Who Are We
1998: Humble, grassroot beginnings
In 1998, Peter Midodo and his wife Rachel lived in the slums of Awendo, Kenya. Everyday, they saw young children in the street around their house, not going to school. One day, they invited some of them in for a cup of porridge, and Rachel started teaching them how to read and write. The next day, the same children came back, with friends, and the next day, even more friends. Within six months, they had around 100 children coming every day.
2003: Peter visits the Adirondacks
In 2001, Peter came to the United States to study. In 2003, Peter met Derek Bevan, of Corinth, NY. He told him his story, shared his vision of helping children in need at the Joy Baby Complex. In May 2003, Peter told his story to some new friends, who would one day become Hope for Kenya, and requested help to buy some land to expand. They received $4,000. This sum combined with Peter & Rachel’s savings and other donations purchased the land on which he would eventually build the Joy Schools International in Ndhiwa. The Joy Schools International grew to serve 150 children from preschool to third grade.
2006: Hope for Kenya is created
In 2006, Peter visited the Adirondacks again and showed the progress allowed by donations. Impressed with all the work, a team of volunteers who shared Peter's vision was formed and Hope for Kenya was born. Hope for Kenya, a US non-profit organization under Church of the Nations, is dedicated to bringing hope to the children in the Ndhiwa community through education and community resources. Over the following years, Hope for Kenya has raised money to support the construction of many classrooms, water towers, and the drilling of wells for multiple communities adjacent to our schools.
2009: First visit to Kenya
A group of volunteers visited the schools for the first time in 2009. Philip Coltart, our current Director in the U.S, was among these first volunteers and a brotherhood was formed between him and Peter, our Director in Kenya. This first team of volunteers came to work on projects such as building desks, a dormitory, and a water well at the Joy School. As more volunteers showed interest in our mission, trips increased in frequency. The focus of trips for volunteers to build relationships with our students and staff, get a taste of Kenya, and participate in the projeccts and initiatives to which they may have donated. These visits have become cornerstones of the work we do at Hope for Kenya. We take these trips every Febuary and October and we invite you to join our team!
2014: The sponsorship program
By 2013, the Joy Schools International had expanded to approximately 300, more than half of which were boarding students. Up until then, Hope for Kenya was primarily raising money to fund construction & renovation projects. In 2014, Hope for Kenya decided it was time to focus on individual students even more directly and created a sponsorship program. During each visit since, interviews were conducted and children's stories were recorded for sponsorship recruitement. We continue to record these stories and share them on our website. Sponsors can choose a child and start a personal connection with a student. As students began to graduat from our primary schools, Hope for Kenya needed to find high schools that would allow and appreciate the sponsor-student relationship. Once identified, Hope for Kenya built partnerships with two high schools. Now sponsors can continue to support and follow their student through high school.
2019: First graduates!
As of January 2019, over 350 sponsored students attend primary, high schools, and some went on to college. We not only saw our first high school graduates, but we celebrated a few first college graduates as well! These students are not only changing their own lives, but the lives of their communities and have brought hope to others like them through your help and their persistence.
2024: College Program
As Hope for Kenya continued to grow, our team expanded and so did our student body. More and more students were requesting to continue on to college or trade school. In response, our team hired a new member, Marcos Obengo, who is also an alumni of our program. When student graduate from 12th grade, Marcos meets with each student to discuss their goals, what financial resources are available to them through loans and grants, and he helps them apply to schools of their choice. We also developed a new college scholarship program where sponsors are given the option for their $40 a month to be transferred to a scholarship fund for their student's college/trade school tuition or they can choose to cover the full remaining expense of college if in their means to do so. If the sponnsored child does not choose to continue their education, their sponsor is notified to pick a new child in waiting. We are so excited for this new chapter of education that will be available to our students!
The Future...
We believe that continuing to serve those most in need is essential for impactful and lasting change. Many of our students are without families and their peers and teachers at Joy School become like family when we take them in. For this reason, it is our dream to expand Joy School into both an elementary and high school. We have 9th grade completed and 10th grade nearly complete. We just need to more classrooms to make it complete! Help us get their by finding out how you can help us fundraise or make a donation.
