A charity with strong local roots hopes to end the year with even more help for the African boys it supports.
“One of our supporters has put up $10,000 as a matching grant to encourage other supporters to donate before year end to Life4Kids,” says Fred Hacker, who serves as the organization’s chair and president.
The mission of Life4Kids is to provide a loving home for underprivileged homeless and abandoned boys in Nairobi, Kenya.
“Life4Kids rescues these boys from the streets and slums of Nairobi and raises the boys in a family environment, in which they are given dignity, respect, love, acceptance, encouragement, security and opportunity,” Hacker adds.
This fall, 11 local residents visited the home in Kenya and reported back on the exceptional care and love that these boys are receiving in the impoverished Afrianca country, Hacker notes.
“Life4Kids Canada contributes more than 75% of the cost of maintaining the home and educating the boys,” he says, noting the registered charity features a majority of its donations coming from residents of the Midland and Penetanguishene area.
During their visit in November, the local group worked hard to improve the facility by setting up a computer lab, library and vegetable garden.
There are currently about two dozen boys living in the home located near the capital Nairobi, but Hacker says they’re hoping to soon fill the home to its 40-person capacity. To that end, the home recently welcomed two new boys, who were identified when the local group visited a slum while in Nairobi.
Adds Hacker: “The staff commented about the love and acceptance extended by the bigger boys to the new boys. It’s a family!”
According to Hacker, one of the distinguishing features of this charity is that the organization has virtually no overhead (only accounting fees, insurance, and banking fees).
“More than 90% of all funds received go to the support of the boys and the home,” he says. “The home employs a dozen Kenyan residents in an economy where employment is hard to find.”
Hacker says the charity is “most optimistic” that donations can be received to match the $10,000 pledge, thereby generating $20,000 to assist in the equipping and operating of the home in Kenya.
Donations may be made on the organization’s website.
