Hello Family and Friends of Ordinary Women, Inc. (OWI),
I hope this update finds you and your family well during this fall season. I would like to introduce you to another one of our orphans in our Orphan Program in Kiminini, Kenya. Her name is Rabecca, and she is eighteen years old. Rabecca was born in the Mt. Elgon region in Kenya where she lived with her father, mother, two brothers, and one sister. Her father was a businessman. He used to buy potatoes from the villages, transport them by bicycle to a bigger town, and sell them there. One day while riding his bicycle to town on business, he was hit by a vehicle and killed instantly. This left Rabecca's mother, Emily, a widow with four small children.
During the 2002 Kenya elections, inter-tribal clashes broke out in Kenya. Anyone who was not a member of the dominant tribe in the area was run out by violence. Rabecca's family had to flee for safety, leaving behind their home and their possessions. They fled to Kiminini, hoping to find security and a place where they could rebuild their lives. By the time they got to Kiminini, Emily had run out of money. There is no welfare system in Kenya. Not knowing anyone in town, she didn't know where to turn.
At that time, she went to the Deliverance Church in Kiminini. The church organized a fundraiser to raise enough money to rent a small room for Emily and her children to live. Then, they did another fundraiser and raised enough money for Emily to start a small grocery business in the Kiminini marketplace. This kind of a story is repeated over and over again in Kenya. One or both parents die, and the widow(er) or children have to fend for themselves. Emily, even with her very small business, was struggling to make ends meet for herself and her four children. Many times in these situations, mothers have to make the difficult decision of sending the oldest children to live on the street while she continues to raise the youngest children because she cannot afford to feed and clothe them all. Or the older children have to drop out of school and go to work in the fields or wherever they can find work to help the mother provide for the family.
But this is not what happened to Rabecca and her siblings. The OWI Kenya team in Kiminini saw how Emily could not care for her children as a single mother of four, so they offered to include the four children in the OWI Orphan Program. Emily was so relieved and overjoyed with the help this program provides her. No longer are Rabecca and her siblings starving, as they receive monthly food provision from the program. Emily doesn't have to decide which of her children will not be able to attend school this year because the program provides school uniforms and tuition fees. Emily does not worry what will happen if her children get sick, because the Program also provides de-worming medications, other medications if they become ill, and yearly medical checkups for each of the children and for Emily.
Rabecca was in 6th grade when she and her siblings were invited into the Orphan Program. She is now in high school. Because of you, our generous donors, Rabecca not only dreams of the day she graduates from high school, but she is looking beyond that to a promising and hopeful future.
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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