Soar Kenya

Dear Mary and People of Soar-Kenya,

I pray and trust that you are well. I am doing fine.
I am from seeing my parents who just left for Nairobi to see Susan whose baby Ayana is being baptized tomorrow. They will also see Dennis…..its his birthday, remember to write on his wall!!

Some good news: I got 4 babies already. Its been one week now. I could never be happier. Chris will be one month old on Sunday, he is a very beautiful baby boy and in good health. He was abandoned on the night he was born by an unknown mother. Alice is 3 weeks old, she is currently at the hospital. She fell ill on Tuesday and i had to take her back for treatment. Apart from being HIV+ she was born premature.They had to keep her in an incubator for a few days. I checked on her yesterday, she has really improved and i should bring her home next week. She is so adorable!!!! The mother fled from the maternity room after giving birth to her but she was later arrested and is now under police custody. She wrote a letter asking the hospital to give up baby Alice for adoption. Mary is a very healthy baby girl. She is so pretty!! Her mother is mentally ill and cannot take care of her. A community health worker approached us and asked us to take care of her until the mother is well enough to do so. I am not sure she will ever want her back. They are trying to trace her father who is said to have abandoned them when the woman fell ill and with no work, he couldn’t take care of them. A two and a half baby Steve is an orphan who is HIV+. His mum who was a single parent died when he was 6 months old. He was left under the care of his granny who died recently. The boy was taken to the District Children’s office by a social worker. The officer asked me to take care of him until they get a family member who can take him in. 3 year old Tracy will be leaving us next week. She was brought in yesterday morning. Fortunately the childrens office traced her guardian this morning. That is my family and that makes me a proud mommy. I will get more babies after buying beddings for the other 4 ready beds. I also plan to buy 2 more beds to make it 10. Phill visited us yesterday and i used his camera to take pictures for you. I will take pics of baby Alice who wasn’t there and baby Steve who was brought in after Phill had left.

The fruit trees dad planted are flowered now. They look so nice apart from some avocado trees which had been planted around the school compound. They were destroyed by cows which got into the school compound to feed on the grass during the profound drought. Vitalice and dad decided to replant them in March when the rains come.

Nothing else is new around here.
I am fine now,i am glad i have babies to take care of. I pray that you will get another chance to visit with us and see my beautiful babies.

Mary, thank you for your continued support.. I always pray for you and your family.

Love you,
Nellie

Character is both developed and revealed by tests, and all of life is a test.

Hi!
This is the latest few messges I have received from Hanford High in Ukwala, Kenya. I sent them $500, $300 of which was from SOAR Kenya.

For those whose kids have trouble writing thank you notes, this is a charming example, as are the next two, which I copied and pasted here.

Dear friends,

We resumed planting yesterday and managed to do three more acres.So far,six out of the ten acres has been planted.
This would not have been possible without Darleen Johnson of H.O.P.E who spread the word about our incapability to buy seeds and fertilizer and went further to donate money to buy food for our kids who have been working in the farm,Mary Hoffman of Soar Kenya who donated money for seeds and fertilizer after learning about this from Darleen,Denice Mangoa Mosota of STANDARD GROUP who donated a 100 kg bag of fertilizer and Mr Mark K’ochiel who donated another 100kg bag of bean seeds.

Ladies and gentlemen,you played a major role in this project and though the work is not complete yet,I must admit it would not have began in the first place were it not for your generous contribution.Please, kindly accept my most sincere gratitude.
I want to humbly appeal to you all to continue spreading the word so we may get the whole farm planted.Also,I want to thank T.D Farm link services for voluntarily digging part of the farm without asking for pay.
I would not forget to thank Mr Johanna Makokha who offered our kids free drinking water and porridge during planting.
Ladies and gentlemen,may God bless you abundantly!
Together we can cause a difference!

Love you all,
Alfred.

Dear mama wetu,

I was left with Ksh 462 out of the $500 you sent me last.
Dorothy’s grandy is very sick,so I decided to give her this money so she could take her to hospital.I visited the old lady again this afternoon and noticed some slight improvement.
The old lady’s illness has come at a bad time when Dorothy is preparing to sit end of year tests.She’s not been coming to school for a couple of days now,though her classmates have been taking her the days’ notes.
Today,I took some food to them-this would not have been possible without you,mama.

Alfred.

Dear mama Johnson,

My grandmother is very sick so I have not gone to school from last week.Even today I did not go to school.She is turning blind.

Today,the director came to our home and gave me four hundred shillings to take her to hospital tomorrow.He told me that you are the one who sent him the money.I thank you very very much and may you be blessed.He also brought me some little food that we will eat tonight.Mama Johnson,I am so proud of you and I know that God loves you so so much.
Thank you.

Dorothy.

Hi, Mary. Got your check today…thank you so much. We divide the money between the Nest orphanage and New Dawn secondary school. Do you have a preference or should I divide evenly? It looks like you’re starting an orphanage thru your group also? If you want to see the Nest’s website, click here: http://uhuru.de/thenesthome/ Some of it is in German, but there is English, too. New Dawn’s website doesn’t have much for pictures, but one of its main sponsors has some good pix of the school and its improvements. http://blog.mochaclub.org/?s=new+dawn Thanks again for the money. How is the harvest going up there? We got a little wood in today for the wood burner, so in that way the rain accomplished something for us. John has a couple days left of combining corn. Then it’s fall digging to get done. Just so it all gets done safely. Helen

I have a new total of money taken in from the last fund raiser. It is 6289.18. I have a couple of items not paid for yet so hopefully it will go even higher. I am always so pleased especially this year. I sat down and tallied who the money has gone to so far this year. I was just overwhelmed with the generosity of so many. So far this year Soar-Kenya has sent the following.
Pauline- 700.00, she runs a food program for the orphaned children at Barut Primary School.
Harrison -3100.00, he runs Childrens Charity Centre in the Homa Bay area. He has managed to plant ground, put in a well, feed the children, and begin a latrine with this amount of money.
James Yegon- 1250.00, James is one of the leaders of a community group located about 5 miles North of Hopewell Highschool. The group has put in 4-650 gal. water storage tanks, planted 1000 tree seedlings and fenced an area with this money.
Nelly or Vitalice, 11,250.00. Nelly and Vitalice are directors of Hopewell Highschool. The students sponsored by Ruth and Steve Gibbs are included in this money. The money went for sponsorships,fencing,land purchase,seed money,food, electric pole, playground equipment, etc.
Mason-500.00 Money used to purchase medical supplies so vaccinations for polio could be done in the area.
Calvin- 100.00 School fees
Mary W.-300.00 her last semester sponsored by Soar-Kenya, she is a nursing student.
Fr. Fagan-300.00 Missionary work . Father works on roads, schools, etc. He is no longer working with the sponsorship of the church as he is retired. He now needs support from private individuals to continue doing his work.
Susan-300.00- She is a Maryknoll missionary working in the Kibera slums. Money sent to allow material for beds to be made at the schools vocational training program.
This is just a little sample of the work we are trying to do at Soar-Kenya.
I want to thank everyone for their continued support. Mary-treasurer

Hi Ruth,

Wow, that was fast! Thank you and your group so very, very much. It will certainly help a lot. I just got the cost from our primary bookkeeper and it will run 1,600 Kshs ($23.00 apx) for one mattress which involved all materials, labor and transport of the goods. We will be making 70 of them for the nursery children here in the Catholic School in the Kibera Slums of Nairobi. Our self-reliance Living Waters girls will be sewing the covers so we are saving on that. I’m getting the money to them on the 20th to purchase the goods and get going so we have new mattresses starting the new year.

The girls will be sewing during the month of December as I understand, so will try to get some photos. If not, I’ll definitely take photos of our sweet little pupils taking their naps on their new mattresses! I will make my first venture into Kibera Slum on the 20th to attend a School Board Meeting. Everyone is anxious, as am I, to touch base and some of my older students are planning a get together for me; they have missed me and I them! It is good to be needed!

I had an xray today and two of the four screws are really coming out so hope to have minor surgery next week to get them out and then I should not have so much pain. I am exercising my shoulder/arm/hand as much as possible but is hard with the pain. I am hoping the nerves come back okay, they are still not as good as I would wish, but will have to be patient I guess. Anyway, thanks for your concern and please keep me in your prayers.

Many blessings,

Vikki

Hello friends, It is yet another time that we, Burgei Group say THANK YOU for your generous support we feel that we owe you alot we always think of you and our prayer is that God bless you.
Thanks to Soar Kenya,Don,Mary,Joaane and every other person who has contributed to Soar Kenya and our Group.our promise is that we will make use of the money you send in correct way and give you break down of any transaction we make.
May God bless you and hoping to hear from you soon.
James and Josphat
on behalf of the entire Group.
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND BE BLESSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Soar-Kenya has provided the funding for 2– 650 gal. water storage tanks to this community group. To read about this great group just read this blog. They have a report in the Nov. listings. We hope to continue working towards water projects with them. JoAnne has chosen this group to support with the money she personally raised at the fundraiser with her great donations to the auction. Thankyou JoAnne for your support.

Thankyou Ruth for bringing this project to Soar-Kenya’s attention. We are happy to be able to send a donation to help. Ruth has been communicating with Vicki for more then a year now and finally we have some support for her. Thanks to everyone who attended the banquet.Following is the letter.
This is from the principal of the Catholic School in the Kibera Slums of Niarobi that I wanted to work with. Vikki is a retired principal from the state of Oregon who is working now with the Maryknoll Missionaries in Kenya.

This is from her latest email and also where to send the money to:
– “As to your offer in this email, I am trying to collect some money to purchase the materials for new mattresses, about 70, for our nursery students. The ones we have are so bad I am ashamed for people to see them. We are trying something new rather than buying the ones available that don’t last. Our Living Waters Voc School will sew them. We are planning on purchasing the foam rubber and then a waterproof, durable plastic-like material to make a cover and they will do the sewing for a small fee. Thus, it adds income to the parish (who runs the school and for which I coordinate), and we get mattresses we can keep clean and can be stored easily. Anyway, that’s whats in the works now.

To send the donation, you can simply write a check and mail it to my home bank account and my friend who handles my finances will deposit it. I check on-line to keep up with my funds. Then, I just ATM the money and get it in Kenyan shillings. That is the easiest way. Vikki Smith, 790 Rafael St., N., Salem, OR 97303.”

Soar -Kenya had a wonderful turnout at their annual banquet and silent auction. The food was great, the music was great and the items for sale were great. It can’t get better then that! We all realize that everyone is feeling the crunch of our slowed economy so we feel really blessed to be able to have this support. We have so many wonderful projects we want to support in Kenya. Our friends,neighbors,co-workers and volunteers really helped provide this years banquet with items for sale, the great salads and desserts and of course the support. We will do our best to see to it that 100% of the money goes to help the people of Kenya with sustainable projects. I was able to deposit 5,829.18 from the banquet. I received 265.00 today in the mail and we also have several items delivered and to be delivered ,that we will be receiving money from. So far the total is 6094.18 and I will continue to update as contributions come in. Beyond the financial support it is a good feeling to know that so many people want to help with the freedom for girls, the water projects, the orphan support,etc. I hope to post photos soon. Many many thanks, Mary-Treasurer of Soar-Kenya