Projects, Hamomi Childrens Centre - An NGO Dedicated to Supporting a Primary School for Street Kids in Nairobi Kenya

Uniforms and Medicine

A letter from Susie Marks, Development Director

I tried my very best to find the lowest, most reasonable number for this: Do you have any idea how much it would cost to ship about 200 lbs of clothes from Seattle, WA to Nairobi, Kenya? (This doesn't include the bogus tax that would no doubt be charged at the corrupt borders.) Any guesses?   

$1,041 USD

And this is the absolute cheapest option I could find. Fed Ex got up to well over $2,000.

For an organization scrambling each month to run a $500 feeding program, this is not a cost we were even remotely considering taking on.

But, the last thing you want to do when you spend all your time desperately trying to get people excited about your cause, is to shoot people down who get excited about your cause. Seems simple enough, but it gets difficult, most commonly, around the issue of donating items. Not everyone has ready money to dole out, but everyone has old clothes they don't wear anymore, piles of notebooks lying around the house, and pens for days.  Everyone's first thought is, "Can't I just give you this stuff to give to them?"  Well… yeah… but… there's a problem. The money we would spend shipping it all over there is many times greater than the amount it would cost to just buy it all Kenya. Bam! Shot down. No more excitement.

So we tried not to discourage people from these ideas, and the result was Jamie's closet stuffed to the brim with medical supplies donated by the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, WA, and my parents' basement loaded up with bags upon bags of uniforms from a clothing drive put on by the Sacred Heart School in Bellevue, WA over one year ago.

I just thought there was no solution to this dilemma.

But with me in Kenya for a few months working full time, some new volunteers, and the success of our recent risks with the feeding program, we decided to try the creative route that we knew was possible, but felt completely improbable.

Enter Tana Martin and Mary Martha McIntyre; two moms traveling to Kenya in March to visit their respective volunteering children, (and old friends of ours). We emailed them with the idea that they could possibly check extra bags full of uniforms.

Musumba helping a student try on his new shirt

Stepping back to videotape, I fell madly in love with this project. This isn't only saving us thousands of dollars, this is branching out in a way we hadn't yet; getting more people into Hamomi, and getting more people physically in to Hamomi. Not as a starting point for a donation, but as an end point for one. Not just to look around and smile and say "Good luck with all of this", but to contribute and better the school in a simple and lasting way. A task that didn't exasperate with all the work yet to come in achieving it, but rather a task they'd already completed by the time they got to here. I mean, look, Hamomi can overwhelm. There is a lot of work to be done. Many people throw their hands up and walk away because of the shear amount of stuff to do – but visitors who had already specified and accomplished their task created an entirely new atmosphere.

Mary Martha and Tana with some students on their first visit, while the uniforms were still at Heathrow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With Tana and Mary Martha's visit, each student now has at least one piece of a new uniform, and we moved to over 200 lbs of clothes delivered – already passing the thousand dollar mark in savings.

We are already in touch with one woman traveling to Kenya to volunteer in June who has agreed to carry a bag from Madison, WI, which has sparked droves of donations. We have volunteers coming to work at Hamomi this summer who will hopefully carry some things.  We are talking with the Minnesota Studies in International Development study abroad program in hopes that they will let us ask their students each term before they leave the US if they would be willing to participate in this program.

Once again, something that felt a little too out-there, a little too flimsy, has been the most incredible, enlightening choice where people have seen Hamomi who never would have otherwise, and where regular people, (not necessarily activists or volunteers or development workers), but regular travelers have added one suitcase to their load for free and rewarded some truly deserving students.

If you know anybody traveling from anywhere in the world to or through Kenya, please let us know.  Just think of how easy it is to gather a pile of kids' clothes between your friends or family or workplace.  Think of how many pens that you're never going to write with, filling up mugs that you'd rather be drinking coffee out of. Think of the excess of simple stuff we have in the US and how with a little coordination, we can make that stuff meaningful again.

Best,

Susie

 

 

 

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Students showing off their new Sacred Heart uniforms

Raphael, Amanda, Musumba and Nathan handing out the skirts

International flights these days you can check two 50 lb bags as well as a carry on, and two ladies traveling for a month aren't going to need all that space, right? Right! They immediately responded and agreed straight up. It was as simple as one or two emails, and they were prepared months in advance.  Well… that was easy enough.

So, we kept asking around. We posted the idea on the website. We sent out emails.  We slickly slipped it into conversation. And low and behold, there are people traveling to Kenya all the time from all over the US. We were almost immediately put in touch with Amanda and Chip Goss; friends of a family which Jamie has been babysitting for. We approached them with the idea, and they were all about it. Not just to check these bags and go straight to Nairobi, either, but to carry them all the way through their vacation in Egypt first and then bring them to Kenya. Quite a commitment, but they were not only willing, but excited.  Hey, more of that excitement! 

On February 19, 2009, our experiment was realized when the first 'shipment' arrived. The entire Goss family, Amanda and Chip, their two children, Lexie and Emerson, and Chip's mother, Sid, spent an afternoon at Hamomi handing out uniforms from two huge suitcases, and spending some time playing, singing and dancing with the students.  It was a blast, for lack of a more literary word. The students were not only happy about the new uniforms, but also loved the visitors, who in a very real way validated them. I'm not qualifying this sentiment as right or wrong, but Americans showing up one day in your slum, telling you that you're doing a good job by walking a half hour each day to and from school, praising your notebooks and the difficult math you're learning, learning your songs and dances while teaching you their songs and dances, (the Hokey Pokey was a big hit), and rewarding you with clothes, meant the world to them.

All the students and volunteers together with Tana and Mary Martha on their second visit.

 

Tana and Mary Martha came and delivered their bags to Hamomi on March 12, 2009, and the visit was just as brilliant.  They spread out their time over two days, (due to British Airways living up to its reputation for losing bags in London), but this turned out to be a blessing because of the time they had to consider what else they could do for the students. 

 

They paid for medical attention for three of our students who were quite sick, (each pictured here). Esther's eyes are now improving, Muthoki's fever and ear infection have gone, and we're watching Kepha's progress closely, waiting for his glands to become less swollen, his ear infection to go away and his deep chest cough to fade. These were serious concerns that we had been unable to see to properly without the money to take them to a good hospital.

 

Raphael told me today, "Most of us - no, I should say all of us, have never even stepped one foot inside of Nairobi Hospital. That is a place for President Kibaki and other rich people. We are so grateful for the care our students have been given."

 

    

From left to right, Esther, Muthoki and Kepha

Amanda with a bunch of the girls in their new skirts