Michelle Believes All Children Deserve the Opportunity to Reach Their Full Potential

With a burning desire to visit Africa and help children affected by HIV/AIDS and those plagued by severe poverty, I travelled to rural Kenya in 2008 to volunteer at “the orphanage”. It was here I met Laura, who also started volunteering the same day I arrived.  I chose to spend my time at the orphanage after being inspired by the story of an alleged orphan in Kenya who, after growing up, worked to help future generations of orphans.

Inspiring? Of course. I mean, who wouldn’t be moved?

Pushing through the vibrant blue gates of the orphanage, I bonded with the children almost immediately. Since I had raised quite a bit of money prior to my arrival, the director had nothing but time for me. I worked tirelessly every day, and during my field work, I met a young boy named Joseph who was HIV-positive. Joseph stole a piece of my heart and I was eager to help him in any way I could and sponsored him to provide medication and other basic needs.

 

I left the orphanage to return to my law practice feeling a great sense of pride. After all, I had constructed the foundation for a new building, and provided the children with proper nutrition and a new playing space – all with the money I raised.

Not a day has gone by since my return that I haven’t thought about those children and how I could help them achieve their potential. After returning, I remained very involved with the orphanage remotely, keeping them close to my heart and tabs on their “progress.” In addition to sponsoring Joseph, I continued to help the director find many new sponsors, sent a number of volunteers and raised significant funds for his own projects and for the community.

I asked everyone I knew to help. And many did.

After a few years of working together, the director called me one day, as he sometimes would, and told me that he wanted to build a school for the children. I was elated! I truly believed that I could help make a dream happen for the children I love so very much. I happily accepted the role of “Chair of the Board” of this organization to raise funds for the school. Immediately, I called my closest friends to lend a hand. After I pressed the director, he sent me a list of people he thought would be helpful for our newly formed board. I contacted people around the globe and we started working to raise funds for the school.

Upon receiving the “architectural drawings” and the proposed “budget” needed for the school, my initial thought was how on earth was I going to raise the over $200,000 USD the director “needed,” and needed very quickly for that matter.

My second thought was, “Boy, is this a lot of money.”

Any my third thought… “Why on earth is there no plan to sustain this school or hire teachers after we raise the $200,000 USD!?”

Something didn’t smell right, but I wanted to believe that this project was good. And so I did.

Our team started to raise money for the school. We even built a dorm for the kids to sleep in after learning from a volunteer that the kids didn’t have a proper place to rest their heads in the second facility opened by the director. However, the funny thing was that the director had never told us about this need before I approached him! This revelation made us incredibly nervous, but we were focused on the children having a place to sleep, so we did not seem to care about this very important omission. The director had me fooled at every corner.

 

As suspicions were further mounting, we thought of the clever idea of having one of us go to Kenya as a manager to make sure that the kids had all of the resources they needed. We also wanted to watch where our funds were going. While the director was open to having us send a project manager to Kenya, the idea fell apart when “the board” realized that we couldn’t financially sustain a staff member. We tried countless times. We continued to brainstorm as we felt that we needed eyes and ears at the orphanage. Each of us had trepidations about everything that was going on, but all were too afraid to call this what it was – a sham. We kept telling ourselves- we were building a school for the kids, right?

One day, I received an email from a board member that she had come across a Facebook page exposing corruption and abuse at the orphanage. We were in a state of shock, but we really shouldn’t have been. I immediately contacted the Facebook page and from there, I started connecting with former volunteers and donors. And it was through the power of social media, I was reunited with Laura and met Hannah.

The things I learned through my discussions revealed a situation worse than I had imagined. Forget the fact that the director was stealing money and that the dorm our team “built” was already donated by someone else and that we were also not the only ones raising money for this school. He was also abusing our kids and forcing some to work. Many were not in school and being deprived of a future. Also, little Joseph was not receiving the medication I paid for and that he desperately needed, being HIV positive. This absolutely broke my heart.

I was in shock. “What kind of person does this?!?!” was one of my many thoughts. The director was entrusted to protect these vulnerable orphans.

It was also revealed that the director was never actually an orphan, which he had preached for YEARS!

I immediately called everyone I knew that was giving to the orphanage and informed them of what was going on (keep in mind I had asked them myself to donate with a personal guarantee that this was a great cause). While I was absolutely humiliated, more important than my personal sense of pride and ego, was the well-being of our children.

By this time, Laura and Hannah had already rescued three children, but there were many more who remained in the orphanage. I instinctively knew that working with Hannah and Laura was the right thing to do and that together, we could be stronger for the children that we all vowed never to turn our backs on.

That brings us to today where together, we are indeed stronger. We have rescued a total of 15 children from the orphanage, and have started Stahili in order to support the efforts which commenced long before the formal organizing of our non-profit.

 

While you have now read three personal account from each of us, I hope that our story at the very least, will serve to highlight the importance of responsible donating. It is our hope that no child is exploited while donors pay a-dollar-a-day. Similar to Laura and Hannah, I thank you for reading our blog, and we look forward to sharing our thoughts and experiences with you.

As they say in Kenya,

Nice Times!

Michelle