UPDATE: We have found uniform sponsors for every single child! We are completely blown away by everyone's generosity. Thank you so much to everyone who has sponsored a child. If you missed out and still want to help, there are plenty of opportunities to be able to make this school something great. As they are only just starting out, they have almost nothing. If you would like to bless them with a donation, we can ensure it will be used 100% to bless these children. Again, THANK YOU!

As a family, we have decided to walk alongside our friends Joan and Carolyne to help them get uniforms for the beautiful children that are in their care at the Orphaid Community Center. We are looking for 25 individuals or families who are willing to donate AU$60 to buy 2 uniforms for each student. The girls will get 2 dresses, 2 jumpers, 2 pairs of socks and 1 pair of shoes. The boys will get 2 shirts, 2 shorts, 2 jumpers, 2 pairs of socks and 1 pair of shoes.
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Currently, these children don’t have much more than the clothes on their back. A few of them have some foot wear but these shoes were doing little to protect their feet and many of them were either over or under sized.

Listed below are the beautiful faces of the children in need so you can decide who you would like to sponsor uniforms for. This is how we are going to do it:

1. Select a child
2. Email theschopfs@gmail.com with your name and the details of who you have chosen (we will try and give everyone their first choice).
3. Wait for a return email with confirmation.
4. Go to the support us page on our website www.theschopfs.com for our banking details and transfer the money into our bank account (sorry you’ll just have to trust us but we will send you a receipt).
5. When the uniforms have been made we would love to send you a photo of your child looking fantastic in their new clothes.

Purchasing a uniform for a child will be a one off donation, but if you are interested we can also connect you to enable to support this project on a regular basis. We believe that this is a great new project that two amazing Kenyan women have begun and we would love to see it grow and thrive.

Hover mouse over the photos of the children to see their names and ages and click for a bigger image.

​On Saturday 10 October we had the privilege to visit a new project just outside the town of Kitale.

​This project started out because of a need in the community. Many children were wandering throughout the village and scavenging for any food they might find on the floor of the markets. The children come from homes where they are either orphans living with a very poor elderly relatives or they live with a parent who is very ill. Basically, they are living in extreme poverty. None of them have ever been to school before. Prior to the project starting the children were extremely malnourished. We were blessed to meet a number of amazing people who are giving their all to see these children flourish. I want to share with you a little bit about them:

Joan & Carolyne:

​Joan has become a friend of ours here in Kenya. She started Orphaid in January 2015 because of the need of the children in the community where she grew up. Her mama asked for her help because there were so many children in her community that needed help. Joan is a teacher here in Nairobi. Along with her mama they selected 25 of the children who were most needy to be helped. The children range in age from 3 to 10 years.
 
Carolyne, who also comes from the same country area, agreed to partner with Joan in this project. Out of their own small salaries they have employed a teacher who is paid $40 per month and a cook, who is paid $20 per month. The children are able to use a small room in the local church as a school room and the children are fed 2 meals a day (porridge and beans & maize). 

Mama Alice:
Mama Alice is Joan’s mum. She is an amazing woman who everyone in the community looks up to. She is an elder in the local church and she carries great favour with people she meets. She is the person on the ground driving the project. She is an amazing faithful woman who really trusts God to look after the children. She is always able to find people to help with the food when the finances are getting low. She loves each of the children as her own.

Teacher & Cook:

The teacher is a woman who gives her time to the children for very little pay. She has no resources or curriculum but she does her best. They have no cupboard in the school room just one old, torn plastic bag that she referred to as her “best bag”. She was very happy when I gave her a new “best bag”, which was just a plastic bag from a local shop. I have at least 50 unwanted plastic bags at home so I know what to take her next time! The cook is a widow who takes care of the cooking for the children. The small amount of money that she gets paid helps her with her children.
 
We were able to bless the children with some treats. We bought them lolly pops, biscuits and bananas. Some the children had never had a banana before and weren’t sure what to do with it. Thanks to a generous donation from a couple in Australia we were able to help Joan and Carolyne buy enough food to feed the children for the rest of the year. The children also enjoyed using coloured pencils for the first time. It was a great joy seeing them colouring in.

Visiting Moses:
After spending time with the children at the school we went to visit Moses and his grandparents. Moses is also a student at the school but because he is HIV+ he is struggling to get to school because he is too weak to walk there. Moses mother died when he was 3 days old and his elderly grandparents have raised him. He is on medication for HIV+ but without a balanced diet he will not get strong enough to get back to school. So we went to visit his home and take a package of food for his family so that he can get stronger and get back to school. He was actually a really happy giggly kid. His grandparents were so grateful to us for the gifts we had bought that they went outside and came back with a live chicken to give to us as a gift. We were very honoured and blessed by the gift.

​How can you help?
We are very passionate about helping these women out. There are many needs for this community but their biggest need at this point is uniforms and shoes for the children. The children mostly only have one set of clothes that are falling apart. The uniforms would mean they have two sets of clothes that will keep them warm and covered. Some of them have shoes but they really need closed in shoes to stop the diseases and bugs that come up through the dirt. So in our next blog post we are going to outline details of how you help with these uniforms. Basically, we are hoping to find 25 families or individuals who will give a one off donation of $60 to buy a uniform for one child. 

God bless you,
​Anthony & Fiona