See Why Matanya’s Hope President says, “Mungu Akubariki.”

Here is an excerpt from Mantanya’s Hope president Michelle Stark’s testimony that we thought you would enjoy reading:

“I felt like I had landed in the middle of a movie set! My eyes brimmed with such happy tears I actually hid my face – this was so private – I didn’t want to explain. I was here with my family – my father’s dream became a part of my personal reality – and I just knew this was going to be the kind of experience one doesn’t forget.

During our trip, we visited Matanya Primary School, the school attended by the children from Matanya’s Hope orphanage. The children were clothed in tattered uniforms, bearing all of the signs of being handed down from student to student over the years. The children sat together in a barren field (their auditorium) with their hands in the air (showing their readiness to meet us). I could count the lucky few who owned a pair of shoes,but was still incapable of understanding the magnitude of their poverty.

We were later led to dirt-floor classrooms where fragmented boards were nailed together to create the school walls; corrugated tin provided a makeshift roof. There was no running water. There was no electricity. The few windows and spaces between the boards provided the only light. The desks, made of two-by-fours, provided a surface barely enough to support one book. The picnic table style benches were nailed to the desk, making it difficult for older students to fit in.

It was in a 5th-grade classroom that I viewed Mercy Nyawira Chege’s composition book and my world changed! Her work and command of the English language made it clear that this child was bright, yet I learned that Mercy would not enter 6th grade. Her parents could not afford $10 for her required uniform. My heart sank.”

By the way, “Mungu akubariki” in Swahili means God bless you.