I assume most who read this blog also subscribe to our update emails. (If you don't get the emails but want to, sign up here.) I intend for the emails to be a monthly summary of our progress and for the blog to be more detailed, like stories. Story #1:
When we were first making plans for starting a children's home, we pulled up websites for homes that are already established. We used information we found for cost estimates and to help us brainstorm what we wanted our home to be like. One home we found was Baraka Children's Home. Rodgers started emailing the director a year ago, and we got to meet her in person on Saturday.
The city of Mombasa is on an island, surrounded by a cluster of what I would call suburbs. We live in one of these suburban towns called Bamburi. Not far from our house, we turned off the paved road onto a dirt road. We found ourselves in steep hill country and eventually, at Baraka Children's Home.
We visited for about half an hour. She went over some simple things about how they run the home, how many kids sleep in each room (the boys and girls are in separate buildings). She also talked about how they are given the children to take care of (by court order). She told us that she is always receiving calls from the advisory council asking if she has space for yet another child.
There are children's homes all over. Actually, there is one within our neighborhood (first house on the right after you come in the gate). They are filled to maximum capacity, and there are still so many children with nowhere to go.
We intend to visit some more homes, including the one just around the corner from our house, in the near future. Visiting with one director was so enlightening, we feel that we will be able to make better plans for Maisha Kamili after visiting with more.
We have our eyes and ears open, and have spread the word among our connections, to try to find acreage to buy. There is one possibility already, which we hope to look at in person very soon.
When we were first making plans for starting a children's home, we pulled up websites for homes that are already established. We used information we found for cost estimates and to help us brainstorm what we wanted our home to be like. One home we found was Baraka Children's Home. Rodgers started emailing the director a year ago, and we got to meet her in person on Saturday.
The city of Mombasa is on an island, surrounded by a cluster of what I would call suburbs. We live in one of these suburban towns called Bamburi. Not far from our house, we turned off the paved road onto a dirt road. We found ourselves in steep hill country and eventually, at Baraka Children's Home.
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| the dirt road [no good quality pics when snapping them through the windshield] |
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| a view of the hills here |
We visited for about half an hour. She went over some simple things about how they run the home, how many kids sleep in each room (the boys and girls are in separate buildings). She also talked about how they are given the children to take care of (by court order). She told us that she is always receiving calls from the advisory council asking if she has space for yet another child.
There are children's homes all over. Actually, there is one within our neighborhood (first house on the right after you come in the gate). They are filled to maximum capacity, and there are still so many children with nowhere to go.
We intend to visit some more homes, including the one just around the corner from our house, in the near future. Visiting with one director was so enlightening, we feel that we will be able to make better plans for Maisha Kamili after visiting with more.
We have our eyes and ears open, and have spread the word among our connections, to try to find acreage to buy. There is one possibility already, which we hope to look at in person very soon.