February | 2014 | Creation of Hope

Welcome, once again, to our update section. Every month we account for how money has been donated and how it’s been spent, with a sampling of the many ‘thank you’ signs that are sent out to our donors, sponsors and supporters. This is my favourite part of the website, although I have to admit that I often feel a little ‘pushed’ spending hours compiling it. Then, when it’s done I realize the collective good we are doing, the impact we are making, and what a blessing it is to be a part of it all!

Schools

St. Anthony C.S. in Brampton donated $100.00 which they raised by selling cookies. This money was used for daily support – there is a thank you picture in that section below in this update.

St. Eugene C.S. in Toronto – under the leadership of Principal Linda Alonzi – raised $500.00 from the valentine dance held at the school. This money is to be used for daily support and mattresses.

Below is a letter from St. Marco C.S. in Woodbridge outlining how they raised money for our program.

There were also personal donations from Rosanna, Vince Franze, Concetta and Danny, Fernanda. This money is being used for support days and for mattresses for the residence.

A letter from Mount Albert Public School

Good Morning Mr. Walters,

You were recently at our school to give a presentation for our Junior and Intermediate Grades. During your presentation you had mentioned about your organization, Creation of Hope.

For the second year in a row we organized a “New-To-You” Book Sale for our students during Literacy Week. Our goal was to make sure every student goes home with a ‘new’ book which are generously donated from our school community. The students bring a quarter and any funds that we do receive are then given to a charity or organization outside the school.

We would like to give our proceeds to Creation of Hope this year. There was a total of $263.14 raised by our students. I’d also like to make an announcement to the students of where the money went. If you are able to provide me with some idea of what this will help with, that would also be great.

We are going to use this money for daily support of the Rolling Hills Residence.

St. Isaac Brock in Brampton donated $738.43. This money is being used to purchase solar lanterns for the orphans. Special thanks to Nicole Brodie, a sponsor in the program and visitor to Kikima, for her leadership in this project. We will share photos as the lanterns are being distributed.

Individual Donations

Brigitte made a wonderful donation that is being used to purchase a sewing machine for the orphanage. This will be used to repair and make clothing for the residence and to teach our children how to sew and make clothing.

Chris Stevenson made a donation which is being used to purchase 3 blankets for orphans.

Jewlianne shovelled snow at her aunt’s house to raise money which was contributed to her school donation.

Rotary Club of Georgetown

On February 15^th Anita and I attended a Valentine’s Day Dance hosted by the Rotary Club of Georgetown. They had previously donated $1500.00 for the purchase of our van. At the dance they made an addition donation of $250.00 to ‘fill up’ the tank a few times. As well there was a secondary ‘bonus’ auction held when Barry and Ave Eddington ‘won’ the raffle item they had donated which raised another $200.00.

That same night we sold 7 copies of My Name is Blessing for a profit of $70.00 and somebody donated another $10.00 – so this altogether totals $530.00. This money is being used to provide 3 days of daily support and the remaining money will go into our ‘gas tank’ over the coming months.

Monthly Distribution

We give out food (and blankets, goats, lanterns, beds, tools) every month. The vast majority of this comes from the donations of sponsors. However there are always extra costs. This is primarily because we are not just providing for our sponsored children but others in the family constellation. We can’t simply provide food for that one child; we provide enough that it can ‘stretch’ to other children. Many of these are cousins who are orphans but those who might have one parent or, in some cases, two. In all cases, all the children are in need of additional support in these homes. We use additional donations to support the additional food distribution.

Daily Support

$75.00 provides funds to support the Rolling Hills Residence for 1 day. That’s food for 52 children, routine medical care, school supplies, salaries for the matron, caretaker, tutor, night watchman and cook, and the electricity, water and sanitation for the entire building. The following are the days supported by these people/schools.

School Start up Kits

The start of Form 1 – Grade 9 – comes with additional costs. As most schools are residential (the student lives at the school) they must bring with them many of life’s necessities. Think about how a first year university student must bring many things to equip their dorm room – although in this case it’s a dorm room without a mattress or bedding. This cost can be almost as expensive as the first semester’s tuition and we have generous supporters who help pay this additional cost.

Thank you Pictures

These are a sampling of the pictures we send out to individuals and schools to not only show our thanks but to help provide accountability.

Sponsors

At present we have 117 sponsors. They live in Canada, the United States, Germany, and significantly, in Kenya and provide a monthly payment to help support ‘their’ child.

Over the last year we have ‘frozen’ our sponsorship program at this number. This is simply an issue of logistics. We run our program basically from our dining room table in Mississauga and a small desk in Kikima and we just don’t have any more ‘room’ on the table. We have a number of people wishing to become sponsors who are on our waiting list and occasionally one sponsor leaves and that spot is filled from our waiting list.

We always try to provide sponsors with the same accountability we do to all people who make a donation. This includes providing pictures to show letters, parcels, presents, parties and gatherings that they contributed to. Most pictures go directly to the sponsors but we also like to provide a sampling of those below. We have been most fortunate in that in all of the years of the program, only two parcels that were sent from abroad, did not arrive in Kikima.

Mwikali from Mavis

Mutua from Lorraine

Wanza from Jessica

Sarah from Lou-Anne

A present brought over for our sponsored child Mary

Christmas Clothing/Presents

As part of Christmas celebrations each of our children is given new clothing. These outfits are not only welcomed but cherished by the children.

Because of Henry’s passing, the gifts were distributed later than usual. We hope that all sponsors have received their photos; if you have not please let us know and we will look into it for you. We thank the Creation of Hope team in Kenya who worked so hard to make this happen during such a difficult time.