Kampi Ya Moto’s Children is a support organization to Phyllis Memorial Children’s Home and Academy outside Nakuru, Kenya.
Kampi Ya Moto’s Children was founded in 2007 to administer the Swedish aid to Phyllis Memorial Children’s Home and Academy. The name of the organisation is derived from the nearby village Kampi Ya Moto in Kenya, to which the children’s home belongs. Many of the children originate from here. The center of the village is situated four kilometers from the children’s home and this is where minor errands are made.
The organization Kampi Ya Moto’s Children has a Swedish postal giro account: 90 01 18-1. The 90-account is controlled regularly by Svensk Insamlingskontroll which is a guarantee for you as a donor that all the donated money is used for the intended purpose of improving the children’s home. The organization does not have any administrative costs in Sweden except the fee to Svensk Insamlingskontroll, the fee for autogiro and the cost of having an auditor. All the donated money is used to secure the future for the children at Phyllis Memorial.
Please indicate name, address and email when you deposit money at the postal giro account: 90 01 18-1 in order for us to send a thank-you card and further information. If you have any questions concerning the account, do not hesitate to contact us.
Phyllis Memorial Children’s Home
Phyllis Memorial Children’s Home was founded in 2000 by Jacinta Njoroge. She was born and raised in Kampi Ya Moto, not far from where the children’s home is situated today, and lives today in Stockholm. In 2003, Sabine Gartner went to Phyllis for the first time and has ever since been returning on a regular basis. In 2005 Sabine and Jacinta decided to share the responsibility for the children’s home in order to secure the future of it and the school. Sabine has received several prices for her work with Phyllis Memorial Children’s Home.
The older children at Phyllis Memorial attend high school, college or university and stay at Phyllis Memorial only during the holidays. The younger children attend Phyllis Memorial Academy and live at Phyllis Memorial all year around. The children have different backgrounds; before coming to Phyllis Memorial some of the children lived on the street and some with relatives or neighbors. Arriving at the children’s home, many of the children were malnourished and in a bad physical condition, some of them had been beaten or used as child labor. However, at Phyllis Memorial they received health care, food to eat every day, a bed to sleep in, an opportunity to enroll in school and time to play with other children. Successively they started to feel secure and used to live in a warm and loving environment.
Several vegetables and fruits such as maize, beans, potatoes, cabbage, sukuma wiki (a vegetable resembling spinach), banana, oranges and tomatoes are grown at the children’s home. There are also hens, goats, pigs, rabbits and cows providing meat and milk at Phyllis Memorial.
Phyllis Memorial Academy
Phyllis Memorial Academy was established in 2006 and it was a relief for the children who no longer had to walk for two hours every day to get to school. The school building could be built thanks to a donation from Individuell Människohjälp (a Swedish NGO). Soon the school got a very good reputation in the area and today it is one of the best in the whole district.
Phyllis Memorial Academy is a complete elementary school with nursery (baby, middle and top) and primary school (grade 1-8). The students come from the Phyllis Memorial children’s home, the neighboring village and some are boarding students from further away who stay at Phyllis during the semesters.
Every day the children eat porridge in the morning and later on they are served lunch. The free food is especially important for the poorest children in the school who may not always get enough food at home. Another quality aspect of Phyllis Memorial Academy is the limit of 30 students per class and the high qualifications of the teachers.
History
Jacinta Njoroge from Kenya has been living in Sweden for more than 20 years. In 1999 she went to Kenya with her daughter Lotta to visit relatives and friends. When Jacinta went to visit a friend at the hospital she saw something that changed her life. At the hospital there were several healthy children running around playing. When Jacinta asked a nurse why they were there she was told that they didn’t have any parents and nowhere to go.
Later on Jacinta went around in Nakuru, (Kenya’s fourth largest city, situated 30 minutes by car from the children’s home), and she was more and more sad to see all the street children who didn’t have anyone who cared about them. Lotta asked her mum why she was sad whereupon Jacinta explained. Lotta then told her: “Don’t be sad, you can do something to help them, you can build them a house”.
Since that afternoon, many things have happened. After the visit to Nakuru, Jacinta and Lotta went back to Stockholm where Jacinta started to work double shifts as nurse assistant and engaging friends and colleagues in the question. Six months later she brought 20 000 Swedish krona to Kenya and started to build the first house on a piece of land she had inherited from her mother. For this, she employed some of the neighbors and this was very appreciated since they thereby could improve their livelihoods after a severe drought.
The children’s home got its name after Jacinta’s mother, Phyllis Wambui. Word about the new children´s home spread rapidly and several children were left at the home even before the house was complete. The children were scared, sick and had been suffering enormously. When they received food they could not stop eating since they didn’t know when they would get the next meal. Jacinta promised them that they would get food every day, but it took a long time before they started to trust her words.
A woman called Grace was responsible for the children’s home when Jacinta went back to Sweden to raise more money. Shortly after her departure, Grace called Jacinta in despair and explained that the house had been flooded due to the heavy rains. Until that day the children had been sleeping on mattresses on the floor. Jacinta promised to take care of the problem. Soon she sent more money and beds were bought for the children. Later, Jacinta enrolled all the children in school and to pay for the school fees she organized a big party in Stockholm.
In the first building there was one room for the girls, one for the boys and one in between that was used as dining hall. Then a small house that was turned into a kitchen was built. Additional buildings for washrooms, toilets and food storage have been constructed during the years. In 2005 a girl’s dorm was established and in 2009 the boys could move into their own dorm. A new dining hall with a large kitchen and storage room was built in 2008, and in 2010 the administration building was finished which also constitute library and infirmary.
In 2011, after many contributions from private donors and several years of saving, the dream of an own well was finally realized. A 230 meter deep borehole now provides the children clean and safe water. The quality of life increased, but not only for Phyllis Memorial. The whole neighbourhood has benefited because the water is sold cheaply, so that even the poorest in the area can afford it. Nevertheless, it’s a source of income for Phyllis Memorial.
Electricity was offered to the whole area in 2011 by the local authorities. Before that there was no electricity at Phyllis Memorial. Small solar panels gave only little light and some ability to charge cell phones. Due to the high costs of pumping water up the borehole, the current dream is to be self sufficient on electricity, with a large solar panel installation.
Biogas was installed in 2017 and is driven by dung from the animals at Phyllis Memorial. This reduces the need for buying firewood as two of the large stoves in the kitchen are fueled by the biogas.
Sponsorship
A personal way to support Kampi Ya Moto’s Children!
You can become a sponsor for a child at Phyllis Memorial Children’s Home. The sponsorship is personal and you keep contact with and follow the child whom you are sponsoring through writing letters, via volunteers going to Phyllis Memorial and annual updates. You will receive a photo and information about the child, but also the latest news from the children’s home. In addition, you will have the chance to visit Phyllis Memorial and meet the children. The sponsorship is preferably a long-term commitment and the minimum time is one year.
The payment is 250 SEK per month for the younger children and 350 SEK for the ones who are in high school, college or university. You can also have a sponsorship for the whole children’s home, not only a specific child. The minimum payment is then 150 SEK per month. The total amount goes directly to Phyllis Memorial through Kampi Ya Moto’s Children, which is the organization responsible for the transaction. Even tough you are sponsoring one child, the money will benefit the whole organisation.
Are you interested in becoming a sponsor? Send an email to: fadder(at)kampiyamotosbarn.se.
When being a sponsor, you influence a child’s life and future. Help us creating a secure future filled with hope for these children.
Would you like to help?
There are many ways to help. Below we give some examples of what you can do to give the children at Phyllis Memorial a better life and a secure future.
- Donate money to Kampi Ya Moto’s Children’s Swedish postal giro account 90 01 18-1.
- Become a sponsor
- Do you have a company? Send money to the children’s home instead of giving Christmas presents to your customers and employees.
- Are you going to have a birthday party? Ask your guests to donate money instead of bringing presents.
- Buy fewer Christmas presents and give money to Phyllis Memorial as an alternative.
- Arrange parties and raise money.
- Tell family and friends about the children’s home and Kampi Ya Moto’s Children.
- Become a volunteer.
- Do you have other ideas? Please don’t hesitate to contact us!