On Tuesday, March 30, 2010, in a remote area near the market town of Naivasha, Kenya, a group of community leaders, young girls, teachers and locals gathered near a building constructed of bricks and corrugated metal. They sang traditional African songs; they laughed, and they danced. At one point a man, beaming from ear to ear, snipped the cherry-red ribbon that was stretched around the girth of the structure and clipped one of the handmade bows adorning the windows. The onlookers cheered and clapped in the warm afternoon sun.
You see, this was no ordinary building; this was a building of hope. It housed the first flush toilet and shower many of those in attendance had ever seen, much less had the good fortune to use.
This modest building is one in a series being constructed at the Light of Hope orphanage, about an hour north and a world away from Nairobi and the infamous Kibera slums, where unrest is ever present, AIDS/HIV rates are among the highest in the world, a women’s value can be quantified as somewhere between null and zero, and poverty clings like an oppressive heat.
Light of Hope is a refuge, a brilliant beacon for young Kenyan girls, and was founded by Boniface and Sandy Karanja and their nondenominational Christian ministry, Lighthouse Ministries International. The really cool asterisk to this anecdote is that the Karanjas are from Plymouth.
Boniface and Sandy Karanja’s paths crossed one fateful day in 1998, in the narthex of a Hopkins church. “I was at the door greeting people as Boni came in; I noticed him right away,” Sandy says. “He was smiling and friendly to everyone. I shook his hand, and I thought he seemed like such a humble, kind man.”
This man had left his homeland of Kenya six months earlier to make a life for himself so he could one day return to give back to the land he loved. His mother, Josephine, raised six children on her own and never knew where the next meal would come from, but still imbued in all of her children the notion that no matter your lot in life, you reach out and make a difference.
“She always encouraged us and said that if you have two hands and are healthy, God has a plan for you,” Boni says. “My plan is to help girls by giving them hope, educating them, keeping them safe and letting them see the possibilities of their future.”
As fate would have it, Sandy felt exactly the same way and, literally, prayed for a path to take. “Missionaries from Africa would come and visit our church when I was a little girl, and I thought to myself, ‘Someday I’m going to go there and help.’” She grew up with a tug to go to Africa and help young girls who were hurting and less fortunate, but didn’t know why or how.
These two clandestine souls became fast friends when somewhat suddenly, six months later, Boni said he wanted to take Sandy to Kenya as his wife. They were married, flew to Mombosa for their honeymoon and to find land for their shared vision. “I felt so at home there,” Sandy says. “I didn’t feel like I was in a foreign country. It’s very sad because you see the desperation and the poverty, but I still felt like I belonged there.”
Boni and Sandy found 8 acres in Naivasha, and for the next few years, dedicated themselves to raising money to start the orphanage. In 2004, construction began on an office, dormitory and temporary classrooms, and in December 2005, Light of Hope took in its first five girls.
The next year Light of Hope was registered with Kenya, additional temporary classrooms were built and a temporary kitchen was constructed. Since then a library, computer lab and a clinic that doubles as a classroom until a permanent school can be built have been added. A well has been drilled, the shower building built and electricity has been added. What began as a single idea now requires a staff of 20.
They are at capacity with 32 girls living in the temporary dormitory and an additional 15 “day scholars” who travel by foot to attend classes at Light of Hope. Their stories, not surprisingly, are often tragic. Many have been victims of incest at the hands of a father, uncle, stepfather; two are infected with HIV; a few have witnessed their parents being murdered during political upheavals; and some have been raped. A large number of the girls have been orphaned, and a few have been abandoned due to their mothers’ inability to provide for their most basic needs. In one heartbreaking case, a mother who had run out of options, gathered her three children—an infant boy and two daughters, ages 3 and 5—and walked to the town center several miles away. She found them a safe spot amidst the bustle of the afternoon shoppers and handed the children a small bag of what little food she could muster and instructed them to wait there until her return. They waited and waited, and at the end of the day when the mother hadn’t returned, a shopkeeper brought the distraught children to his home. “The boy went to another home and the girls came to us,” Boni says.
Others have suffered physical abuse and come to the orphanage afraid to look anyone in the eye or be touched. And all have suffered the unabashed discrimination of being female, their voices unheard, their dreams stifled.
It is this discrimination and oppression that has propelled Boni and Sandy’s families, friends, neighbors, coworkers and even strangers to band together to make this quest work. With the help of area churches and schools they have organized mission trips, made quilts, donated books, sent shoeboxes full of art supplies, donated a sewing machine, raised funds to purchase cows and built a gate to keep the girls safe; others have held golf tournaments, ran marathons, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and the list goes on, all to raise funds to ensure the girls have a chance at a productive life and promising future.
Maple Grove residents Kathy and Larry Welliver have been to Light of Hope two and three times, respectively, where Kathy (who is a registered nurse) helped with health education of the older girls and created baseline health charts on all the girls, and Larry assisted in the designing of many of the structures and oversaw some of the construction process. They also introduced the girls to s’mores.
“You can see firsthand that bringing these girls into the school has changed their lives and brought them from despair to hope,” Kathy Welliver says. “It has also changed my life by showing me that I can help make a real difference in their lives to help them realize their dreams.”
Rob Robertson, also of Plymouth, has donated countless hours to the cause by helping with fundraising, sponsoring the annual golf events and visiting the site a few years ago. He found Light of Hope as a Mission and Outreach board member at Wayzata Community Church when, three years ago, the church decided to put its aid efforts toward the orphanage. “What is ironic about helping others is that when you do help and get involved, you get way more out of it than you put in,” he says. ”Then everybody wins.”
This “everybody wins” attitude is evident in a small promotional film that was created by Lighthouse Ministries International a year ago. At the end of the video, a few of the girls were asked about what they wanted to do when they grew up, what hope they had for the future.
They each smiled wide, and one-by-one they articulated their wish: “I want to be a doctor,” one said. “I want to be a nurse.”
“I want to be a teacher,” and yet another said, “I want to be a bank manager.”
The Karanjas are looking forward to the day when they can live near Light of Hope and be back on the land that brought them together. With the next priority being the construction of a permanent school, they have dreams of building a permanent dormitory that can house up to 100 girls and of opening a clinic that will serve the community.
“My mom taught me that even at the end of the darkest tunnel there is light,” Boni says. “We want to help the girls to see that light.”
And that, my friends, is hope at its best.
