Order your official Matanya’s Hope TShirt today $15 Plus $7.95 shipping – for delivery in the USA. (No additional charge to deliver to your student in Kenya)
This summer, seven students from Troy University will be traveling with Matanya’s Hope during the month of June. They will be visiting with many of our sponsored students, helping us to distribute much needed clothing, shoes, school supplies, etc. This is a great opportunity for you to purchase a Matanya’s Hope t-shirt and have it gifted to your student during the mission.
The Troy students are so excited to share love and encouragement with our Kenyan family.
In an effort to help raise funds for their own trip, the Troy students are selling these wonderfully soft, cotton t-shirts. What a win win!
Place your order by April 15.
You can pay via VENMO or by sending a check to Matanya’s Hope.
PO Box 562
Homewood, IL 60430
These shirts are only $15
Sizes available: S, M, L, XL
Color: Dark Grey (as pictured)
Mr. Rogers said, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
Matanya’s Hope is launching a drive to help provide free wash stations and masks to protect some of the world’s most vulnerable communities from spreading COVID-19.
Handwashing stations are crucial to slowing and preventing the spread of COVID-19.
Each wash station will help thousands of people every day have the ability to wash their hands with soap and water. Our first station is up and running!
Handwashing stations are crucial to slowing and preventing the spread of COVID-19.
Each wash station will serve those in need. Your donations can help thousands of people every day have the ability to wash their hands with soap and water.
Help our children fight against the corona virus.
The communities are at risk; water, soap and masks are difficult to afford.
Your donation today can save a life.
Help us provide:
10 60-liter water containers
10 large liquid soap dispensers
water
Each washing station costs $75 and provides community members with soap and water.
Kenya requires everyone to wear a mask, yet the people we serve cannot afford to purchase this 20-cent protection.
Poverty means there is little access to clean water, soap or masks.
Every cent counts! Kenya is in desperate need of our help. Your donation can SAVE LIVES!
On my morning drive, I pass more than 5 preschools, each one colorful and set on tending to someone’s precious developing child. I can choose from a variety of television and radio stations, each designed to enhance a child’s sensory, emotional, cultural and academic development.
Children gather together to learn and explore the world. Your gift of any amount can bring this same joy to the children of Africa.
But 18 hours away by air, these options are gone. In place of carefully cleaned tabletops and learning tools, children are lucky to go to school. Some gather beneath a tree, fighting hunger, longing for a single book, sharing the stub of one pencil. Others are fortunate to learn indoors. Albeit scarce, there is hope.
Classrooms in rural Kenya rarely have concrete floors. Blackboards are painted on the cracked walls. Children gather, hungry for education. Hungry for food.
WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
In 2005, Matanya’s Hope began by sponsoring the educations of 4 needy students. Today, more than 200 at risk youth are in school. They range from preschool to university, Masters Degree classes. The once overlooked communities see our support as HOPE.
In his own voice, Matanya’s Hope student Kelvin writes, “You came into my life when I needed saving the most. I was surrounded by violence, sickness and poverty. I was hungry, scared, dirty and hopeless. I hid my face daily and cried. People saw but no man cared what happened to me. Even in school where most were poor, I was worse. That is until you came into my life. When I am done with my education, it is my greatest desire to save others as you have saved me. Your sponsorship has changed my life.”
Simon and his brother Benjamin need our help. These boys eat from garbage cans. They have no change of clothes, no bed to sleep in, no story to listen to at night. But you can change that! Sponsor one of these boys today and get ready to hear a story like Kelvin’s!
These boys fend for food in the streets. They eat from the trash. They have no bed. They have no bedtime story. You can HELP change their story by sponsoring one of these boys today.
Now more than ever, we need your partnership. One of our greatest needs is to increase the number of people who give monthly to support our outreach to vulnerable children. Our monthly partners help sustain the work we do throughout the year. You can give today by donating in one of the following ways:
1. DONATE through this blog
2. DONATE on our website: www.matanyashope.org
3. DONATE by sending you check to: Matanya’s Hope PO Box 562 Homewood, IL 60430
Will you help Simon and Benjamin go to school like these children?
Donate today.
Matanya’s Hope PO Box 562 Homewood, IL 60430 708-822-HOPE (4673)
A New Porridge Program is Met with Success While Hunger Remains
After successfully feeding 200 at risk youth today,
our celebration was challenged
when we found four children huddled together,
digging out of dirty, bacteria laden buckets filled with trash,
for something to eat.
Benjamin and his siblings Simon, Mercy and a baby sister are forced to feed from trash for their very survival.
One clutched a piece of rotten mango.
Another held a broken plastic container.
Their torn clothing was sizes too small and caked with dirt.
Their rubber sandals were broken and worn thin.
Any success we felt from serving the needy during this remarkable day waned.
Simon is hungry. He watches over his 3 siblings as they fend for food on the streets. You can HELP Simon today by donating funds to feed him and send him to school.
We are thrilled that we have such generous donors who have helped us provide relief programs for thousands of at-risk children. In addition to porridge, the Matanya’s Hope sponsorship program sends impoverished and orphaned children to boarding school giving them a better chance at life through love and education.
Hundreds of children enjoy their first day of porridge at a needy school in Naro Moru.
This story remains critical.
We cannot leave these 4 children by the side of the road.
A MIRACLE IS NEEDED
Please donate what you can.
Every dollar helps.
If you are interested in sponsoring one or more of these children, please inbox us or call: 708-822-HOPE (4673)
Sponsorship improves the lives of at-risk children by sending them to boarding school, providing: food, clothes, shelter and a nurturing environment all for $1,500 a year per child.
Mercy Wambui was born in 2014, but has only known feeding from the trash for her 6 years of life. Let’s give her the gift of a miracle; let’s send her to school.
This year I was able to spend time with the Matanya’s Hope Mission team. I saw beyond what Matanya’s Hope does for me alone. I now realize that this mission was spearheaded to break the cycle of poverty by saving and changing many more young innocent souls than whose names I know.
Wealth fades away. Civilizations grow old, but the love and kindness that Matanya’s Hope offers to the hundreds of Kenyan children who have faced abject poverty, lack of a good education, food and respectable shelter, is what keeps the flag of this charitable organization high. Matanya’s Hope, you’ve been a beacon of hope to those who were once crying; you are helping us break the vicious cycle of poverty in Kenya.
Child walking home from school in rural Kenya
Just a few days ago, I decided to search Matanya’s Hope on the internet and I learned some amazing facts. The most impressive to me is that Matanya’s Hope has students in the fields of medicine and pharmacy, aeronautical engineering, law, IT and in accounting and finance. Having in mind that these fields not only remain to be the most lucrative and illustrious in a growing market like Kenya, they are also esteemed fields in developed nations like the USA, Germany and many others.
I realized that I had been ignorant of the many milestone achievements accomplished by Matanya’s Hope. I remember telling Michelle Stark, the organization’s founder and president, that my joy would be to see her charitable works become a success in the near future, but I wish I had told her that my joy would be to see her efforts and works continue to grow and succeed. Why do I say this?
Because having nurtured students who eventually have joined such esteemed fields is a clear indicator that Matanya’s Hope is already successful and that the love which has been spread over the poor Kenyan child is bearing great fruits.
Students at Matanya Primary School are excited to thank their donors for the daily porridge and safe drinking water.
Matanya’s Hope reaches multitudes of radically diverse cultural communities across Kenya. The Maasai Mara Region is one which forever encourages me. To this day, Matanya’s Hope works to bring about gender equality to the GIRL CHILD by empowering her through education. The Maasai (at large) consider the girl child inferior among her community. She is seen as unclean and unworthy lest she undergoes the FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION, after which she will be sold into marriage. However, this charitable organization has come to the rescue of many Maasai girls by offering them education in lieu of FGM and forced early marriage.
Slowly, this archaic ritual is being traded in for higher learning and a healthier lifestyle. Efforts such as this remain a benchmark in the fight against gender violence and in the advocacy of gender equality and human rights at large. When I see what Matanya’s Hope is doing for pupils like me, who were once so lost and hopeless, I see Matanya’s Hope as one of the few world leading organizations dedicating their energies to changing the world and saving lives through positive transformation.
Girls as young as 9 years old are forced to undergo female genital cutting. (FGM) Once healed, they are sold into marriage and may become one of many wives in an older man’s collection.
Where would I be today if not for Matanya’s Hope?
I was born into a family of 3 boys. My parents were not able to cater for even the very basic needs such as food, shelter and clothing. These daily struggles brought about pain and turmoil and left me very confused. But, at 6 years old, God sent angels to come to my rescue. And this has been the beginning of my transformation. Until today, Matanya’s Hope has been catering for my school fees and encouraging my social, emotional, academic and spiritual development.
Why do I say that God sent angels? More than 250 impoverished pupils at my rural primary day school also deserved a chance to a better education, to develop their hidden academic potentials, yet Matanya’s Hope specifically chose me.
I, therefore, cannot sleep when God’s divine favour allowed such an opportunity to change my life. Against all worldly odds, I have come far. Once I was barefooted and schooling in a dirt floored primary school. Today I attend one of the most academically esteemed high schools in Kenya! Who could dare to dream of this, especially at the tender age of 6? Opportunities such as this were unheard of.
Thanks to the Matanya’s Hope academic scholarship, I am here to bid appreciation for the good work done by every stakeholder in this organization. Because of them, I have learned that education is the foundation upon which we build our future. I believe that those who passionately cherish knowledge never cease to grow and glow. I believe that education is the only sustainable way to break the cycle of poverty in Kenya, in Africa and in the world at large.
I pray that this little boy is chosen, like I was, so many years ago. He longs to feel hope instead of hunger and abandonment. He is 7 years old, a year older than when I was sponsored. Sponsorship is a light in darkness. Please – consider changing this little guys life.
Today, I, a young man named Ndirangu, am in highschool. I work hard every day and I believe that one day I will be attending Harvard or Yale as an aspiring lawyer and actuarial.
This song (below) inspires me.
We are the blossoms of our land.
We are the ceram of our generation.
We are the future of our nation.
Where are those who used to doubt us?
Where are those who thought we are not worthy?
Let them come out
and see the builders of our economy.
We shall be doctors, engineers and lawyers.
We are proud to be the blossoms of our land.
We are the cream of our nation!
And together we shall build our nation.
To my sponsors and to my esteemed friend and founder of Matanya’s Hope, Michelle Stark:
Michelle, you encouraged me and I pray that my story serves as an inspiration to others.
I forever thank my family for encouraging and supporting my efforts to better myself every day.
To the Almighty,
I THANK YOU.
Written by C. Ndirangu, Mangu High School, 2nd Year
Travel around the world: to Switzerland, Kenya and to the USA where our story of cheese was born.
Last year Aisha and I were flying across the USA to visit my son. At the same time, a woman named Beatrice was traveling from Switzerland to visit her children (who moved here years ago). Though strangers, mutual flight delays and gate changes united us. The loudspeaker garbled messages which Beatrice (fluent in German) struggled to understand. Patience gave way to uncertainty and by evening, waiting had become almost painful for everyone; we were exhausted. Beatrice had been traveling for almost 24 hours! Our flight which originally had us landing at 9:00 pm would now get us to location at 3:00 am.
Conversation confirmed that Beatrice was struggling to understand the onslaught of English spoken gate changes and flight delays. It felt only natural to Aisha and I to take Beatrice under our wings.
So what about the cheese!
Through Beatrice, we learned that her daughter Michele lives on a farm in Idaho. She raises goats and transforms the freshly collected milk into exoticly flavored cheese. I have to admit, (ever since I was a little girl and watched the movie Heidi!) I have such an attraction to natural living! And of course, I love goat cheese!
How we tie in: The Maasai in Kenya traditionally live among their goats and cows. Goat milk is plentiful and is highly nutritious. This Maasai woman and her child are pictured here after receiving a gift of Garden of Life Protein bars.
On the other side of the globe, Matanya’s Hope delights as our chef students: Kelvin, Jackline, Purity, Greg and Sanayian rack up their culinary accomplishments. And one thing Kenya has abundance of: GOATS! THIS is how Beatrice, Michele and I came together to bring the art of cheese making to Matanya’s Hope.
Pictured above: Separating the cheese curd from the whey. The curd will be served as cheese while the whey can be added to food to increase the nutritional value.
In just a few short weeks, I will travel to Kenya with Michele’s recipe for goat cheese. From that point on, Kenya meets Switzerland and the sky’s the limit!! With an increasing availability of refrigeration, students can manufacture, preserve and share the delicate flavors of cheese.
Stay tuned! The excitement of this adventure has just begun!
Michelle
Matanya’s Hope Culinary Arts student Kelvin Waweru poses with graduate chef Greg. Cake: Double chocolate, banana cream.
It’s hard to provide food for the hungry, clothing for the naked and shoes for the barefooted children without funds. Every year, Matanya’s Hope continues to focus on raising money for our outreach programs, including the provision of food, school supplies, blankets, hygiene items and safe drinking water systems.
Help comes in a variety of ways.
Just 6 weeks ago, my college friend and roommate introduced me to an organic, natural moisturizer which she is funding completely as a fundraiser for Matanya’s Hope. I must admit, I was a bit sceptical – but I tried it and the results were immediate softer, more hydrated skin! Best of all, this natural product can be used on your face, hands and body! It smells wonderful too – with a hint of lavender and camomile!
More to cheer about!
On Saturday August 3, Matanya’s Hope will be participating in a community event at the Flossmoor Community House located at: 2218 Hutchison Road Flossmoor, IL 60422. We will be introducing this organic, hand crafted moisturizer for the first time. Also featured will be Kenyan items such as: handmade leather and beaded sandals, jewelry and more!
Meeting these children jolted everything in me. They were hungry and displaced from the $3 a month rented room their single mother could not afford. While some of the siblings trekked hungry to their nearby day school, others remained home, to search for something to eat.
Alan and Erick are brothers. They were introduced to us last year during mission. They are the youngest of their family.
Although Matanya’s Hope only takes 1 child per family, we found sponsors for Jane, John and Ester, Alan and Erick’s three elder siblings. We hoped and prayed that Alan and Erick would benefit from the love and care they needed from mom, now that their elder siblings were in school. But, that never happened.
Alan and Erick fell prey to a hopeless despair, epidemic beyond poverty. Teachers reached out to us, begging us to “Please sponsor these bright boys. They need your help.”
Dreams start here. Let’s be the voice of hope for Alan and Erick.
These children were sponsored last year. Among them are Erick & Alan’s siblings.
As my great grandfather Harry Berman once said, “If a single day goes by where someone else doesn’t benefit from your being alive, you’ve wasted your day.”
Let’s make this day count.
Will you please help us send one or both of these boys to school?
Contact Matanya’s Hope for more information: 708-822-4673
or email Matanya’s Hope founder, Michelle Stark at [email protected]
Mission 2018 was a grand success and is now a part of Matanya’s Hope’s 13 year and growing history! Thank you all who sent donations, gifts and financial support. Our blog site: www.journeytohelpafrica.com and our Facebook posts bring so many beautiful stories of this year’s journey to life. Our students were visited and loved on. Plans were made for their futures. We are changing thousands of lives and together, you and I are lifting human beings from feelings of hopelessness and despair to lives filled with hope and a future.
This little girl enjoys a daily cup of porridge made possible through donations to the Matanya’s Hope porridge program. Without such donations, she may be one of countless children who go days without a single meal.
From our porridge program (which feeds 2000+ students daily), to the 10,000 liter rainwater tanks which provide clean safe drinking water vs. polluted, bacteria ridden river water most are forced to drink, we are saving lives.
Young Sabina stands by a bottle of water her family recently collected from a nearby river. Her family will drink, bath with and cook with this water.
Today, Matanya’s Hope has 240+ students sponsored in boarding schools (and we just added another today!) including 49 university students who are marching to a much brighter employment future with their education. We have graduates in accounting, engineering, nursing, teaching, business, beauty, information technology, culinary arts, pharmacy and law. Together, we have accomplished all of that and more.
Just sponsored! Nkatha, orphaned and living with her old, jobless grandmother, can now lvie and dream with Matanya’s Hope. Sponsorship means she will go to school, enjoy daily nutrition, have clothing, shoes, school supplies and most of all… SHE CAN HOPE.
This year our appeal is different. Matanya’s Hope must strengthen our core funding so that we may continue to provide the lifesaving food, water, counseling and other extraordinary programs we have developed – all which bring hope to our kids.
While it is essential to maintain individual student sponsorships and their needs, the need for core financial support has turned critical. This funding supports: the shipping of much needed donations, mailings, and the maintenance and gas for our vehicle during the 3-month mission in Kenya. My time in Kenya is spent gaining new introspective and serving each of our students, visiting their communities, and dispersing the donations where they are needed most. Last year over 3.5 tons of donations were shipped for a little over $13,000. That is 7000 pounds shipped for less than $2.00 lb. Operation Christmas Child does a wonderful job delivering shoe boxes of gifts to needy children and they collect $9.00 for each box. That is 4 times the cost of our delivery method. We operate on two continents and incur related costs in maintaining our position with both Kenya and the United States governments.
This little guy was thrilled to receive the gift of shoes through your donations.
As we have grown so has the work load. We have in the past depended solely on a volunteer board and a few volunteers who have done all the paper work of financing and accounting. Matanya’s Hope runs a very streamlined budget to cover necessities, but as our impact on the region expands so does our need to have to have someone oversee the legalities of our 990s and record keeping in a non-profit world. Barring a fully versed volunteer on the regulations of non-profits, I may from time to time need to outsource a few of our critical documents for professional mandate.
Each annual mission includes volunteer participants who pay their own way. In no way do core funds support our mission volunteers.
Mission participant Emily and the team of 6 friends traveling from their USA University showered the children with faith, hope and love. In so doing, all of us were transformed.
For our donors who specifically contribute to one of our other programs such as porridge or water tanks, thank you. We appeal to you to continue supporting our efforts by contributing to our core fund. Please help Matanya’s Hope maintain the services provided to so many in need. Our goal is to increase our core fund by $35,000; to operate effectively in the coming year. Thank you for your continued provision.
Simply put, we are asking that each of us who believe in the work Matanya’s Hope is doing to raise competent human beings out of the storms of life, donate to this need. Dig a little deeper and contribute to help Matanya’s Hope grow.
We are near the time of year when we all think of giving and I can’t imagine a better cause to help.
These children are praying over a 10,000 liter rainwater storage tank made possible through donations to MH. Prior to the tank being place, the children suffered from dehydration and related issues including lack of ability to focus
This is John. Just a few months ago, he was sleeping cold and hungry, on a dirt floor. He was frequently subjected to homelessness; his mother could not afford $3 rent. Today, he finds joy in writing to his sponsor and in attending school.
MH university student, Phineas Kaimenyi, is pictured here on University campus. Only a few years ago, he thought university was a dream for others, not for him.
Michelle Stark
Board President
and Ann Thomson, Board V.P.
We have different skin colors and different lives, but our hearts and spirits are one and nothing can ever take that away.
1998, America
A child is born into comfort and ease. Her parents love her more than words can say. They sacrifice financially so no opportunity of life passes her by. They pay for her education. New uniforms every year, multiple shirts and skirts in case anything happens. Every schoolbook is bought, and her room is filled with storybooks there just for her enjoyment. Her education throughout every stage is a given, and learning is something she often takes for granted. The opportunity to go to college is a guarantee she looks forward to each passing year. The only question in her mind is which university will she attend. Her family by no means lives a lavish life according to American standards, but she has never had to question anything: food, housing, school, clothing. She does not know these as luxuries but as the basic commodities of life.
2008, Kenya
A child is born into poverty and hardship. Her parents love her more than words can say. They sacrifice financially, but still the opportunities of life pass this little girl by. They can’t always pay for her education. When they can, they can only afford a few days of school at a time and one uniform sweater. Tattered and torn, she wears it year after year even after she has long outgrown it. Her parents can barely afford her school books, if they can at all, and at night she dreams of what it would be like to have even one story book of her own. Throughout every stage of her life, her education is never a guarantee. She has no way of knowing if her parents will be able to afford sending her to school tomorrow. She dreams of attending college, but that dream is out of reach on her own. She has to question everything in her life: food, housing, school, clothing. She lives everyday not knowing if she will have the basic commodities, which to her are actual necessities, of life.
The smile adorned by this precious child almost made it difficult to imagine the hardships he faces every day.
2018, Matanya Primary School
I am the girl in the first description, and yesterday I met countless students who fit the second. As I looked into their eyes, the thought running through my mind endlessly was why? Why was I born into the life I have; why they theirs? What have I done to deserve anything I have? And the answer is nothing. I did not choose my parents, nor did I choose where I was to be born. Everything I enjoy in my life of luxury has been provided for me. As I returned the student’s shy smiles, and held their little hands, the truth of human equality hit me like never before. The students were so smart, so gentle, so beautiful, so driven, and so joyful. We played in the dirt and laughed and danced and we were the same. We were human. We were from different sides of the world, different cultures and families, but united by our humanity. And it was the students who changed me, not I them. They touched my soul in a way words fail to describe. I hope that these came close. If you are reading this, I hope it caused you to recognize the blessings in your life. I hope you paused for a moment to consider the people to whom those blessings are not attainable. I hope you will consider this question that has now become a part of my heart: for what other reason have I been blessed than to pour out my life in service to help my fellow man?
We are all the same; we are all worthy of love.
The children are free with one and other, sharing love, friendship and joy despite their circumstances.
