Hope2Kenya Presentation by Rotarian Sandy Foster

For the past 7 years I have had the privilege of being on teams that travel to Kenya to do humanitarian work through a group I founded called Hope2Kenya. Hope2Kenya is a grassroots effort that raises funds and then takes the money to Kenya to spend on projects that will help children and widows. Each member covers their own expenses and works very hard for the month we are there.  

Education, clean water and health care are most import in helping the people of Kenya become healthy productive citizens.

The pictures that I will show you, once I finish speaking, illustrate the faces of Kenya that I have come to know and love.  It is hard for you to imagine but when I return this June, some of these faces will not be there.

I am moved to tears many days by a sense of deep appreciation for my life here and sometimes react strongly when I hear people complain about how awful their lives are….I enter a store and slowly walk the aisles feeling such gratitude for my freedom to choose…….and to have available that which I need or desire ….without question.  It is not about materialism, although that does bother me.   It is more about the opportunity that presents itself daily to me…simply to make a choice.  The freedom to choose is such a gift and I have taken it for granted my whole life.  Through my work in Kenya I have learned that poverty not only has many levels but also many faces and the majority of people in Kenya have little or no choice.

People often ask me why I go and my answer is that the more blessed we are, the bigger our responsibility is help others and I have been truly blessed.  I go to Kenya because I feel that I can advocate for those who do not have the necessities of life and support them in achieving their basic human needs.  My hope has always been to help change the lives of widows and children.  We do this by building schools, training teachers, providing seeds to grow crops, or providing food to the poorest of the poor, donating sewing and knitting machines so the women can form cooperatives to make and sell their products, providing water wells, building an orphanage for children with HIV/AIDS, encouraging street girls to be off of the streets by providing them with shelter, family and education.  We have many projects that we have been able to do because of the fundraisers we do and the financial support of many individuals and groups.

The people I interact with in Kenya often tell me that we bring gifts to them and they have nothing to give in return.  But what I receive is huge.  I have had the privilege of hearing the singing of widows and grandmothers and see the joy in their children’s eyes as they receive a uniform to attend school.  Even though education is free to grade 8 if you can’t afford $20.00 for a school uniform then you don’t go to school.  We finance schools, because education will undoubtedly be a key avenue to improving the lives of the next generation by giving them new opportunities.

I have witnessed a group of HIV infected widows, who together have 30 children, burst into tears when they receive sewing machines and supplies necessary to set up a small sewing co-operative that will allow them to earn their own money to support their children as well as other orphans they take in.  Imagine a group of teachers standing in front of you after not being paid for 3 months, receiving a gift of $15.00 to help feed their families or receiving teacher training and books for their classroom.  Each year I watch grandmothers who are looking after 8-10 children shed tears when we give them corn and beans to feed their children and relief and gratitude from people who have received cataract surgery so that now they can see.

Today as I am stand here, I know that the number one killer in North American is overeating and the complications it brings, while the number one killer in Africa is starvation due to the lack of food and without food the susceptibility to disease.

No child should be dying of malnutrition and water borne diseases.  No child should be dying of HIV/AIDS and no child should be left an orphan with no place to go but the streets.  Each year I am witness to the struggles and poverty that exist in the daily lives of so many in Kenya.  The Kenyan people that I see and meet – children and adults alike-have touched my heart with their good nature, upbeat spirits and hope for their future.  By bringing the power of caring to children and widows it may make a difference in one of their lives, and who knows what great thing one of them may accomplish in their life time.   

I know I go because I feel that is where I have needed to be.  I can’t explain why except that my soul sings when I am there holding children, helping widows learn a skill that will help them feed their kids, or hugging a woman who feels that someone sees her, really sees and hears her and what she has to say matters.  For many that may be the only hug and attention they get in a long time.  What I get out of going is a sense of pure joy.

I cannot run the tap without thinking about the thousands of people who can now drink clean water from a well that Hope2Kenya drilled.  Nor can I sleep at night without thinking of the orphaned and abandoned street children who sleep in the garbage dumps or hidden away under steps and in alleyways that are prey for those who want to abuse them.  When I walk into a local school  to talk about life in Kenya, I am reminded of being in a Kenyan classroom with 98 children who sit four and five to a desk, almost sitting on top of each other, with nothing in the classroom but a chalkboard, which has so many holes in it, a sentence could not be clearly written on it.  Many of the village schools have dirt floors and no windows or doors.  The children do their work quietly without complaint because school is such a privilege. There are hardly any discipline problems.  We have completed another school in a remote village in Northwestern Kenya. 

In 2010 Hope2Kenya completed Veronica Home, an orphanage for children with HIV/AIDS and has worked with two other orphanages to make sure that the children no longer suffer unbearable trauma but are now safe and have a roof over their heads and food in their tummies.  I have visited baby schools where I have played and laughed with the kids.  It is moving, meeting the children of Kenya, with their hesitant but smiling faces who have torn uniforms and worn out shoes.  They have huge brown eyes and beautiful brown skin and almost always have a smile when they see me.  When I eat at a school with the children, I know that this meal will probably be the only one they might have that day and that saddens me when I realize how much food we throw out at home.

In Nairobi I visit the Kibera slum each year, one of the largest in Africa, and it is there that I witness the extreme economic poverty.  Walking down alley ways covered with garbage and human waste, I see children walking in bare feet and people trying to make a living selling anything they can.  I see children living on the streets who resort to sniffing glue and many of them selling their bodies for food.   I am very much aware of the reality that too few in this world have too much while too many have too little.  Each day I am in Kenya I am exposed to this reality.  Traveling to Kenya has opened my eyes to some of the truths of this world. 

There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of Kenya…..whether it be the huge stars in the pitch black sky, the little girl who is HIV + and just wants to sit on my knee, the excitement of children beginning in a school we have helped fund and wearing a uniform that has been sewn by a co-operative of women that Hope2Kenya has set up, orphans in a baby orphanage that smile at me and want to be held because they crave touch, and grandmothers who hug me because they think I am one of them…it is as if Kenya is now in my bloodstream.  I physically leave the country each year, but the energy of the people continues to flow through me.

It does not matter how or where we work for change.  I am reminded that we all have a part to play and hopefully by combining our resources, talents, compassion and efforts; we will make this a better, happier, healthier and safer world for all.

What I accomplish each year in Kenya means nothing if the lives of others are not affected for the better.  It is important to try to create a world where finally every person has the opportunity to realize their potential, because in the end, that’s the key to truly ending injustice and poverty.