Mikinduri Children of Hope

2003 History
In 2004 Makenna Ambassa, a recent immigrant from Kenya to PEI, wanted to try to make a difference in the lives of the people in her village of Mikinduri, a small village in North Eastern Kenya. A local newspaper article highlighting Makenna’s efforts to have people donate clothing to be shipped to her village, caught the attention of Rita and Ted Grant.

After meeting with Makenna and hearing of the plight of the people in her village, they decided to try to assist by doing some fundraising in their local church, St. Francis of Assisi, in Cornwall, PEI., to feed approximately 75 orphans in the village. Encouraged by the generosity of the local people they decided to try to do more. A founding meeting was held in early May 2003, which was largely attended by people from a wide area across PEI.

They began to explore the best ways of trying to assist the people of Mikinduri. It was decided that a formal study had to be conducted, so that a solid base of data from the village, would form the basis of any potential projects. Therefore a local Kenyan consultant was hired and his subsequent report was submitted to the newly formed Mikinduri Children of Hope organization in November of 2003.
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2004 History
Friends in other NGO organizations involved in other Third World development projects recommended that Ted, as president should visit the village, meet with the people, develop a bond with the people and try to confirm the findings of the study. So in January 2004, Ted traveled to the village, met with the local political and church leaders, as well as the community at large.

Accompanying Ted on this trip was the local CBC talk show host Karen Mair and Mayor Jack Kelly of Cornwall, who conducted a twinning ceremony between the Town of Cornwall and the village.They got to witness firsthand the daily struggles of the people, especially the orphans and widows. Visiting the village and seeing the conditions under which these people struggled confirmed in Ted that the work already commenced in the form of a feeding program for the orphans and widows must be continued as well as other programs initiated.

Invigorated by the experience and captured by the humility, sincerity,and generosity of these destitute people’s, Ted returned to PEI, committed to trying to make a difference in some small ways in their lives.

Through the generosity of family and close friends and many other community volunteers, serious fundraising efforts were commenced in order to be able to finance the various projects that were outlined by the community leaders of Mikinduri during their visit.
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2005 History
As president, Ted’s initial challenge was to develop a caring and devoted board of directors. Having accomplished this goal, the newly formed board set about deciding how best to respond to the request from the village leaders, whose stated priorities were:
1) Orphan feeding program- Continue to support the orphan and widows feeding program until they were able to support it themselves. In the past four 4 years more than one hundred thousand meals have been provided to hungry orphans and widows.
2) Clean water- because the women had to travel long distances to find badly polluted water, it was imperative that something be done to relieve this situation. They must walk very long distances to fetch condemned water to feed to the families. The effect of this very bad water is a high incidence of illness inhibiting their inability to work or attend school, not to mention the physical toll on the women whose job it was to fetch the water, by carrying on their backs.
3) Healthcare- since the doctor/patient ratio is one to 65,000 people real access to any kind of meaningful healthcare services is minimal, it was felt that this initiative was imperative. This is especially true for mothers giving birth, where the infant mortality rate is 130 times higher than PEI’s. Therefore, trying to complete the already partially built maternity care facility was very important.
4) Orphanage– because of the scourge of AIDS, many young people were in need of a safe place to live and in which to be nurtured. Unfortunately AIDS has had the most devastating effect among the young adults leaving many orphans to fend for themselves.
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2006 History
The members of the newly formed Mikinduri Children of Hope foundation set about trying to raise funds to meet the above project requests, while expending a great deal of time, effort, and energy to develop meaningful relationships with like organizations from whom they could learn about the intricacies of third world development. One such relationship resulted in a $10,000 donation from city of Charlottetown for the year 2006.

Fortunately one of those like organizations, A Better World (ABW), responded to the requests made by Ted and his efforts to maximize efforts andminimize errors, thus not wasting time and most especially precious resources. Ray Loxdale, regional representative for ABW, invited Ted to accompany them on their mission tour in January 06, to visit their different projects in various parts of Kenya.As well, they agreed to accompany Ted to Mikinduri to help assess the conditions in the village, the people and their ability and capacity to respond to any offer of assistance from outside. This was a meaningful and very educational experience for Ted being exposed to aid projects of different kinds and in several different areas of Kenya. This meaningful relationship continues to exist and Ted continues to benefit from their guidance and assistance, when needed.

As a result of the visit to Mikinduri in January 06, it was decided that a well drilling project was probably the best and quickest solution to the serious clean water issue. Therefore, in early 2006 fund-raising effort asking people to donate money for 11 wells wasinitiated.Once again the generosity of Islanders came through and in short order sufficient funds were collected to commence the well digging projects. Three of the wells were funded by donations from the city of Charlottetown, and were subsequently named after Charlottetown communities.

Before traveling to Kenyain January 06, Ted was contacted by Mr. Derek Brine, who heard about our projects from a mutual uncle. Derek, a McGill University engineering student was traveling to Kenya on a foreign exchange program visit, and wanted to know if there was anything he could do to support our projects in Mikinduri. After visiting the village in January and getting the agreement of the local leaders, it was decided that having Derek and his friends spend time in the village would be of major benefit.

The project chosen for them to work on was the first building of the orphanage project, the dining hall. Derek and seven of his McGill University friends, spent the month of April, 06 in Mikinduri, working with the local leaders, and with funding from MCOH, they leveled the land and constructed the shell of the dining hall.

Developing a relationship with Kenyan government leaders was part of their strategy from the outset. As a result, the local member of Parliament, Hon Mr Peter Munya, was responsible for getting the land at Kinwe, upon which the dining hall is constructed, donated by the Kenyan government in recognition of our efforts to support the local leaders. Also, during a meeting with the Minister of Health for Kenya, the Hon Charity Ngilu, committed to working to support the village in their efforts to improve the health of the community members.

One of the happy side benefits of our association with McGill University was an introduction to Mr Silvanos (Sil) Etienos, who would become our consulting partner in Kenya. Attempting to do developmental work in a Third World country is almost impossible without the assistance of a trusted, knowledgeable and able consultant. This would turn out to be a very important milestone in our ability to work with the village leaders.

One of the problems in trying to do development work in third world countries is that in many cases the villages do not have the capacity to plan and manage projects. Therefore, Sils initial work was to coach and train the leaders of Mikinduri to develop capacity. As an initial step, during the early part of 2006, the village elected a community development committee, made up of 18 leaders of whom almost half are women. Each of these people serve on various subcommittees such as water, sponsorship, agriculture, health care, etc.

Because of the lack of local resources, the CDC members, often struggle to carry out their work on the various projects. Therefore having outsidefinancial support and Sil’s guidance is crucial to their future plans. However it must be said that while much progress is being made, more important than any physical gains, is the fact that the people of the Mikinduri area have vastly renewed hope that their lives and the lives of their children will finally be improving.

Ongoing visits to the village by the MCOH leadership are crucial to the long-term success of any projects simply because without face-to-face exposure it is difficult to develop a serious trusting relationship. Also it is imperative that regular visits to project sites be conducted so as to clearly understand the challenges and obstacles involved as well as measure progress.

In an effort to broaden the experience of the leadership support base on PEI, it was decided that inviting interested individuals to accompany Ted on his November, 2006 trip would be beneficial. A public meeting was held explaining the nature of the trip, the need for volunteers in Mikinduri, especially those with specific skills like doctors, nurses teachers, engineers, social workers, agricultural specialists, veterinarians, and business leaders. As a result, 11 people signed up, agreeing to pay 100% of their own expenses to travel to Mikinduri in November 06.

Dr. Lester Jinks, a Charlottetown optometrist, traveled to Mikinduri in Oct 06 in advance of the larger group, and conducted several days of vision clinic’s. His experience and observations were extremely valuable in helping the group plan for their November visit. It is Dr Jinks opinion that the general level of eye health and vision was reasonable. However they could really benefit from having access to caps with peaks to protect their eyes from the sun, as well as magnifying glasses for reading. Therefore a public awareness campaign was launched in PEI prior to the group departing for Mikinduri, which resulted in the collection of approximately 3000 ball caps.

The Nov team, consisting of a medical doctor, a nurse, a veterinarian, two farmers, two students, a social worker, a journalist, a police women, and a person with a Third World experience, as well as a representative from the city of Charlottetown, were given special training to conduct vision clinic’s while there. Three thousand pairs of glasses, some donated by the Lions Club of Canada and others purchased at very low rates were taken in suitcases, along with the ball caps and thousands of dollars of prescription drugs and other medications, as well as small toys, and school supplies were carefully packed.

The adventures and project work of the team were well documented by MaryMcKay the journalist from the local newspaper the Guardian. Almost everyonewere captivated by the people of Mikinduri and many developed close relationships with some of the villagers who volunteered their time and efforts to help conduct the medical and vision clinics.

This experience enabled the PEI board members to better understand the obstacles and conditions that the local leaders struggle with in their efforts to try to assist the poorest of the poor. While there, meetings were held with orphans and widows groups, businessgroups, church and government leaders to explore the appropriateness and rate of advancement of the existing programs as well as the possible establishment of new projects.
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2007 History
Among these potential projects are the establishment of a sewing center, a micro-finance program, a child sponsorship program, an agricultural development program, and a scholarship fund. The CDC and its committees, are anxious to proceed with as many of these projects as possible. In order to do so, they felt it was necessary to reorganize the village leadership and its committees. This was done in early 07, under careful guidance from Silvanos. As well, in order to assist in the financial management of the various projects, it would be appropriate to hire our own bookkeeper in the village, which was done in April 2007.

As a result of previous conversations with a donor from the United States, a relationship with another NGO called the “Threads of Hope” agreed to partner with us in the establishment of a sewing center. Two young adults from the village were selected to go to the Threads of Hope training center near Nairobi, where they would be given extensive training on all aspects of tailoring. At the same time, equipment and supplies were purchased and set up at a rented location in anticipation of their return. As well, two other tailors were employed and a marketing person. The newly trained tailors have recently returned and are now in the process of manufacturing articles for sale. A budget and operating plan has been developed along with a marketing strategy. Financial support from the Mikinduri Children of Hope organization will be extended for some months until this project can become self-supporting.

As a result of Silvanos ongoing work with the CDC, it was proposed by Sil and supported by the MCOH board, that in order to enhance the level of knowledge and experience of their leadership, that a special strategic planning meeting should be organized and conducted by Silvanos, with the assistance ofother qualified consultants.

This strategic planning meeting was carried out in May 07. The result was a renewed commitment to the core projects, as well as a much more committed and unified group of committee members. Another benefit of the strategic planning meeting was a much clearer understanding between Silvanos and the village leaders as to their individual roles and responsibilities. As well, the CDC members have a much clearer understanding of the requirements and the rationale for the requirements for complete transparency in all reporting, and are committed to fulfilling all reporting requirements.

Since returning from Kenya,the PEI board has been enhanced through the appointment of some of the team members to the board as well as the operating committees. Their experience in Kenya has added greatly to the overall management capability and decision-making of the PEI board. As a result, the following operating committees have either been created or enhanced through their experience and willingness to serve: health, water, child sponsorship, orphan and feeding program, agricultural, and technology. Each committee is chaired by very qualified professionals and have assumed responsibility for enhancing conditions in Mikinduri through research and problem solving in their specific fields.

In January 2007, further planning with the McGill University students was initiated. Three graduate students with degrees in different disciplines formed the January/February group. They spent approximately 3 weeks in the village carrying out research work as requested by the PEI committees, on sources of water, and other physical attributes of the Kinwe orphanage site. They also spent a great deal of time in committee meetings with the various CDC subcommittees, offering their opinions and helping where possible to develop the level of capacity of the village leadership. Their reports submitted to Silvanos and the PEI board were invaluable. It must be noted that these students travel to Mikinduri at their own expense.

A second group of McGill graduate students visited Prince Edward Island in May to meet in preparation for their summer 07 trip to Mikinduri. Meeting with the various PEI subcommittees, insured they would have a clearer understanding of the proposed projects they were volunteering to work on while in the village in July and August.

The health committee, after having decided that the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of malaria was their primary cause initially, requested the help of two of the McGill University students who have special training in molecular biology. The students committed to working at the Mikinduri clinic, assessing the current level of knowledge and technology available in the village. Arrangements were made for one of the students to receive specialized lab training in the recognition of malaria. The work of both of these students has been invaluable in moving this cause forward.

The other two graduates, have taken on the conducting of an experiments on the introduction of new low-tech stove designs, which produce higher levels of heat with less wood and much less smoke. It is the smoke in many third world developing countries that causes so much respiratory illness, and eye infections, and shortened lifespans. As well the students, have been doing research on the availability of tools and supplies in advance of the well drilling team arriving in October. And as usual they spend many hours in meetings with the local CDC committees, offering their informed opinions wherepossible.

Currently, a second team trip led by Ted Grant is scheduled for October 07, with 11 individuals committed to traveling to Mikinduri to carry out further project work. Some of the team members were there for the first trip, however most are new volunteers. Amongthe volunteers are a dentist, nurse, journalist, farmer, social worker, engineer, childcare worker, and a recent university graduate and officeworkers. Every person is responsible for 100% of their own travel costs. The dentist conducted school visits, to assess the level of dental health and teach the students dental hygiene. Other members helped open a new office for the child sponsorship program operated with Chalice, while others will conducted medical clinics with the local nurses. Still others worked at the orphan feeding center. As a result of the dedication of these volunteers, the lives of the people of the tiny village of Mikinduri and area, are being enhanced greatly. The level of hope of these poor people has never been higher.
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2008 and beyond coming….