Our First Sponsor

Latest Newsletter....

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 09:27:11 +0000

Stories from Africa....of hope...
One of the primary aims of Open Arms International is to provide loving families, safety, security, an education and all essential needs to vulnerable and orphaned children.

Naomi
Over the past month the Village has welcomed a further six children: Collins (8), Naomi (8), Dixon (11), Arnold (9), Eunice (8) and Diana (4). Five of them are now receiving the attentive care of Josphat and Lois, houseparents of Home No 5 (which has now been officially named 'New Hope' Home).

Diana was so severely under-nourished when she arrived at the Village that she will be cared for individually until she is well enough to join the growing New Hope family.

All the children are settling well into their new home, school and enjoying getting to know the large Open Arms family. We look forward to reporting on their progress later in the year.

To enable Open Arms International to continue to offer homes for vulnerable, abandoned and orphaned children we run a child sponsorship programme. All our children are supported by sponsor parents, with our Partner-Parent Sponsorship starting at only £29.00 per month.

If you would like further information on all our forms of sponsorship please contact Susanna for further details: susanna@openarms.org.uk

....and despair
In early March, the Open Arms team accepted two abandoned baby boys, Ian and Obadia (both approx. 3 months), both of whom were malnourished, underweight and extremely ill.

The babies received the utmost care and love whilst at the Village, and at the local hospital in Eldoret under the supervision of Co-Founder, Rachel Gallagher.

Rachel writes: 'It has been 10 years since I traded bedside nursing for tropical nursing in Africa. Children have died, yes, but not under my watch. That is, until last Sunday. On the morning of March 4th at 9 am when our latest addition to the Open Arms family, Obadia Kimtai, died. He was only 3½ months old and weighed less than 5 pounds. His mother died during labour and his young father managed as best as he could for the first 3½ months of Obadia's life. We literally had him at the village for less than an hour.
At the very same time, Ian who had just arrived days before from the hospital, and was virtually the same age and weight - was also struggling for his life. We had 3½ days with this precious baby before we had to rush him back to the hospital with breathing difficulties. He died Monday night, March 5th at 7:50 pm'.

We, at Open Arms, are more resolute than ever before to champion the cause of the orphaned, abandoned and suffering children of Kenya. The hospital in Eldoret does not have all of the equipment necessary to treat cases like Obadia's. We are currently working on plans to help secure access to essential life-saving medical equipment for future similar cases.

The staff and children of Open Arms Village are grieving for and celebrating the brief lives of two precious children. Sadly, however, the story of Ian and Obadia is all too frequently mirrored around Africa. Open Arms International longs to change this, and are deeply grateful to our supporters for continuing to enable our efforts to save and transform lives.

A New Year in Eldoret

Fri, 3 Feb 2012 09:30:31 +0000

New Year Celebrations
The start to 2012 has been full of reasons to celebrate:

Home No 5 is complete and has been appointed house parents; Josphat and Lois. Josphat is a trained pastor and has farming experience, while Lois is a qualified early-years teacher. Their combined skills and experience will greatly benefit both the Village and the school. They have three boys of their own, and quickly welcomed our most recent new arrival, Brian (aged 8), along with two of the 'graduates' (see below) from our baby home. New children will gradually be added to this new home, allowing time for the new family to settle.
Although the final touches are still being made to Home No 6, it was decided that both homes should be dedicated together, so that Simon Berry, Managing Director of the English Lakes Hotels and his family, who were visiting the Village could take part in the celebrations. Simon paid tribute to all the members of staff of English Lakes Hotels, who through a series of events helped to raise funds for the home. He named the home Neema, which means Grace. Our grateful thanks go to the staff of English Lakes and the Berry family for their incredible support.

News on Shaddy and Leonida

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 12:57:56 +0100

Dear Philip

Please find attached brief reports from our staff team in Kenya on the progress of Michael and Leondia, it would seem that there are no plans as yet to move Michael to the Village, but please be assured that his general wellbeing and development is being monitored.

I would hope to send some photographs soon once our Summer Teams have finished and our Kenyan staff are able to spend a little more time in the office!

Thank you so much for you continued generous support.

Kind Regards
Susanna

SHADDY MICHAEL
Shaddy is now 5 years old and is a pupil at Tiny Tots Nusery School. Sarah our social worker visited him on 8th June 2011 and found that he was doing well both in school and at home. His performance in school is great; Shaddy was ranked position 8 out of 22 other kids in his class, the teachers say that he has the capability of doing better than that. He now speaks Kiswahili fluently and can speak a few English words.
His health has improved despite having on and off running nose and colds. He loves playing with toys and making friends. He is always neat and smart in school and smiles a lot, he is a happy child.

LEONIDA LUDENYI
Leonida lives in Tumaini home in OAI Village with 16 other children. She is 10 years and in class two at Open Arms Academy. She now takes a short walk to school unlike when she was in Kambi Teso where she had to walk about 2KM to school. That has made her to enjoy staying at her new home.
She did an end of month exam and she was ranked position 4 out of 7 pupils in her class. Her favorite subject is English and she loves reading. When she grows up she would like to be a nurse. She has interest in music and dance and participates in the OAI entertainment team.
During her free time after school Leonida assist in cleaning shoes for Mary and Beaty and sometimes she helps tidy the small girl’s room. She is a very responsible young girl.

Susanna Bedford
Donor Development Manager (Southern Region)
Open Arms International UK

Embracing a broken generation with open arms

UK + 44 1256 320 193
Skype Susanna J Bedford
Charity no. 1095664

www.openarms.org.uk

June’s here - Time to Tithe again!!

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 16:40:25 +0100

For a strange historical reason my “year end” comes in May. POSH Guitars this year has manager to send £800 for the direct support of two AIDS orphans (Michael and Leonida), plus £1160 to the general work of Open Arms International.
In addition to this, this year a total of of £550 has been given away to support Christian Worship.

Thanks to all those of you who have bought items off me, you are all a part of this support. Below is my informal receipt for the funds...
Philip

“Whoo hoo!” Philip, that is truly wonderful.
Thank you so very much for your encouragement and support.

Blessings and love,

Rachel Gallagher
Founder/President
Open Arms International
www.openarmsinternational.com

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to
what lies within us.”

Leonida in her new home.

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 15:50:24 +0000

Hi Philip and Julie!

I just wanted you to hear from me personally that we finally brought Leonida to Open Arms Village today. It took awhile getting through all the ‘red tape’, but it is done! David and I just had dinner with her in her new house, Tumaini (Hope) which was built by the Lancaster Foundation;-) She is getting settled and seems happy already. Rachael who we took in 2 years ago from the same area, is thrilled as she and Leonida were good friends and now they share a home together!

We will get Leonida in our school Monday and do some testing to see what class she places in. Typically kids have to go down a class or two because the public schools are so poor, we find them behind in our school. So we shall see next week, but meanwhile we are all grateful that she is now with us.

Blessings to you both! And of course the darlings…..

Rachel Gallagher
Founder/President
Open Arms International
www.openarmsinternational.com

Shaddy News!

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 20:21:23 +0000

Hi Philip and Julie!

I am really sorry that it has taken this long to get back to you, but we do close our office for 3 weeks around Christmas because everything stops in Kenya the month of December. Then, right before all of that, I had to fire our child sponsorship coordinator who normally follows up on the kids, does reports, etc. So, I have been doing ‘double duty’ and playing catch up from what she did not do! I really apologize that you have not had any report since Helen was with us – that is unacceptable and we will do our best to ensure that you get updates! (That is why Susanna has been cc’d as she is our UK coordinator now).

Anyhow, I actually went myself with our new social worker to check up on Shaddy because I had not personally seen him in awhile. He looked great as you can see by the attached pictures. He is getting so big! I got to visit with his teacher Esther, at Tiny Tots School who said that he is doing well and seems very happy. This is his second year at Tiny Tots and he is thriving! We brought his family a chicken with this visit just to encourage them and allow them a special dinner – I heard it was nice;-)

I will update you on Leonida in the next email…

Blessings and love to you both! Thank you so much for all you do for us and with us

How much can you give.....?

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 22:17:36 +0000

Would you consider a year-end gift?

This past year has seen tremendous growth in our work at the Open Arms Village in Eldoret, Kenya. We have completed two new orphan homes and increased the number of children in our care by 60%. None of this would have been possible without your support. A year-end gift will allow us to continue to change lives amidst the poverty and hurting children of Kenya in 2011.

It is only through your generosity that we can bring our vision to 'see every stomach filled, every wound healed, every body safe, every mind educated, every emotion soothed, and every spirit transformed'. The full needs of a village child can be covered from as little as £29 per month.

Dedication....

Wed, 1 Dec 2010 22:16:18 +0000

Dedication of Open Arms Village

Open Arms Village Children on Dedication Day.
On Saturday 6th November, after months of preparation, the Open Arms Village welcomed more that 2,000 guests - more than double what was expected.

Both local and national local government ministers attended, including the Minister of Education, who fully endorsed the project, mentioning that the Open Arms Academy complies with all standards, and commending the school in general. The District Children's Officer gave a heartfelt speech, encouraging the community at large to also take up the plight of the children. As a result of the day, the chiefs and elders have received offers of support from many local businesses - one is already planning on doing something special for the children for Christmas.

The children looked happy, healthy and beautiful in their new outfits and shoes. They performed a selection of songs, alongside some of the children from the feeding programme.

The happy, exciting and exhausting day finally drew to a close, somewhat later than planned!

Get off the streets...

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 22:14:10 +0100

Returning home - how you are helping us get children off the streets

In the last month, with your help, we managed to put smiles on the faces of hundreds of street children through our feeding and outreach programmes. We were even able to locate the homes and families of six of these children, whom we repatriated by returning them to their families.

One child, twelve-year-old Brian, was living with his mother and his grandmother, until his mother

One of the street children is welcomed home by his family.
moved to a different city looking for work. This affected Brian badly, so he decided to run away from home. We found him on the streets of Eldoret. Once we discovered his family, we took him back home. His grandmother told us that she had been looking for him and was so happy that we brought him back home safely. She forgave Brian for running away and promised to take care of him.

So many of the children we meet on the streets have run away from homes and family members. We do our best to find out where they are from and, if the home life isn't dangerous for the child, return them to their families. However, each repatriation case costs money. Won't you please help us get more children, helpless and vulnerable children like Brian, off the streets?

Desperation

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 22:13:16 +0100

Tired of running - the story of a desperate street child

Last week, our Programme Manager in Kenya joined Morris, the Feeding Programme Coordinator, on his visit to "the barracks" - a place where street kids live in the midst of rubbish. They met with more than 60 street children, who are always happy and excited to see Morris because they know that he brings love and hope.

Many of the children had open wounds, and others had been hurt while running away from the police, who always chase them at night.

They found one child lying in a heap of rubbish, nursing wounds on both of his legs and a twisted, swollen wrist.

Here is his story:

Last night, I was chased by the police. That's how I hurt myself.

I was taking a nap on the veranda, in town, when the police came. They began chasing after me. I tried to run away, but I tripped and fell. I hurt both my legs and my left arm. My face hurts, too. I'm tired of having to run away.

They gave him antibiotics and pain relievers, and planned a day for a follow-up visit.

They met other children - young ones who are new to the streets, and are even more vulnerable than the older ones. These young ones were high on glue, and kept asking Morris when he was going to repatriate them, or take them to a home, and to school...and the list continued. They remained hopeful despite their circumstances.

We are so encouraged to see the number of children who have been helped through the Open Arms programmes in Eldoret. We desperately want to say yes to every child who asks us for help, but we cannot do it without your support.