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Gift of H.O.P.E.

Helping Orphans by Providing Essentials

The Gift of HOPE (Helping Orphans by Providing Essentials) raises funds to support community-based programming in Meru, Kenya that provides life's essentials to vulnerable Kenyan children in six main areas: health (including HIV and AIDS treatments), shelter, nutrition, education, safety, and personal support.  

 

A $200 gift ensures school fee payment, uniform purchase, nutritional assistance and/or other needed support for an entire year. Not an orphanage, this program, run by the Kaaga Synod of the Methodist Church of Kenya, is led by Glorie Gitonga, a social worker, whose passion is uplifting children. Gitonga's salary is paid for by the Center. These vulnerable children, who often live with a grandparent, aunt, or other guardian, each receive individualized care and support. Currently, 319 orphans are supported through the Center.

 

The program knows 1,300 AIDS orphans by name, and many organizations support them annually. Several children have now finished their basic education and have received training beyond the secondary level. The program has been cited by various visitors, including representatives of the World Council of Churches, as a model for church ministry in the community that is stigma-free and open to all.

 

Under the leadership of Bishop Nicholas Mutwiri Nteere, the Kaaga Synod of the Methodist Church of Kenya, has a Director of AIDS ministry, and 42 community health workers, who help to identify vulnerable children throughout the Meru area. The project in Kenya is periodically visited by the Center's Executive Director, board members, and donors, including an upcoming visiit in July 2025. Accountability and transparency are fundamental to the operation, as well as caring and compassion. 

Not Even a Toothbrush

Caring for AIDS orphans in Kenya

by the Center's Founder, Don Messer

 

In 2006, I traveled to rural Kenya to see how I could best mobilize help to deal with the AIDS pandemic devastating sub-Sahara Africa. At that point, no anti-retroviral medicines were available and people in and people in Kenya were dying at an outrageous rate. In a small support group of impoverished women, I remember an HIV-positive mother saying, "My husband died from AIDS and my daughter has a learning disability. She needs help, but I'm too poor to even buy her a toothbrush."

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