Quick Resume of Our Amazing Two-week Trip to Africa:

We were greeted with songs, dances, plays, poems, delicious food and wonderful hospitality when we visited our grantees in Africa! In Nairobi, we had a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the 11 homes we built with Habitat for Humanity for Internationally Displaced Persons. We were also at the opening of two new school buildings we funded at the Kalulu School, designed by award-winning architects, John McAslan Partners, in partnership with Save the Children. We made site visits to 7 primary schools we built or support in Kenya, Malawi and Uganda, including a special needs preschool (Komo Centre for Autism), and three primary schools for kids orphaned by aids each run by visionaries with incredibly large hearts (Nyaka Aids Orphan School,started by Twesigye Jackson Kaguri who just published a book called the Price of Stones; Crossroads Springs Institute, run by skilled educators, Dr. Meshak and Helen Isiano, and the KipKeino Orphans School). 

We met many women involved with microloans to help support their children’s education (Beads for Education, Top Ride and Nyaka) and observed what I consider to be “model” school facilities at Kipchoge Keino’s primary and  secondary schools in Eldoret, Kenya.  Kip is a two-time gold medal and two-time silver medal Olympic runner from Kenya, who, with his son, Ian Keino and Francis Nderitu, hosted us like royalty for three days.  Dr. Tarek Mequid gave us a tour of The Kamuzu Center, a state of the art maternity hospital in Lilongwi that replaced Bottoms Hospital, where 40 women went through labor in the same room, many without a bed! Then we had a snack with Jessica Donnelly, creator of the new Afri-CAN Café, the first branded pan-African cafés!

We visited the Mpoma Center in Uganda where Antoine, one of our board members is involved - great African dances & finished up with a surprisingly great stop at the Komo Autism Centre where we met Anna.