Lewa Children’s Home! After an exciting time in the Mara it was time to continue to our next project. This year is ARCC’s first year ever partnering with Lewa so we had no idea what to expect and were all a little bit hesitant but let me tell you, this turned out to be one of the most incredible weeks ever. Lewa Children’s Home (LCH) is a combination of an orphanage, dairy factory, vegetable farm, dairy farm, and school based in Eldoret, Kenya. LCH was started by Kip & Phyllis Keino in the 1960’s after Kip won his first olympic gold medal for a running event. Kip was the first Kenyan ever to win a gold metal at the olympics and with the money he earned he put it towards starting up this orphanage. In the following years Baraja Farm and Kip Keino School were also started up and became necessary members of the LCH “umbrella.” The vegetable farm at Baraka provides the children at the orphanage with food, as well as creating profit to fund the orphanage. The cows are used for milk which is taken to Baraka farm and produced into milk, mala (fermented milk), yogurt, and a number of different cheeses. These products are also used to feed the orphanage staff and children, as well as it is sold internationally with all profits going directly to the children. Lastly is Kip Keino school. All of the children at the orphanage attend this primary school as well as some local children who can afford the fees. This school provides hundreds of students with an incredible education and many opportunities to continue to secondary school which is a huge privilege in East Africa. During our week at Lewa we got to learn all about the sustainability and projects that take place at Lewa. We split into three groups and alternated taking turns milking cows at 4:30 am, making dairy products at the factory (my group made mozzarella!!), and spending time with the babies and toddlers at the orphanage that were too young for school. Near the end of our stay we all got to spend a day at the school, we spent time weeding the 2 acre vegetable garden (we had an awesome jam session to the Mamma Mia and Greatest Showman soundtracks!!) , and we spent a day at the school with the kids! The students had just finished exams so there was a huge morning assembly filled with singing and dancing! The afternoon was filled with lots of laughs and bonding with the kids in sports or swimming which was super fun! Throughout this week we had so many opportunities to observe and learn about sustainability and growth in a setting like this. This week I also experienced my first spurt of illness on this trip which was an incredibly draining and painful time, but we had real toilets and bunk beds and saturday was a relaxing day so that made it much easier! Also, I was lucky my situation only lasted about 36 hours so I can’t complain! By the end of the week it was heartbreaking to leave. If I had to choose so far, this would definitely be my favourite part of the trip so far. Although we didn’t get to meet Kip, we talked lots with Phyllis and she is by far one of the most humble, genuine, selfless people you would ever meet. I have absolutely no words to describe Lewa and the impact it had on all of us, and I could rant about it for hours and you would still not understand. I would definitely encourage you all to google Lewa Children’s Home and read about it more if you are interested- this is an incredible example of Africans helping Africans without having any sort of “White Saviour Complex” ideology which is a huge issue in most developing country aid. Anyways, I don’t even know what else to say without writing a novel so will leave you with some of my favourite photos from the week and let you enjoy!
Heather Goes Abroad 