit the orphanage. After that, NVS made a huge donation of food and books. Wangure is also supporting the orphanage on a voluntary basis, teaching English to the children, establishing a vegetable garden and helping out in many other ways. Thanks Wangure and keep up the good work!
FAREWELL LETTERS
ANOTHER SPECIAL THANK YOU!
To our host father Wangure, who took my sister and I for a visit to the Light Orphanage Centre and convinced us to work there. He was also the person who invited NVS organisation to visit the orphanage. After that, NVS made a huge donation of food and books. Wangure is also supporting the orphanage on a voluntary basis, teaching English to the children, establishing a vegetable garden and helping out in many other ways. Thanks Wangure and keep up the good work!
FAREWELL LETTERS
We received many farewell letters from the children thanking US and YOU for what we did for them. We will take some of these letters with us to Australia (Clau) and Brazil (Dine). It will be a pleasure to show them to those of you, who would like to read them. We felt very deeply touched as we read the letters and we are sure that some of you will feel the same way as you read them. J
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| Farewell letters from the children |
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