Our Challenge
Daily life in rural Kenya:
- Imagine living in a community where 8% of all babies born will die before they reach the age of 1, and where 12% of all children never live to see their 5th birthday.
- Imagine what it would be like to share one doctor with 350,000 other people in a region where HIV/AIDS, Malaria, TB and other diseases are prevalent.
- Imagine life without access to schools in a land where most people live on less than $1 a day.
- Imagine living in total desperation, without hope.
- Imagine living without access to fresh, clean water.
But with God, there is Hope. Oasis for Orphans desires to bring hope to the hopeless by providing things that most of us take for granted.
In Kenya there are no social service programs or safety nets. When people can't provide for themselves they will end up in an extremely destitute situation. In Nairobi there are thousands of street children that live a horrible existence, begging for food, sniffing glue to dull the pain, and often being physically abused. The largest slum in all of Africa is called Kibera and is in Nairobi. Approximately 1.3 million people live in an area the size of a small village, with no privacy, no sanitation and no dignity. Most of the orphans that we are taking care of would probably meet a similar fate if not for TMD's orphan program.
We have visited the former homes of many of the orphans and seen the rags that they wore and the conditions they lived in. Most lacked clean water and basic sanitation. Few attended school and those that did found it difficult, if not impossible, to learn when they were literally starving to death. Some had evidence of physical and emotional abuse.
Contrast that with the hope these children now have. They are wearing clean clothes, eating three nutritious meals a day, and attending school regularly. They even have access to a medical clinic where they receive regular health care. Their physical surroundings are also dramatically improved. The orphanage has its own secured campus complete with a staff of care givers including cooks, house moms and matrons, the Orphanage Director, a social worker, a maintenance man and a security guard. Hope is growing in these children. Every time we go to visit we can see the changes that hope brings. Our prayer and desire is that we will be able to spread this hope throughout all of Trans Mara and, eventually, throughout Kenya.
