This June was a month of Giving for us here at Ubuntu Life. We started the month with our Diaper Drive. This is a fundraiser that we try to do bi-annually, and as you can guess it's a drive in which Kenyans are encouraged to donate diapers to Ubuntu.
If you have been following up with us through these newsletters you know much like the rest of the world, Kenya is in a dire economic situation. This means that where it hits your pocket the hardest, it affects the parents of our children who are differently abled twice as hard. As you can imagine diapers for children who have passed the appropriate age for diapers can be difficult to find and as a result they can be quite expensive.
This means that some families are forced to choose between food on their table or a dignified life for your child. You can probably guess which one a desperate mother would choose here. This however is not the decisions we want our parents to be forced to make, rather how can they be present and available and supportive to our kids and how can their child live the most dignified life. So our goal every time we hold the drive is to get close to a year's supply of Diapers that can be distributed to the parents based on need as assessed by our amazing social workers. This year however we went far beyond what we thought was even possible and we collected nearly a two year supply of diapers along with other amazing Gifts for the Kids all in our traditional Ubuntu style.
We started the day by bringing all of our parents and guests together here at the land and we prepared for what would be a fun and eventful day. We had invited a lot of guests and it was a great day to see the whole community come together. We started off the day with both worship and prayers to ensure our day would be off to the greatest start possible. We then got to one of the highlights of the day.
The performances of our kids, Teacher Teresia, brought out her class and they were able to sing for us and it was such an amazing experience. With all of our guests and parents blown away by the vocals of Collins. He was the lead singer with the microphone and we loved every minute of their performance. They were then followed by Dave Amazing School who gave a well rehearsed poem about Ubuntu and togetherness, we were touched by their presence.
We had a sermon and the pastor highlighted what we always preach here at Ubuntu “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matt. 25:40). Now even if you don't prescribe to the same religion I'm sure you can relate with the sentiment. It was a great reminder that how we treat and deal with others is eventually is how we will be treated, it all comes full circle.
Jeremiah was then able to finish off the meeting by describing what we do at Ubuntu and who we are as an organization. To our surprise many people believe that Ubuntu is a children's home and is closed off to outsiders. This however is not the case and Jeremiah emphasized we are here to help as many people as we possibly can and in fact they should not be shy of bringing their children to Ubuntu for check ups. All in all it was an amazing day with amazing people we can't wait to host our new guests again.
What really made our event was the friends and supporters that were able to come to our event. We were able to see some of our strongest supporters here in Kenya show up and show out with what they gave to our kids. We had The Rotary club of Naivasha, The Nairobi Hash House Harriers ( this is a group formed for the sole reason of loving to run/walk and exercise), as well as several local schools in the area such as Maai Mahiu Boys and Girls High Schools, Sacred Hearts Primary School and the Dave Amazing School. We love to see our community grow and people's excitement as they see what we do here. It is really encouraging.
As we wrapped up the day, The Hashers presented our kids with several musical instruments and we cannot thank them enough! Perhaps a lot of our visitors were just as impressed with Collins as we were!! We are so excited to see our kids get to learn these instruments and be Kenya's next biggest Artist!
