“Greetings from Kenya”!
Hope you can print this off … take a cup of coffee and sit down and catch up on HEART! This has been our most fruitful and exciting year so far! There is much to share but I broke it down into sections so you can take a bit of it at a time!
In January we were praying for three key issues to continue our work
1) The funds to purchase David’s half of the HEART Lodge
2) The funds to buy a better vehicle, our need was a newer more reliable one, our dream was a new custom made Toyota
3) Increased staff to do the work
So this e-mail will give you the answers to those prayers and an update on our projects. You have been a HEART partner and I want to say we cannot do this without people like you and your support!
HEART Lodge
We had a series of miracles this year for our HEART Lodge. David Glenwinkel told us in August 2006 that he wanted to sell his half ownership of the HEART. He requested half to be paid by December 2006 and the full amount of $180,000 by July 15, 2007. This was a generous offer as this is the amount of money that he had put into the Lodge, no interest or profit was requested. We had many people help us with this seemly impossible amount, many bought one of the “Stepping Stones” that will build a beautiful granite stone memorial walk in front of the lodge. Three major donors stepped up and paid the lion’s share (one gave $80,000, one gave $42,000 and one gave $37,000) and we were able to pay David off a month early! Rejoice with us! Thank you for being a part of this miracle.
The final papers were signed this week, between Bob Francabandera and HEART, and the Lodge is now in HEART’s name. HEART signed the agreement to purchase the Francabandera’s half on July 21, 2007. They agreed to let HEART have 5 years to complete payment with no interest! There was $3,000.00 left in the Lodge account after paying David his $ 180,000.00 and paying for the title transfer etc. so the balance is due to Bob and Tammy is $ 177,000.00. We are continuing to sell the HEART stones to help pay off this balance. Even though Bob and Tammy gave HEART 5 years to pay off the balance with no interest, HEART would like to pay this amount off as soon as possible.
We have already done some minor remodeling to the Lodge to accommodate our growing Kenyan staff and the several college/medical interns wanting to come and work with us.
The Lodge has been self supporting since January 2004 from the income from guests. We are able to pay our seven full time staff, the utilities and all minor repairs through the income of the lodge. This facility has five offices and a reception area/resource center and also provides housing for three full time US families. There is also room for one US intern to stay for months at a time; it accommodates our HEART teams and sleeping quarters for seven full time Kenyan staff. We have 11 full time Kenya staff now and several part time staff.
Our need is for the funds to: Pay Bob and Tammy their balance of $177,000
HEART Vehicles
We are the proud owners of a 2007 custom made Toyota Land Cruiser! This is yet another miracle that happened this year. We had raised $20,000 (plus another $20,000 donation from one individual that paid off the debt from last years repairs on the old Land Rover) but needed $40,000 for a good used vehicle and $60,000 for a new one. In March, William, our driver, had just taken our old Land Rover into the shop (again!) and called to tell me they needed to replace the gear box and clutch … I told him to bring it home … he said “they already have it broken down to repair”. My heart sank … how will I explain to our Board that we are going to put more money into this old vehicle? I was going to bed that night my heart sick … when I got a call from the states, it was Dr Carroll Osburn from the Caris Foundation … he asked how I was and where we were in buying a new vehicle … I said, well, we have raised part of the money but had a ways to go” … he said, “would $40,000 help”? I said, yes…. That would help!” So we ordered the custom made Toyota! Come I will take you for a ride! But do you want to hear “the rest of the story”? Jackson our other driver called me the next morning (we always have one of our drivers stay with the vehicles being repaired) and said, “a man came in to the shop and wants to buy our old Land Rover”! He paid 50,000 Kenyan Shilling more than we thought we could sell it for and he paid for all the repairs! Are you smiling yet? Is this just too sweet or what? Sounds like a “God thing to me”!
Dave and Jen also bought a new Toyota truck (matching colors) and HEART is paying the insurance, maintenance and provides the driver so we now have two awesome vehicles to do our work!
We also replaced my little Mazda that was totaled in the Oct accident last year with a newer better Toyota Station Wagon.
So …..we are looking good! Our only needs are for:
Monthly support for insurance, maintenance and running expenses
HEART Staff Expansion
HEART will continue to host US teams as this has been a successful part of our ministry. But I am happy to tell you we have developed a competent, professional Kenyan staff and the work now continues year around! We now have a great Financial Manager, Charles Wakaba, two Field workers Isaac Mzee (Field Coordinator) and Evans (Field Officer) … plus the Lord gave us a Kenyan University Intern for 17 weeks that has helped put all the pieces together in the WEEP Project. We also have an Administrative Secretary, Josephine Avisa and Bishop Abel Oyaro has come along side to help … Charles Obes has been promoted to Lodge Manager and is going to school (while working … taking evening classes) to learn more about Lodge Management.
Bob and Tammy are in Meru with a team doing a medical camp for Kids for School. They return home tonight. They have really stepped in and have been a huge support of all the various aspects of HEART …Tammy is focusing on Children while Bob is focusing on the Logistics to make everything work.
Dave and Jen are back after 10 weeks in the states raising their personal support. HEART provides them housing but they raise their own support. They are excited and always ready to work … they have a team here right now … personal friends that came to learn more about HEART.
I see the need for a Clinical Officer (equivalent to a US Nurse Practitioner) next year to oversee our medical camps and medical issues, a Social Worker to help us with our WEEP and Kids for School projects and another Field Officer to keep the Monitoring and Evaluations (M&E) on each project …. We are already busting at the seams with our facility … we have US Interns that want to come and help us (they will pay their own way and pay to stay and work here … Dave and Jen brought a young woman back with them “Sarah” ) also have several other Kenyan University Interns wanting to come and help.
HEART Seminars
We are fulfilling our goal to “saturate rural Kenya with the prevention message of HIV/AIDS, TB, Malaria and Typhoid”!
The 2-day village-wide health education seminars (HES) with Mobile Voluntary Counseling and Testing (MVCT) for HIV has reach many areas of Kenya. To date, 80 seminars have been conducted in various areas including Meru, Taveta, Taita, Kisumu, Kericho, Kisii, Nyamira, Tombe, Nakatch and Magadi; and several urban slums around Nairobi including: Kibera, Mathare and Kasarani. There are many more! Overall, the program has served more than 140,500 participants since 2000! Our strategy to teach adults, youth and children simultaneously, about the process and prevention of disease transmission, prevention and care focusing on HIV/AIDS, has been embraced by the communities of Kenya!
HEART Teams
Over 600 volunteer team members have traveled to Kenya to help us accomplish our work with the people of Kenya. We have several teams already booked for 2008 and looking to add about six more! Can you come??
We are also looking for some specialty teams for 2008:
Medical teams of nurses and doctors to host medical camps
A construction team to remodel the lodge kitchen, plumbers, carpenter etc.
A construction team to help build a garage to work on our vehicles, also a mechanic to help us secure tools would be great
Kids for School
The Kids for School Project, more affectionately referred to as Goats and Uniforms, provides female breeding goats and uniforms to orphans and vulnerable children throughout rural Kenya. Although primary education is free in Kenya, many orphaned children, generally raised by an elderly grandmother, never have the opportunity to attend school because they cannot afford a school uniform. In addition to a complete uniform, the child is also given a milking goat purchased from local Kenyan sources. The milking goat provides the orphan’s guardian family added nutrition, and the child is taught goat husbandry. Through this provision, the child brings an asset to the guardian family rather than an added burden. The cycle continues when the first kid goat is passed on by community designated leaders to another orphan who is also given a uniform and a chance at an education. The goal is that each child has a small herd of goats by eighth grade. This herd then provides the income necessary for secondary education or the means to begin an adult life. We will have 1,150 children in this project by December 2007!
Want to have a Christmas gift for all these children, flour and oil for the grandmothers to make “Chapatti” a special Kenyan bread for Christmas day and my desire is to have a new piece of clothing for each child a shirt or blouse or dress
$10 each for Kids for School to have Christmas – would you like to give
this in the name of a family member or friend?
WEEP Project
As an orphan prevention initiative, WEEP (Women's Empowerment Equality Project) enables women with HIV/AIDS to be self supporting. The project saves the lives of mothers suffering from advanced stages of AIDS, therefore, their children are spared from becoming orphans. Operating in impoverished areas, WEEP identifies mothers who have been widowed or abandoned when their husbands learned of their HIV status. WEEP commits to providing medical care, nutrition, vitamins, rent assistance and access to ARV (Anti-Retroviral) Aids drugs; it also assures that their children have school uniforms and necessary resources to attend school. Once physically stable, the mother is taught a trade and provided a job at a WEEP center. In a country where the unemployment is estimated to be 70%, and over 51% of Kenyan make less than 1$ a day …. a job allows the WEEP women to provide for their families in a way that would be impossible without this project. Beyond the devastatingly high unemployment level, the lack of information and the stigma associated with AIDS make it nearly impossible for an HIV positive woman to secure employment, support her children, or access ARV drugs. WEEP’s objective is to provide training so that HIV positive women may break the impoverished cycle in which so many of them are caught. WEEP is keeping mom alive, healthy, and employed and her venerable children from becoming orphaned. This project started in 2005 with five ladies. Some have already graduated, left the project for full time employment! We now have 8 centers with 38 women and 152 children being supported by this HEART project. We have had several other organizations visiting and wanting to model this program!
$25 a month helps us support these women until they are able to graduate from the program or earn enough to totally support themselves.
Girl Child Assistance
Through the Girl Child Assistance Program, HEART is helping to provide under panties and sanitary pads for 12,000 school girls in Kenya! If not for this program’s assistance, many girls would miss up to five days of school a month due to lack of protection during their monthly cycle, and gradually dropout of school.
So how can we help 12,000 girls? Another awesome story! I received an award this year from Soroptimist International, Women making a difference” and it was presented me in April in Reno, Nevada, at their Western Sierra/Nevada Division Conference.
I had written to a couple of my Soroptimist friends and asked for assistance to get 14,000 pair of underwear! (Thinking this would take a year) At the regional conference they had 55 clubs represented and these clubs had participated in a contest to see how many panties they could collect … their total was 12,000 pair! Plus they raised the money on the spot to ship them to Kenya with our HEART Teams!
A lady came up to me at the conference and said, “I know Michael Jordan (the famous basket ball player) … I think if you asked, he would help with this project” I said, “If you know him personally, can you ask?’ she said, yes… and she did and he did … Michael matched their 12, 000 pairs and we now have 24,000 pairs!
HEART is partnering with the Rotary and Lions clubs to buy the sanitary napkins at a reduced rate, $5 for a year supply for each girl! (This covers the purchase, transport and delivery costs). They are giving us some free and we will need to raise the money for the rest. We are working with other Non-profit organizations to distribute the panties and pads and give basic hygiene education to the most needy. These girls are enabled by this HEART project to stay in school full time. Amazing!
So we need:
$5 per girl for a year’s supply of sanitary towels (need for 10,000 girls)
Shipping fees for the 12,000 donated by Michael Jordan (500 a box) to come with HEART Teams and then we do not have custom issues so 24 boxes at $155 a box is $3,720 – this makes the panties cost 31 cents each … quite a deal.
Have you finished your cup of coffee? I would love to hear from you!
The work is far from being done but we have come so far! There are daily miracles and daily challenges … none of this could be done without our US partners supporting and praying for us!
Thank you for your love and friendship and efforts for the people of Kenya! |
