Hello Friends and Family of Ordinary Women, Inc., (OWI)
I hope this finds you well and thriving in 2011. Our Orphan Program in Kiminini, Kenya, continues to change lives, one life at a time. It is so exciting to watch!
Today, I want to introduce you to Bramwel. He is 11 years old and is in the 5th grade. He has two sisters, a 6th grader and a 1st grader, who are also in our Orphan Program.
Bramwel was born in a home with the mother and father intact. Bramwel's father was a businessman doing work throughout Kenya and Uganda. In 2005, Bramwel's father went to Uganda for business and never returned. Bramwel's mother doesn't know if he was killed or what happened to him. So, Bramwel's mom was left to support herself and her three children which came to be an impossible task. In 2008, these three children were accepted into the Orphan Program under the care of their mother. However, in 2009, Bramwel's mother brought Bramwel and his two sisters to the Orphan Program office and left them there while she ran an errand. She didn't return.
In Kenya, when children are abandoned like this, they end up living on the streets. Without the Orphan Program, it is likely Bramwel and his sisters would have been forced to live on the streets. If these three young children lived on the streets, they would be dirty, in tattered clothes, hungry, eating out of garbage piles, with no safe or warm place to sleep, and probably addicted to sniffing glue. Most of the street children in Kenya are addicted to glue to ward off the emotional, mental, and physical pain of living on the streets and feeling unwanted.
But this is not what happened to Bramwel and his sisters. The Orphan Program staff and one of the supporting churches of the Orphan Program immediately went to work to try to find a temporary placement for these three precious children. What they came up with were a few rooms at the church, where there's a kitchen and bathrooms. They recruited a couple of women to come in and stay with the children and take care of them. So, they set up their "temporary house" right there at the church and made due with what they had. They tried to locate the children's mother as well as other family members or another guardian to take them in. All the while, the children were fed, clothed, cared for, and monitored closely by the social work staff of the Orphan Program.
After six months, the maternal grandmother of the three children was located. She lives in Western Kenya. Patrick, the Director of the Orphan Program, traveled to meet the grandmother, to present the situation of her grandchildren to her, and to see if she would be interested in taking in her grandchildren with the assistance of the Orphan Program. She was so happy to hear of her grandchildren. She hadn't heard from her daughter or her grandchildren for years and thought they had moved to Uganda.
Even though she is very much a senior citizen, she willingly took in her grandchildren. Patrick went to the local school in their area and explained the situation of the children and asked that they be accepted into the school. The Principal welcomed them in. Bramwel now leads his class in academics and in good behavior! He is being very successful in his life and wants to be a pilot someday.
Bramwel's mother came back in 2010, and the social workers soon found out it was mainly for the food provided by the Orphan Program. So the children have not been returned to her, but she visits them at the grandmother's house.
The children's social worker, Sarah from the Orphan Program, goes to visit the children and their grandmother one time a month (as it is very far on the bus) to check on them and make sure they are being well cared for. Sarah has built a good relationship with the grandmother who always tries to offer Sarah bananas from her garden, which Sarah takes willingly to encourage their positive relationship together.
So many lives are being changed, and none of it would be possible without you, our sponsors. We are eternally grateful to you. Thank you.
If you are interested in supporting one of the orphans in our Orphan Program for just $35 a month, please go to our website at www.ordinarywomen.org where you can choose your orphan from the profiles. Or you can write to us at:
Ordinary Women, Inc.
26861 Trabuco Road, Suite E#146
Mission Viejo, Ca. 92691
Joining Hands for Global Change,
Darla Morfin
Ordinary Women, Inc.
Executive Director-OWI Orphan Program
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