The American Sewing
Guild and Identitybox partner to aid orphans in Kenya
In the
midst of all the exciting challenges of servicing our clients
and running our businesses, I know our readers share in the
same concern for the suffering of the world and wouldn’t
want to lose sight of the bigger picture. One such concern
we at Identitybox have had is for a group of orphans in Kenya.
Let me tell you a little bit about them and how we got connected.
Several years ago, we met a mature and endearing couple from
Kenya- Peter and Hannah Murunga- who were visiting Kansas
City. They had started a small orphanage in Bongoma, Kenya,
starting with only 7 street children that had come to their
house begging for food. Initially they were cautious, but
felt prompted to invite them into their home, feed them, and
clean them up. After that, they sent all but one of the boys
back to the streets, telling them to come back for food in
the evening. The one that stayed with them was severely malnourished
and urgently needed to be nursed back to health. Both Peter
and Hannah agreed that God was calling them to take these
boys in to their home and give them an upbringing with love
and positive training. So, when the boys returned, they received
them in as part of the family. It was not easy for Peter and
Hannah, especially at their age and given the rough background
of these boys, but these boys soon began to thrive in every
way. Slowly, more orphans came in. One of them, Francis (who
they affectionately named “Moses”) was only 9
months old and about to be killed by relatives, as is the
custom there with children born out of incest, when Hannah
received word of it and rescued him.
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Since
that time until now, many of these children have grown into
model teenagers. There are 28 in all. With the help of a couple
of churches, they have built a compound in which the children
are distributed among several small houses headed by an adult
“mother”, and a well has been drilled from which
they are obtaining fresh, clean water, a rarity in that area.
Knowing that they cannot depend completely on support from outside,
and having the vision to train these kids to become self-supporting
adults when they leave, Peter and Hannah are involving them
in various business endeavors based on the compound. One of
these is bottling water, which is proving to be a much sought-after
commodity. Another is beehives and the selling of honey.
Still, the needs have been great and the little income they
are receiving from these business endeavors and from a few supporters
has not been enough to afford them some of the basic attentions
like doctor visits, school supplies, and clothing.
This is why we proposed the idea of sewing garments for the
children to the Overland Park chapter of the American Sewing
Guild (of which Eddy Mora, President of Identitybox, is a member).
They responded positively and, with the generous supply of fabric
donated by Zoelee Donnell, from Zoelee’s Fabrics and Sewing
School, we all went right to work cutting the material for the
garments in the last Sewing Guild meeting.
Each of the attendees took home the cut fabric to begin sewing
the garments, and our combined efforts are projected to enable
us to send a good shipment of clothing to the Murungas by December.
If you and your company would like to be a part of this project,
feel free to contact us at (913) 254-7840 or at eddy@identitybox.com. |
