My name is Bonie and I live at the Kithoka Amani Children’s Home (KACH). I have been here since I was a young child of 7 years. I am 18 years old now and in high school. When we first came to KACH, we were only 10 children. Today we are 73 in number. The house that we lived (and still live) in is beautiful and was big those days. Today, it is small because we are so many.

In our dormitory at KACH we have five bunk-beds, meaning we are 10 in that room.  We have two full rooms at KACH for boys. That only takes 20 boys. We are 32 boys altogether. Some of us share a bed. There is so space to keep clothes or books. Study space is also limited. This is why we decided to use this year that the coronavirus forced us out of school, to build our dormitory so that Mom does not need to pay for labour. 

Because of the coronavirus, we asked Mom to take us (boys) to the site where the boy’s dormitory is supposed to be built. This helped de-congest KACH. The move also gave us an opportunity to learn new skills like fencing, ploughing our land and growing our own food. We also started keeping chicken, rabbits, goats and a few cows. All these projects are managed by us.

Since this is a new site, we live in iron-sheet houses. We are crowded in the iron-sheet rooms, but at least we are building a better house for us. Mom got some money from friends and we started to build. Now we need more money to complete the house and furnish it.

Working with only two professional builders, we have learned many things. I can now lay stones in a straight line to build an upright wall. I can build concrete pillars and take various actions to ensure the building is strong. I can mix concrete. I have learned to work in a team. We have bonded with my brothers and sisters as we support each other in our studies and struggles in life, as we grow and navigate teen age. 

This year has been an amazing year – between the terror of COVID-19 and the joy of working as a team to build our dormitory – I can say that I have learnt so much and now know myself much, much better. I look forward to the rest of my life as a confident, hardworking, determined and disciplined young person. And that is the gift 2020 has given me! 

Please support my Mom to help us complete the boy’s dormitory. It will give us more space for boys to live in. We will have more space in the rooms where we sleep as well as a spacious study area. We love to make our own meals – so, we will have a spacious kitchen to cook our meals. We will furnish the house with comfortable study tables, chairs, and beds and mattresses so that at night we can comfortable study and sleep well. We will have a study room where we can all meet in the evenings to do our studies and homework together.  We like to help each other with difficult subjects.

We are very excited to invite you to join us to make our dream come true. Thank you very much and God bless you as you consider supporting Kithoka Amani Children’s Home.

To learn more about International Peace Initiatives (IPI) and the Kithoka Amani Children’s Home (KACH), please visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ipeacei  and our website at www.ipeacei.org.