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Kembu Campsite & Cottages encourage their visitors to support several organisations as part of its social responsibility to the surrounding community, and a way of channelling traveller’s philanthropy directly to the people.
The Faith Holy Orphanage evolved when the congregation of the Faith Holy Church began feeding the hungry children that came asking for food on Sundays. They soon realised that these children by and large were indeed aids orphans. Pastor Reuben gave up his house (which was also where the church worshipped) to accommodate the most needy children. 30 children are living in the orphanage and 10 others are fed by the church and cared for in the community. This became an increasingly difficult task for a poor community. Pastor Reuben asked Bruce Nightingale (a neighbouring farmer) for help in December 2004. Bruce has been very involved in helping the orphanage fulfil their needs as they arise. As part of the comemoration to celebrate their first hundred years in Kenya, Bruce encouraged his extended Nightingale family to start sponsoring the Faith Holy Orphanage in Njoro. This support was developed into the Watoto Trust and has now evolved to support not only the orphans but other deserving children looking to go on through further education.
Watoto means "the children" in Kiswahili. Watoto Trust has been set up with the objective of helping children in Africa have a better future. We believe that even if we make a difference to one childs life, our effort is and will be well worth it.
Education is one of the key areas in which we would like to help. All the children are entitled to free Primary education, once they are able to read and write! The orphanage has set up a nursery school, although this is in desperate need of a proper building and basic equipment. The nursery aims to provide nursery education to the youngest orphans and to other young children in the community. We would like to fund secondary education for all the older orphans. We are also inundated with requests for help with secondary education for children in the wider community.
Watoto Trust is small charity set up by enthusiastic amateurs – who have strived to keep overheads low in order to apply donor funds solely to the aims of the charity. Their donors are mainly friends and family and express their pleasure at being able to know that their donations go straight to the beneficiaries’ needs as opposed to administrative costs, etc. When expenses arise, they are more often than not met from specific donations earmarked for that purpose.
All the work of the charity in the UK is carried out by the three founding trustees. Committees of friends help to fundraise. In Kenya, direct involvement by the Kenyan Trustees ensures financial accountability and transparency and a real link with the projects.
The orphanage has taken shape into a small community in its own right, on its own piece of land with solid buildings, with their own crops trees and even flower beds. The orphans quality of life has improved a lot.
All this new development has created another set of challenges, now the orphans have gone from the poorest people in the community to having more prospect than most, now feelings of jealousy may arise in the community. So now it’s not just about giving the orphans the best opportunities but about raising up the whole community without conflict.
www.watototrust.com
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