By victoria kritzell | director of fundraising,
Our farm continues to flourish. We are growing all the vegetables needed for the 136 children now in residence, and the children are learning to grow and harvest their own food. We have added several new baby goats that will become milk producers, a female calf, and dozens of new rabbits. Recently our staff taught the children how to build rabbit hutches for our burgeoning bunny population.
We have not taken any new children into the orphanage during 2017, as each month we struggle with our budget just for necessities with such a big family. However, there are 15 local orphans who are extremely at risk that we are going to bring in as soon as we are able to purchase beds for them. 10 of them are preschool age, under 6. The 5 other are just slightly older We are stepping out in faith to home them, as we know it is a matter of survival.
Our primary school is doing great! The children's scores have improved tremendously with the extra work our new teachers are putting in. Many of the children who were behind academically are being tutored. Several secondary students have graduated and are waiting for the results of their national exams to determine whether they go to University or into some type of vocational training.
We know that education is the key to the future, so it is a top priority of our organization. We believe that our school is evolving into a school of excellence, and one that parents will want their children to attend as our reputation spreads. We hope in time to board some students who live to far away to walk to Hope Center Academy. The fees would help pay the overhead, and offset the cost of local day students who cannot afford to pay anything.
A group of young people from Virginia are contributing 6 computers that will be shipped to Hope Center in early 2018. The addition of a computer lab will help our youngsters learn the skills needed to become competitive in the technological world. Most children in rural Kenya have no access to computers, even in High School. We are excited to watch our kids as they learn to do lessons in this new medium.
We desperately need your help in this mission to save endangered children. 97% of each dollar goes directly to support the children.
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