I greet you all in the name of our Lord Jesus this new year of 2023! I hope that you are all doing well and the Lord is still watching over you and your entire family. I take this opportunity to thank God for his faithfulness for surely God has been our Ebenezer.
PROJECTS
PRIMARY AND HIGH SCHOOL PROGRESS
The sudden changes in our educational curriculum led to September to December 2022 term being the shortest in the school calendar. A lot of objectives had to be met in such a short timeline. Great teamwork between the staff and children, made a huge impact including covering the entire syllabus on time and the candidates doing their final National exams. This initiative clearly showed that our staff and children are in symbiosis and together we can tackle any challenge that comes our way.
For a long time, we have struggled to transport our children for academic tours. We were forced to hire very expensive vehicles. In addition, there were instances where the old bus and van often broke down leading to some trips being canceled. God answered our prayer, and on August 2022, we purchased a new bus with a 33-sitter capacity. We pick up children from the slums who are one of the Home’s beneficiaries at a low cost with ease.
The current economic hardships in Kenya led to many children dropping out of school, including in the slums. In line with our mission, we enrolled 80 more kids in both Primary and High School. Now the nation’s future is bright because more children are empowered to be valuable members of society.
Many have shown exemplary performance, in 2022, the aggregate for the grade 8 National exams was 257.92 which was a great improvement from the previous year, an aggregate of 211.93. Despite the challenges these young beautiful minds have gone through, it’s a testimony that our children have great potential. Both our teachers nd support staff also made this possible due to teamwork and relentless effort.
COLLEGE GRADUATES
A good number of my children graduated from college in 2022, in various disciplines and this is a great indicator that it doesn’t matter the background of the child because now they are on a level playing ground with other members of society. Tom, a designer graduate conducted his first fashion show with an African theme and it attracted a lot of positive attention. He currently designs clothes on order making himself sustainable and he is mentoring children within the home. Anastacia, a cosmetology graduate has been active in the modeling scene and she participated in Tom’s show.
Muchiru, a graduate in Special needs education is currently coordinating a charity organization called Operation Blue that serves the needy community through the provision of affordable water reservoirs and filtration systems that produce clean
water, thus reducing waterborne diseases. These are just but a few and this makes my heart glad because the impact you give through your educational support gives hope to my children. Thank you Brenda Banda and the entire team of the ‘i am college fund’ for giving hope to my children
NEW BOREHOLE PROJECT
Our first borehole was sunk in 1998 and as time progressed the water volume decreased and this led to the purchase of water for the hygenic needs of the home. God provided funds and in April 2022, a new borehole was sunk and the process was completed in May 2022. The new borehole has a high volume of water and it is soft because the area has salty water, which is surely a miracle. We can meet our hygenic needs and other activities.
GRATITUDE
2022 was such a tough year both economically and socially. I thank God that you stood by me both in prayer and in kind and we never lacked despite the challenges.
Economically, the 2022 Kenyan August elections affected food prices drastically and this tension was felt on the ground. We thank God that peace reigned because Jesus is the prince of peace. Though the situation hasn’t changed a lot, we thank God e and look forward to better days.
Socially, we lost two children, Josephine Mwongeli and Silas Juma in a short interval. Jospehine Mwongeli died from Stage Four Breast cancer and Silas from an accident. These sad situations bound us more as a family because they are still with us.
We love and care for you and look forward to more positive and impactful engagements in 2023.