Makindu Childrens Center Website

Over two hundred homeless children, many ill and anguished by the trauma of war and poverty, moved onto a small farm on the outskirts of the Kenyan village of Makindu in 1998.

Not an orphanage in the traditional sense, this is a refuge where children who've lost both parents (typically to AIDS) can come each day, receive meals and be provided with school cloths, tuition and education as well as the opportunity to learn basis survival, farming and market skills needed to survive.

The initial act of establishing the Makindu Children's Project became a catalyst for a program that has struggled against enormous odds to create an oasis of peace and growth for its children and staff.

Claiming self-sufficiency as their main goal, the workers and children have carved a productive shamba (farm) from the dry ground while becoming a mainstay of progress and disease prevention in the community.

Zanzibar Trading Co. lauds the Makindu Children's Project. To show our support for the program and to assist on the road to self-sufficiency, we have ascertained several ways to give a helping hand to the orphanage while promoting the empowerment of the staff, children and villagers. In addition to donating a percentage of our profits to the center, we provide volunteers, train villagers for craft exportation, reserve container space for their finished products and increase exposure for the center through an update in our newsletter. We strongly believe in the mission of MCC.

The passing years have witnessed many victories at MCC. This spring, running water finally reached the village and the center, making the two-hour round trip to the nearest well the villagers were forced to endure daily a quickly fading memory. The children's hygiene has improved greatly. More important, their hope for normal, stable lives grows stronger each time a goal is accomplished.

Baba Juma, who scored highly his first term in spite of the pressures of adjusting to high school, recently wrote, "I would like to be a lawyer when I am finished with my education. I have been dreaming of this career for a couple of years, only that I had no one to describe my dream to. I am really joyful as I have seen hopes of my dreams coming true." Demonstrating the accountability the staff works to instill in the children, he went on to state, "I will study hard to achieve the appropriate goals for one to be a lawyer. I promise never to relax. I shall study all laws of Kenya and help those who are in need of their rights, especially orphans."

The children know there is much to be attained. High school senior Mathias Kimeu Maweu wrote, "I would like to be a doctor. This was brought about by seeing people suffer out of malaria, typhoid, cancer and other diseases which are very often here. I really made up my brain and said that this world should have a lot of hospitals which are not very far away from people's residence so that a person can be easily rushed there when sick."

The reality of death has visited the children and staff many times. Watching children and young adults dying in the throes of AIDS--a heartbreaking and confusing situation for an adult, much less a child--prompted an initiative by MCC staff members to educate the public in preventative measures. The response to MCC's public educational seminars heralds a new front in the battle against AIDS and a changing tide in public responsibility.

By helping the children of Makindu, we claim a part of a growing stronghold in peace and make a positive contribution to the future of Africa and the world at large.