Sustainable Food Project for Children in Kenya

Her name is Carolyne and she is 48 years old.  She lives in one of Mombas, Kenya's slums and every single day of her life, she prays for an ease to her difficulties.  She hopes for a better life for her 5 children and the pressure of raising them alone mounts as the children get older and they need to go to school.  A widow since her youngest was in her womb, Carolyne has felt the brunt of hunger, need, and desperation for a long, long time.

Now, though, thanks to YOU, the children and Carolyne are eating better.  Why?  Because Carolyne received budgeting training and is one of the women who has started a small business thanks to our greenhouse project. Yes, every day, she helps harvest vegetables grown inside and outside the greenhouse including tomatoes, peppers, kale, cow peas, onions, and squashes.  She buys the produce at a deeply discounted price and resells it in the market.  The money she pays for the produce is saved by our project for next year's seeds and for future repairs on the greenhouse.  Any money she earns is hers to keep!

Now earning approximately $40 per week, Carolyne can feed her children and they can go to school. Just like a mom, any mom, anywhere in the world, she is thrilled that her kids are full and that their future looks brighter.  She is looking forward to expanding her business and is just thrilled to think that her children have a future that includes schooling and that they will have the possibility of leaving the slum.

During this holiday season know that you have been an instrument of change in Carolyne and her children's lives.  What a legacy!

Oh, so exciting!  Here's a fun update regarding our sustainable food project:

• We have five women who have been trained in budgeting and marketing and who daily purchase vegetables at a discounted price and re-sell them at the market.  They little businesses are doing well.  As the greenhouses produce more, more women are ready to start their own businesses, as well.
• 48 children are receiving free vegetables due to their malnourished state
• Women receive green (kale, spinach, etc) to help the mom's as they grow stronger after deliving their babies.
• The organic greenhouse is producing awesome vegetables and a large grocery store  is waiting for the first harvest already!

This is a pretty exciting project, as we can see it is coming together quite nicely.  So many people are benefitting now...we can't wait to see how many more will benefit when the entire project is complete!

If you'd like to visit this program to see first hand what you've done by supporting this project, you are welcome to. Go visit the greenhouses, the clinic, the children and families.  Join us on one of our Vacation with a Purpose trips and help us build a house for one of the orphaned children.  Just get in touch with me at tweaver@AFCAids.org and we'll get you on the road to Mombasa, Kenya, where you are touching lives you haven't yet met.  I hope you will meet them, though, and that you'll see the difference you are making.