In the interim, foundational funding or aid still needs to be available to sustain the residents and children. A small amount of US dollars or aid from the “developed world,” goes much further in the “developing” nations. $10 USD could provide rice and vegetables for a family of four for a week. $20 could send a child to elementary school for a semester (3 semesters per year) with a second hand uniform, shoes, school supplies and a back pack. $1750 could put up a small cement block house, $10,000 a school or an additional to an already existing school and $307 a hectacre of land.

    Whether or not we have money to contribute, there is one incredibly valuable gift that we can offer our neighbors, whether in the US or in any other region of the world: it is HOPE. Earlier, I mentioned a beautiful young man, a student at Nairobi University, who said he believes hopelessness kills more Kenyans than does AIDS. Whatever we do, no matter how small a gesture it seems to us, it may well bring a sense of self-esteem, comfort, and the possibility of a brighter future to those who see only a bleak, pitiless existence. Hope has the unique ability to ease the emotional terror and stress experienced by parents who must often see each other sicken and die while watching their children fade from malnutrition, sadness and illness. I always attempt to put myself in their place. What kind of courage would I be able to summon if I knew that I was to die a painful death without so much as an aspirin? How brave could I be if I knew I had nothing to leave my beautiful children, not even a caretaker to love them when I am gone? When I became an orphan, at least I had a home, meals, education, medical care, clothing and a grandparent who loved me.

    What if you and I, working together could provide for these children, the rough equivalent, at least by Kenyan standards, of the care and services I received after my parents died? A military general was to have said, “One death is a tragedy, a million deaths are a statistic.” Knowing the pain I experienced as an orphan, these millions of deaths cannot and must not be relegated to a line in a census report.

    The truth is, we CAN provide HOPE for a better world, for even the little corner of the world called “Kiambiu.” Imagine if we could obtain the food and medicine that would enable a mother or father to live longer to parent his or her children? That would inspire hope. If we could provide food, clothing, education and guardianship for an orphan, we could almost be sure we’d have saved one kiddo from conscription by slave, sex traders or child militias. This would give hope to those witnessing their parents’ terminal illnesses that they would not be abandoned or kidnapped for a life of hell somewhere else. Even a bowl of rice, a stuffed animal or a pencil and pad gives hope because it tells the children that somebody out there cares about them and realizes they exist. You and I can give a child hope that they are somebody of worth. We can give them immeasurable comfort in knowing they are not forgotten. And we can give dying parents the assurance that their children would be lovingly cared for in their absence.