April 3, 2010 44 Comments

Help Girls in Kenya Get a Fresh Start and a New Home

My friends Rocky and Jeff are looking to create a new home for 34 orphaned girls outside of Nairobi, Kenya (see pictures of the girls here). Rocky is on the board of Mothers Fighting For Others (MFFO), who are head down trying to raise the funds and get their teams in place to take on this important challenge.

I’m asking you to drop $10 or $20 in the pot for this one.

Where The Money Will Go

According to this blog post, the money will go to the girls like this:

Startup Costs:

  • 6 months rent in advance: estimated $12,000 USD.

  • Furnishing the home – furniture, beds, sheets, towels, supplies: estimated 10,000 USD

Operation Costs for one year:

  • Food – roughly $1 per girl, per day: $12,000 USD per year.

  • Utilities: estimated $4000
  • Salaries for six: estimated $12,000 a year
  • Medical and counciling: $4,000
  • Personal items such as toilet paper, soap etc: estimated $2,000 a year
  • Security system for the home: estimated $1,200 a year

They go on to say:

In addition, we will be establishing a new volunteer program, setting up a high speed internet connection to the home and creating a mentoring program for the girls with other women/teenagers her in the US.

You can read the whole post about what they’re doing here.

But for you, I’m asking you to drop in $10 or $20 to get this going. Think about it this way: they need to raise a total of $50K. That means 5,000 of us could pitch in $10 and have it all done in no time at all. About 50,000 people subscribe to this blog daily, so I’m asking 1 in 10 of you to donate $10. This should be handled in a few hours, right?

Or it will be if you give *AND* share the post. And remember, all ChipIn widgets are copy-able. You can put it on your site, in your post, and the money will still go to the cause and everyone will still be successful.

You ready?

Want to see another way that people are pitching in? Look at 50Kfor50K. This will all support the same project, so if you’d rather pay $20 to shut Maya up, be my guest. : )

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  • http://PhoenixRealEstateGuy.com Jay Thompson

    Chris Brogan rocks my world. MFFO is an amazing group run by amazing people for a wonderful cause. Thanks Chris!

  • jackie

    no thanks!

  • Rena Kosiek

    This is great that you are supporting this. Thank-you for all of the input.

  • Rena Kosiek

    This is great material. I am a WordPress user, but I am not an expert on how to use all of the functions. This was very beneficial to me. Thank-you for taking the time to post this.

  • http://kikuyumoja.com/ jke

    Why Nairobi? Why not for a project in the US? Or Europe?

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    In this case, the orphans are there in Kenya. I guess we could get them plane tickets to some other place that's more suitable.

    I do charities all over the world, but definitely not just limited to US/Europe. What do you have against Africa?

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    No worries, but why bother commenting that you don't want to take part in a charity?

  • http://www.superdumbsupervillain.com/ superdumb

    Donating in the hopes that someone, somewhere would do the same for my kids.

  • http://kikuyumoja.com/ jke

    Who says I am having something against Africa?

    I am also hosting a website about an orphanage in Kenya, run by friends who are doing this just because no one else would do it.

    The remaining question though I am having is why shd we send our money to an African country (that happens to be the richest in all of Africa, i.e. Kenyans abroad having money) if we can't even help the poor around us?

    Rather, I would like to ask investors to come to Kenya and invest, create employment etc.

    Else, kudos to your initiative and good luck!

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    I guess I'm not so much questioning the macro but addressing a direct situation that was listed in the blog post. It's a good question about investing, but for right now, these 34 girls have no place to sleep.

    That's like telling a homeless person you're going to mail money to Iowa to get more grain distributed throughout the US, instead of buying a meal.

    Always address the local immediate need, and then work on the overlaying issues.

    But thanks for your perspective, and congrats about hosting a site about this.

  • http://twitter.com/mickmel mickmel

    Typo, it seems. Shouldn't:
    “Food – roughly $1 per girl, per day: $12,000 USD per month”

    Actually be “…per year”?

  • http://twitter.com/uskovic Danielle Uskovic

    Great post Chris. This is really inspirational work. I only wish there were more people as passionate to help those in need and less fortunate than us. Here we are living a life full of luxury, access to the best medical services, clean water, abundance of food and are able to post comments on blogs via a PC that costs more than any of these individuals would be able to earn in a lifetime. Well done Chris on raising awareness, you are an awesome individual using your community to help others.

  • http://twitter.com/uskovic Danielle Uskovic

    I agree with you

  • KCochran

    Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Chris! I've been looking at different organizations that specifically help better the lives of girls and this was a lovely – and deserving – fit.

  • http://TribalSeduction.com CoachDeb

    With all the requests from various charities all over the place — THIS is one I fully, 100% support – in every way I can. Why?

    1) Because I personally know the founders of this project, and they've dedicated an amazing amount of time, energy, $$$ dollars of their own to help these girls.

    2) It's a CRITICAL, time-sensitive NEED for them to raise a Very small amount of necessary funds to get this going, to put these girls in a safe enviornment to get the education, love and support they need to live active, healthy lives & change the face of Africa – one girl at a time…

    3) The funds are well calculated. I've seen so many other charities ask for far more $$$, only for the majority of it to go to admin costs. That's not what MFFO's is doing. They've already got the admin cash to run the program, they just need this influx of cash to get this started, and they already have the proof from managing their other programs that it'll keep going.

    4) I could go on and on but the top 3 reasons spell it out.

    Anyone “debating” about giving to this cause is simply doing it b/c they don't know Jeff & his wife and how much they've sacrificed from their own family to help these girls.

  • http://twitter.com/mayaREguru Maya P.

    Thank you for your generous support of MFFO Chris, Rocky and Jeff are amazing people, and so are the girls. I have worked with them before in doing small fundraising projects, and when I spoke to Rocky a few weeks ago and the need for this money was apparent I thought it would be something everyone would want to do. I guess I was a tad to optimistic, but with your support, I think they will get there.

    And thanks for this as well:
    “so if you’d rather pay $20 to shut Maya up, be my guest. : )”
    I welcome that, they just have to use the correct Chipin Widget, or I may just survive. Here's to tweet number 49,841, and if 49,999 is my last, I will dedicate it to you and MFFO. Thanks Chris. Keep up the great work! You do make the world a better place by teaching us all something, often.

  • http://www.tinainvirginia.com tinainvirginia

    MFFO is a wonderful organization and the passion Rocky Turner has for this cause is evident to all who meet her. As for those who question why the funds couldn't be better spent in the US…spend just 1 week in a 3rd world country among the poor and you will understand. Even the poor in this country have opportunity…the girls MFFO is fighting for have nothing….but hope for such an opportunity.

  • http://kikuyumoja.com/ jke

    I grew up in Kenya and there's no doubt the girls will benefit from urgently needed donations. That's why I am also supporting thenesthome.com, another org with a very similar approach. If we don't help these people, no one else will.

    The rhetorical question I asked above was why we need to go to Africa in the first place if there also is misery in our western world that we could/should equally take care of.

    I would really like to see some Kenyans in the US who will stand up and donate 50% to this good cause. That would be a good step forward. Else, any intiative with an impact is highly appreciated.

  • http://www.candicerjohnson.com/ candice johnson

    I think you men should think of your daughters. If they did not have the chance to have you as their father or the chance to be born in this country what opportunities would they have. Who cares if its here or in Africa. Hopefully none of you care if its a girl or a boy, a white or a black. It is a human that needs some good luck. IMO giving $10 to perhaps give someone a chance does not even deserve a second thought. This is the kind of Loto I play. Please do the same.

  • Paul Abrahams

    Happy to help… $20 sent

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  • http://www.terrancecharles.com/blog Terrance Charles

    That is what I'm talking about Chris, I'll help spread the message, it's always good to help others in need…

  • http://www.daniellegauthier.com/ Danielle Gauthier

    This is a great cause – I had a particular interest in African cultures in my anthro studies and though I have still to visit this country, I am well aware of the history and current socio-political climate. For a young girl alone, there is no future – now they are no longer alone and they will have a fresh start. I wish these girl the best and hope they achieve what dreams they might have for their future. Further, I hope that with this new beginning, they might start to have even bigger ones for themselves.

    Thanks for posting about this. :)

  • jeffgibbard

    I've been thinking a lot about how much you do to include an element of charity and philanthropy. I think it's fantastic. How do you go about finding these causes? I was thinking about finding the causes I'm most interested in using Google but I didn't know if you had some other way to go about finding these causes.

  • jeffgibbard

    I've been thinking a lot about how much you do to include an element of charity and philanthropy in your blog. I think it's fantastic and I'm going to make more an effort to include causes I feel strongly about in my blog.. How do you go about finding these causes? I was thinking about finding the causes I'm most interested in using Google but I didn't know if you had some other way to go about finding these causes.

  • tlmaurer

    Great cause, Chris. Happy to make a donation to give these beautiful young women a safe place to live.

  • rahul sharma

    i m trust n i need help from ur company for our big project this project is nonly for poor people who not have house, education, food and oldage house so i need help from your organization so i hope may your organization help us

  • annawoods04

    I always respect people who are involved in such nice deeds. I am really glad to know about those orphaned girls and the help they are getting. They are the girls who are actually in need and helping them will make us feel proud of ourselves and we ourselves will feel good from our inner self.

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  • stephenoffwire

    You know kenya is big,and if we talk of girls who are orphanes,we are talking about hundreds and hundres of them,because people die everyday,so how will this project succeed?.It's nice i support it

  • jeffgibbard

    Sorry for the double comment post…computer issues.

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  • http://stevegarfield.com stevegarfield

    $20. Easy. Done.

    Unlike a local fundraising effort that had no webpage, tracking, ability to share, or contribute online.

    The flyer I got at my door told me to mail in a check.

    That's a barrier.

    They had no way of telling me where they were in reaching their goal.

    The flyer said to call on the phone or email.

    I sent in an email to suggest these things…

  • http://twitter.com/wisequeen Donna Jackson /wiseq

    Hoping my followers follow suit, thanks Chris and hope your Easter was great. This is what we are up to in Europe http://wisequeens.squarespace.com/blog/2010/4/6…

  • http://twitter.com/JoeDuck Joe Hunkins

    jke in my opinion it's always good to consider the ROI of charities, but in this case and generally with overseas charities your money does a LOT. Here in USA we have a lot of programs that do not exist elsewhere. There are plenty of poverty problems in US, but it's not as easy to solve them as in countries where dollars will literally save a life or create a new life for people. Raising living standards reduces other problems (e.g. health goes up, birth rates go down, populations stabilize, etc). This is especially true with charities that help women and girls as this has been shown to stabilize families.

  • marynjoki

    this is a message from the director of St. Monica Children's home in Kenya, Mary Njoki. We would like to let all those reading this blog know that the 34 girls mentioned are in a home and not on the streets. They have a home to live and food to eat. If Rocky and Jef want to start a new home they should not target girls who are already in a home and being taken care of. There are many girls on the streets of Kenya and need help that Rocky would give. Why only those already in a home?

  • http://jonahsmissions.blogspot.com/.com jonah

    u are most welcome to kenya, when u are here i can donate too some non-perishable foods, thanks for the intitiative

  • microsdcard

    I heard about Mothers Fighting For Others, It helps orphan girls become powerful women. This can be done by giving them a loving and nurturing environment and a quality education, so they can learn, thrive and achieve their highest potential.

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  • http://www.yuregininsesi.com yuregininsesi

    this is a message from the director of St. Monica Children's home in Kenya, Mary Njoki. We would like to let all those reading this blog know that the 34 girls mentioned are in a home and not on the streets. They have a home to live and food to eat. If Rocky and Jef want to start a new home they should not target girls who are already in a home and being taken care of. There are many girls on the streets of Kenya and need help that Rocky would give.

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