Kenyan orphanage director Patrick Mungai spoke to members of the Columbus Rotary Club on Tuesday and told them about his work with the homeless children of Africa.
Mungai runs The Limuru Children’s Centre in Kenya. The orphanage, which is 10 years old, is home to nearly 50 children. Several members of Rotary have traveled with local charity Global Connections to the LCC to help Mungai and his mission.
Mungai told the Rotarians at Lion Hills Golf Club that in addition to housing the children, they feed and provide medical care to nearly 400 area children. The LCC also focuses on educating the children. Without the care of Mungai and volunteers, the children would roam the streets and young girls would undoubtedly be forced into marriage or prostitution. Many children have AIDS or are HIV positive, Mungai said.
The orphanage also hosts a baby center for infants and toddlers who have been abandoned. Mungai felt he was called by God to run the orphanage. A former businessman, the married father of three gave up his chosen profession to help Kenyan children.
“I’m just a big fellow in a simple hut,” he said. “It’s very difficult for our children. I’m not rich. I have trouble taking care of my own but we have a lot of children in poverty and it’s very unfortunate. They are so innocent. They laugh, they smile when they haven’t had food for three days, they’ll still smile at you because they think that’s life.
Without the help of Global Connections, Mungai said the work of the mission would be severely diminished.
“It would be really horrible,” Mungai said. “We have a lot of street children. Unfortunately they would be running in the streets, they would be abused by circumstances in the village, with lack of education, lack of means to work, lack of employment means they just roam the streets.”
For more information visit globalconnectionsonline.us
Sarah Fowler covered crime, education and community related events for The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.