Christmas came early for HUFA

Hands Up For Africa (HUFA) received an unimaginable Christmas gift this year, one that will make a difference to generations of Kenyans in Ongata-Rongai. Australia’s Planet Wheeler Foundation responded to HUFA’s funding pitch with a $21,000 grant to help us drill a bore-hole well at the site of a the new orphanage.

With the overwhelming amount of money raised last September at a memorial event for Avchen, HUFA was about half-way toward its immediate goal of funding the well – an essential piece of making Christ Cares Children’s Centre in rural Kenya a sustainable place around which a community can grow.

Planet Wheeler Foundation is a non-profit organization started by Lonely-Planet founders Tony and Maureen Wheeler. It supports practical and effective projects around the world which aim to alleviate poverty. Korina Miller, an old acquaintance of Avchen’s who now works for Lonely Planet in London,  brought the opportunity to us and graciously sponsored our grant application. With the incredible organization and tireless attention to detail of Mama Mercy in Kenya, we put together a pitch for the entire cost of the well – $28,000. Planet Wheeler came through with a remarkably generous donation for such a new organization – a testament to the authenticity of Mama Mercy’s vision and work.

HUFA will cover the remaining cost and still have enough to continue to sponsor our two girls from Rescue Dada Centre in Nairobi – Agnes and Juliana – as well as help keep Mama Mercy’s daily lunch program running in Rongai.

We’d like to say an enormous thank you to the Planet Wheeler Foundation for making this well possible and for honouring Avchen’s memory in such a wonderful way. Where there is water, there is life.