HEAL the Children Foundation, Inc.

Progress

2010-07-08T10:40:00.002-04:00

We have been making great progress here in Kenya. Here is an excerpt from one of my Amani Tree blog entries...Enjoy!

"My weekend at Rehema was great as usual. We had a lot of fun with the girls! I have loved sharing my Rehema experiences with you over the past five weeks. We have created many wonderful memories with the girls, and I hope that you enjoyed reading about them. However, the objective of my trip to Kenya this summer was to purchase land for the HEAL orphanage, and I haven’t given much of an update related to our purchase. As you know, we had until June 30th to purchase the first 10 acres. If we failed to do this, then we would lose half our deposit and the property owner would be free to sell the land to another party. Well, we were not able to raise all of the money to purchase the first 10 acres of that land. About half-way through June, it became clear to me that the money we needed would not be donated by June 30th. We tried our best but in the end, we couldn’t meet our goal. It is OKAY though! I felt like a failure for a few days and I started praying for a miracle, but after I accepted that we may not meet our goal, I analyzed other options. I prayed and thought carefully about our steps forward. Soon, I started to see the path that we should take.

As an organization, we have decided to purchase land near the current Rehema Children’s Centre. We are going to further our partnership with Rehema by building a boy’s orphanage, nursery, school, health/dental clinic, and anything else that we can dream up! Essentially, we are still moving forward with our plan to build an orphanage and additional facilities. The only difference is the location of our work. Clearly, I love the girls, staff and founders of Rehema. I have not seen such as amazing home for children, since my first volunteer experience at the Newstart Children’s Home in Zimbabwe. There are so many wonderful similarities, that I know we making the right decision by advancing the current work of Rehema. Tomorrow, I will share more with you about my vision joining with the vision of Rehema. There is a lot of need in the area and I know that by starting our work here, we will have the opportunity to change lives.

However, our new direction requires a new land search. :) For the past four days I have been looking at different properties. Searching for land in Kenya is always difficult, because if the property owner finds out that I am from America, the price usually doubles. So Ben has been searching for me, negotiating the price ahead of time and when the price is confirmed, I show my face. I have looked at about 10 properties and I have narrowed it down to two different properties. Both are about 10 minutes from the current Rehema home, they are both very arable, have good access to water and electricity and are easily accessible from the main road. Essentially, they have the same qualities of the previous land. I am very hopeful that in the next two weeks, we will be on our way to purchasing the land that we choose. Land here is much cheaper as well. Hopefully, we will still end up with 8-10 acres, which is enough to get started. I am thrilled at the options in front of us. We are really making progress and I am excited for our new direction.

Today I received communications from the previous property owner. We are in the process of ending our agreement. He is actually willing to extend our deadline, but I really feel that we are making the right decision to buy land near Rehema. However, the GOOD news is, that he is willing to refund our entire deposit!!! It is such great news and a very rare gesture here. I am going to take it as a good sign, what do you think!?! Life is really humorous isn’t it? I thought that I had it all figured it out, but I guess there really is a greater purpose and direction to it all! All I can say is, thank god we didn’t raise all the money! I never thought that I would say that, but we have made the right decision. I never would have looked in this direction, if I hadn’t had to face our financial situation towards the end of June. Life is good though. We are making progress and that is all that matters.

Tomorrow I will share more about my plan. For now though, keep us in your prayers as we move forward towards our land purchase!"

Back to Kenya!

2010-05-29T22:01:00.004-04:00

Jennifer Wright, president of HEAL will be traveling back to Kenya in 5 days! Keep checking back here for updates and make sure you read her entries at http://undertheamanitree.wordpress.com to learn more about her time in Kenya.

We will be buying land for the orphanage by June 30!

Have you donated to HEAL yet? We need everyone's support to accomplish our mission of building an orphanage in Kenya.

If you would like to donate, please click here!

We appreciate every contribution! Thank you!

Partnership with Rehema Girls Rescue Center!

2010-05-20T15:44:00.003-04:00

HEAL has joined together with Rehema Girls Rescue Center, an orphanage in Kenya. Here is a video of the girls singing their hearts out during a party that HEAL had for them last February. Enjoy!

Benefit Cocktail Party--This Saturday!

2010-05-20T15:36:00.002-04:00

This Saturday, our Connecticut fundraising team has organized a benefit cocktail party for HEAL! Here are the details:

Where: Malone's Coffee House 10 West Main St, Clinton CT
When: Saturday, May 22nd
Time: 6:30pm-9:30pm
Tickets: $10

There will be a sale of Kenyan crafts and a raffle of items from local Connecticut businesses. Jennifer Wright, the president of HEAL the Children Foundation, Inc. will be giving a presentation about the work of HEAL and her upcoming trip to Kenya to finalize the purchase of land for the orphanage. Appetizers, desserts, beer and wine will also be available.

Come help build an orphanage in Kenya!

"Give to Learn"-NEW Fundraising Program!

2010-03-27T21:22:00.003-04:00

Hello Friends!

Never before have I had so many people who are interested in fundraising for HEAL. We have a goal of raising $125,000 by the end of next February and I know that we will reach that goal because of the important contributions by all our volunteers.

Kate Ziehm, the owner of Alpacas of Easton, LLC and co-author of the blog "Under the Amani Tree" decided to use her work to help raise money for HEAL. Through her alpaca farm, she has started a program called "Give to Learn". This program gives individuals an opportunity to subscribe to one of her alpacas. For only $50 a year, you will receive a monthly update on the alpaca of your choice. There will be pictures, videos and lessons on various aspects of alpaca farming. It is an excellent opportunity to learn more about alpaca fiber and the qualities that are important to it, what an alpaca eats, how they get shorn, how they reproduce, and much more. Agriculture is a very important part of our communities in the US and in communities around the world. This program is a great opportunity to learn more about a type of agriculture that is found in our communities, while giving to support the development of our agriculture at the HEAL the Children Home in Kenya. This is one of the best parts to this program---50% of your annual membership fee will be donated to HEAL the Children Foundation, Inc.

I am very excited about this program because it is such a creative fundraising method that offers a great educational opportunity for anyone that chooses to subscribe. I hope that you will consider joining this great program. To learn more, visit the website at http://www.givetolearn.org and take a few minutes to view this video which gives an excellent overview of the goal of this program. I hope you will join!

Grace Church Youth Talent Show-SUCCESS!

2010-03-23T09:55:00.002-04:00

This past Saturday, Grace Church in Rutland, VT held a youth talent show. Half of the proceeds benefited HEAL. We also had a sale of Kenyan crafts after the performance. In total we raised $2,400! It was a huge success! Thanks to everyone who was in involved, especially all the youth who shared their beautiful voices in support of a great cause!

By next February we would like to raise $125,000 to finalize the purchase of land and begin construction of the orphanage. We are on our way! I'll keep you posted on future opportunities to participate in events. Thanks for the support!

Munyuini Primary School-Kenya

2010-03-03T11:12:00.000-05:00

This video is from my first day visiting the school where I observed for my first two weeks in Kenya. The kids were outside playing when I arrived and the minute they saw me,they stopped, stared, and started laughing. Some of the children in this village have never seen a white person so they didn't really know what to think. First, I went to the nursery school and was greeted with a song. It was so adorable! I made sure to get some video footage, so here it is!

Videos are Coming Soon, I Promise!

2010-02-22T01:59:00.000-05:00

I apologize for not posting any videos yet! I have over 10 ready to go, but the internet has been too slow in the village to post. I am now spending a week in a larger town with a better connection, so hopefully soon I can share these videos with you. It has been an amazing trip so far. I hope that you have been reading about my experiences at undertheamanitree.wordpress.com. I'll be back soon with videos! Have a great day!

Hello from Kenya!

2010-02-07T07:22:00.000-05:00

Hello friends,

Well I arrived in Kenya last Tuesday. I spent the first few days in Nairobi. My support team and I met to plan the best possible itinerary for my time here. We decided that I would stay in the village (where our prospective land is located) for two weeks. Tomorrow I start teaching at the village school and working with local farmers. The objective of these experiences is to become more familiar with the people and area where our orphanage will be. After this time, I will spend time at an orphanage about 40 minutes away from the village. Then I will return to Nairobi for the last week to finish up business and prepare for my journey home. During this entire experience, I will be taking video footage of the people and places involved in my work. Primarily, I will use this blog to post these videos. In addition to these videos, I will be writing reflective entries at http://undertheamanitree.wordpress.com. I co-author this blog with my friend Kate so I encourage you to visit this site as well to follow my experience. I hope to post my first video on Tuesday. If you have any questions or comments about the posts, please comment! I would love to hear what people think. I hope you enjoy! See you soon!

Welcome!

2009-10-11T12:59:00.002-04:00

Welcome to our new HEAL the Children Foundation blog! We hope to use this blog to keep our supporters updated on everything that is happening within our organization and in Kenya, as we work towards our goal of building the first HEAL orphanage!

If you missed this last spring check it out now... the Rutland Herald of Vermont printed an article about the foundation on the front page of the Sunday paper! It is a great article about our efforts. Enjoy!

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20090426/NEWS04/904260299