The first time we met Vincent, we taught him how to brush his teeth with a toothbrush. We arrived in Bomet, Kenya during our second expedition with the intention of working with five families. Vincent’s was the fifth that we met on that trip. His mother, Mercy, was working in a field every day cutting vegetables. She made about $1 each day to feed her family.
We started Mercy’s family in our Business Box program, that included a cow, a goat, chickens, and gardens. Vincent was behind on school fees, so we fundraised for his education to get him back into school.
Mercy received all of the elements of the Business Box, and our Community Director, Anita, went to work training her on how to use milk from the cow and goat, and eggs from the chickens to feed their family as well as sell to make money. Our team visited Mercy’s family in November 2017. By then, she was learning to sew, and Vincent was starting his Senior year of high school.
By this time, as you can see, they were growing a garden. mercy had created a roadside stand to sell cut vegetables. She was working in the sewing center, and her friends reported that she had come out of a depression that she had been struggling with for a while.
One year later, when we were working in a rescue center for girls who have run from Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and early marriage, Mercy came to greet the girls. You could see a huge change in her, both countenance and physically. She had attended a training in Uganda with Days for Girls, and was working more in the sewing center in Bomet, helping make reusable feminine hygiene kits.
Vincent graduated from high school, and was also learning how to sew reusable feminine hygiene kits. Whenever our teams visited, he would be right there helping with any projects that we were doing in the community. When 100 Humanitarians International began a partnership with USANA Foundation to build Garden Tower Systems with families in Bomet, Vincent was our first choice to run the project.
He began working with families, and as of today, 30 families in Bomet have two garden towers, fencing, and a water storage tank. The families are eating the vegetables 5-8 meals a day average, and some families are able to sell vegetables to generate income.
With the money Vincent is paid to facilitate this project, he is building a house for himself. He’s learning how to track each family, document how many meals they are eating each week, and how much they are able to sell. From a family making $1/day four years ago, to a family able to pay their other children’s school fees, feed their family, make an income, and change a generation. We are so grateful for the stewardship they have shown, and the example they are setting to other families in the Bomet community about what is possible!
If you want to learn more about our expeditions, sign up here and get the information packet!
100 Humanitarians International is a community of entrepreneurs and individuals around the world collaborating to create opportunities, both locally and internationally, for education and personal development.
We are committed to sustainable projects that support communities and preserve the culture of indigenous tribes. The mission of 100 Humanitarians is “To mentor families globally through education and entrepreneurship in an effort to eliminate physical, mental, spiritual and emotional poverty, while preserving culture and tradition.”
100 Humanitarians International is recognized by the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Contributions to 100 Humanitarians International are Tax Deductible under IRS regulations. 501(c)(3). Tax Exempt DLN # 26053581001597, EIN #82-1048388
World Water Day is an annual event on March 22nd, and this year, our team was in Kenya to install a Water Storage System at a school in a community called Nkareta, where we have worked for the past year and a half. Typically, when we install a Water Storage System, we will use a 3000 liter tank, but for the school, we opted for a 10,000 liter tank. Thanks to our Water Fundraiser on Facebook, we were able to raise the funds for it in time. The impact this will have on the school will be incredible, as rainwater will be stored in the upcoming rainy season.
In June 2018, we built and planted large Garden SaCs at the school, to provide vegetables and nutrition for the teachers and students. They have been eating from them, and harvesting since then. Without water to water the gardens during the dry season, it has been a challenge to keep them going, but they have managed. The Water Storage System will give them the additional water they need. A huge thank you to everyone who contributed!
Since November 2017, we have installed four other Water Storage Systems, but they have all been at the homes of families that we are working with. We recently visited one of the families in Ntulele, and the tank has been wonderful for them, because when it rains, it provides water, and when it is dry, they can have water brought in and store it for longer for their family. Our goal is to continue providing water storage systems, hopefully 3-4 a year, for families.
We went to the Oiboos for the first time a year ago. Our hope was to plant a garden, but the land was dusty, dry, and hard. The family was happy and welcoming, but there was nothing we could do at the time.
Six months later we were ready to try again. We rolled up in our dark green jeeps past a cluster of dung huts, and parked under a tree casting sparse shade.
The whole family came out to meet us, smiles on their faces, and warmth in their hearts. The rains had come in our absence and the family had prepared the ground for our return.
Our June team immediately got to work. Our plan was to plant two garden boxes and surround them with a fence to keep animals out. 100 Humanitarians has sustainable development goals. We want the things we do to have long term, life-changing benefits.
We separated into two teams. Team fence, and team garden.
One of the challenges in Kenya is the lack of tools. We can’t just go to the hardware store to purchase post-hole diggers or shovels. That didn’t stop the team, and indeed, doesn’t stop our Kenyan friends either. We dug fence holes with machetes and our hands, tamping the earth down around the posts slowly and methodically.
The land they had prepared was on a slope, but held deep, rich, black soil. The garden team made tiers out of the area for the two garden boxes, moving dirt with their hands and placing it into large bags to move it.
We worked in the hot sun, sweat dripping down our foreheads and making streaks in the caked-on dirt. It was arduous and difficult, but it would turn out to be rewarding.
Pastor Ben, a long-time friend of 100 Humanitarians, encouraged us to pray before we left. We stood in a circle holding hands. A song was sung. A prayer was said. We left two garden boxes partitioned by perfect squares made with bright blue cords. The seeds slept safely beneath the soil. And our hopes stayed with the Oiboos.
Soon after the June team returned home, we began to receive word about the Oiboos. The garden was growing! Not only that, but it was doing well! However, pictures can only tell a part of the story.
Nothing could have prepared us for what we saw when we went at the beginning of November 2017.
This time, the plan was to expand their garden. Again, we drove through the cluster of dung huts and waved to the family. We parked under the same tree. Those who had been to the Oiboos before, immediately walked to the garden. We stopped with our mouths open. Not only had they kept the garden going, they had expanded it to three times the size we had left it. The dark soil was covered with green, healthy, life-giving plants. Tears came to our eyes. They were doing it! They had taken the gift they had been given, and multiplied it. They were living the principles that 100 Humanitarians stands for.
This time, after we planted two more boxes, the family offered to feed us a lunch of rice and goat meat. We had a chance to talk to them over the meal. Through language barriers and smiles we discovered that they are using funds raised from the extra produce to send children to school. Our hearts were full.
The Oiboos are now ready to help mentor their neighbors in gardening. This was our goal, and through hard work, and blessings, this is what is happening.
Thank you to everyone who has been able to donate. You are helping to lift, educate, and inspire people.
$5 Friday Fundraisers on Facebook began back in July 2015 when we decided to start 100 Humanitarians International. We were able to fundraise for 25 desks for Tenkes School, and later we added a new kitchen to cook for 300 kids daily, because their mud kitchen had fallen down in a rainstorm. After that, we would just sporadically run a $5 Friday Fundraiser, until Facebook created the capability for us to do it on their platform. Game-changer! Suddenly we could reach more people, and since we are a non-profit, 100% of the fees were waived, therefore 100% of donations could go towards a project. Brilliant!
Our first Facebook $5 Friday Fundraiser was in July of 2018. We decided we wanted to raise the money to build 100 Garden Towers in Kenya for Families on our expeditions. The goal was $1000. Thanks to generous donations, we were able to fundraise $1300, allowing us to start a vegetable seedling garden to use for the garden towers. We will begin with 20 families on our Fall expedition! We got the idea last June from Jacob, our community director for Nkareta, and were able to build 8 garden towers. four were at a school in Nkareta, and then we planted two garden towers for two families that we have worked with over the past year.
We have also built raised garden beds with families, but have found these to be easier, more portable, and more cost effective. We can pile up the jeeps with bags and take them to multiple locations easily! We are really grateful for the ability to get more done and help more families with this innovation.
Our August $5 Friday Fundraiser was also unbelievably successful, and we were able to finish our commitment to provide 1000 reusable feminine hygiene kits to women and girls in Kenya. They were distributed to three schools in Nairobi, Nkareta, and Bomet, as well as women in the slums who were in the Kenyan news about not having access to sanitary pads.
We were able to raise $3000 in August for the Zariel Days for Girls Enterprise and Christine took kits to the street women featured in this news segment. On each expedition, our team takes kits to schools and rescue centers, providing 3 years of dignity for women and girls who don’t have access to the sanitary pads. Our commitment is 1000 kits per year, and ALL of the kits are made by the Zariel or Bomet Days for Girls Enterprises in Kenya, so that we keep the economy there, and also help families with self-reliance and economic development.
The Enterprises that we support, employ families to sew and distribute the kits, which allows those families to pay for food and school fees for their children. Along with the 25 children we support in school directly in Kenya, at least 12 additional students are supported in school because we fundraise here for the reusable femining hygiene kits, and allow the families in Kenya to make them. It keeps our focus on economic development and self-reliance in families.
Our goal for 2019 will be 1000 kits (or more) as well, so watch for that $5 Friday Fundraiser!
Our September $5 Friday Fundraiser was in partnership with HopeSaC International, which is run by Cindy Miller. Our goal was to raise the funds to take 20 HopeSaCs to Kenya on our Fall expedition to teach families how to cook with thermal cooking. We were able to reach our goal! We will also be working with the sewing centers in Kenya to teach them how to make and sell the HopeSaCs, saving time and fuel costs, and providing hot meals without spending hours cooking over a fire.
And finally, our October/November $5 Friday Fundraiser is for School Fees for 25 kids in Kenya. These kids come from families we are working with, and range in age from Kindergarten to Vincent, who is graduating this year after 3 years in our Youth Education Program. We met Vincent when he was a Sophomore, and have had the chance to support him in school and watch his family really thrive from it. Mercy, his mother who is in this video, was a recipient of our Business Box for Families, and now has a vegetable stand where she sells vegetables. We have had the opportunity to visit her twice this year, and her smile says it all. She is very happy.
If you would like to help contribute to the $5 Friday Fundraiser to raise the $6000 needed for school fees in 2019, click here!
100 Humanitarians Turned 3 years old in July, after making it through the “Terrible Twos!” Not really, we had an amazing year with three full expeditions and a great deal of love and accomplishments. Some highlights:
Building 3 Water Storage Systems (3000 liter tanks) in three areas of Kenya that have provided rainwater for families in the areas
Donated 5 Water Filters from The Waterbearers organization to provide clean water to families
Built 20 garden boxes and 8 garden towers for families in Bomet and Nkareta, Kenya
Distributed 1000+ Days for Girls Kits sewn by women in the Zariel and Bomet sewing centers
Supported 25 students in school from Kindergarten to Senior year with three graduates and one happening at the end of the year
Donated 3 goats, 5 chickens, and a cow to families in Bomet and Ntulele
Supported our first post-high school student to go to Teacher’s College
Planted 3500 trees
Built the Tabby Training Center in Bomet to serve the community with mentoring classes in economic development
So much more than that happened, but how do you explain all of the emotions and feelings and experiences that happen on these expeditions? You don’t, so we invite you to come with us!
Our expeditions are being built out for 2019. There are four opportunities to travel with 100 Humanitarians to Kenya, but these trips are filling up quickly!
February 2019 with Scott and Becky Mackintosh – 2 spots available
June 2019 with Heidi Totten – Currently accepting deposits
October 2019 with Renae Southworth – Creating the Wait List
November 2019 with Heidi Totten – Creating the Wait List
If Kenya is calling, now is the time to let us know what your plans are to join us!
Serve Locally, Give Globally. In early April, Lori Hildebrand and I did an assembly at Rose Creek Elementary in Riverton, Utah, sharing with them our experiences in Kenya. Lori and her sons are joining 100 Humanitarians International for our June expedition to serve kids in Kenya, and wanted to do a fundraiser to help pay for school fees and trees that we are planting on our trip. Lori went to Kenya twice, in 2013 and 2014, and knew that when her sons, Max and Henry, were old enough, she would take them.
Lori approached her sons’ school, and asked if they would be willing to let us do an assembly, and then launch a Quarters for Kids in Kenya campaign for ten days. The school loved the idea, and set a goal to raise $1000, or 4 quarters per child.
The Rules:
Go out into the neighborhood/community and ask people if they have any opportunities to do service in exchange for quarters. Projects could include weeding, lawn mowing, dusting, anything!
Gather quarters and put them in your classroom “Quarters for Kenya Kids” box.
Each day, the teacher turns the boxes into the office to be put in a bigger jar for counting.
Do this for ten days, and then we count.
In ten days, Rose Creek Elementary kids were able to raise $1521.21! They beat their goal by $500. The best part? They want to make this an annual fundraiser and be a part of helping educate these kids in Kenya.
Where Do the Funds Go?
100 Humanitarians International is currently sponsoring 25 children in Kenya in school. Eleven are in Primary School, and this fundraiser will keep them all in school for the remainder of the year. $1000 will go towards those school fees. On our June expedition, we will be planting trees with children at schools as well, so the additional $500 will go towards purchasing trees for our team to plant, as part of a reforestation project that we are working on.
Would you like to host a “Serve Locally, Give Globally” fundraising campaign at your school? You can choose from a variety of projects:
Our first Facebook $5 Friday Fundraiser was in July of 2018. We decided we wanted to raise the money to build 100 Garden Towers in Kenya for Families on our expeditions. The goal was $1000. Thanks to generous donations, we were able to fundraise $1300, allowing us to start a vegetable seedling garden to use for the garden towers. We will begin with 20 families on our Fall expedition! We got the idea last June from Jacob, our community director for Nkareta, and were able to build 8 garden towers. four were at a school in Nkareta, and then we planted two garden towers for two families that we have worked with over the past year.
We were able to raise $3000 in August for the Zariel Days for Girls Enterprise and Christine took kits to the street women featured in this news segment. On each expedition, our team takes kits to schools and rescue centers, providing 3 years of dignity for women and girls who don’t have access to the sanitary pads. Our commitment is 1000 kits per year, and ALL of the kits are made by the Zariel or Bomet Days for Girls Enterprises in Kenya, so that we keep the economy there, and also help families with self-reliance and economic development.
