Mogra Children’s Home provides children who were abandoned or orphaned in the slums of Nairobi an opportunity to be cared for, loved, educated by believers, and a brighter future. Believing God is the creator of all, they refuse no child.
When most Americans hear the word “slum” images of dilapidated buildings with old lighting, broken windows, and sub-standard plumbing enter the mind’s eye. For this reason, the term slum doesn’t quite describe the conditions from which many of these children come. To fully know this place with the population of Denver, Colorado living in a half-square mile requires all five senses - the sights of people living among trash, the sounds of happy children and desperate parents, the smells of waste and of food preparation, the taste of everything on the air, and the feel of the semi-soft ground due to drainage and non-existent plumbing along the shoulder-width pathways.
Providing hope amidst this landscape is Christ’s love shared and exhibited by “Momma Hannah” who is the founder of Mogra Children’s Home and Mogra Star School. Born into poverty herself, she is self educated and has a mind for business. This led her into successful business ventures from which she has used her income and business proceeds to start and support the home and school. “Education is the key to their future,” says Hannah. “We opened the school to help children in this city and noticedmany of the children were malnourished and were falling asleep during class. We discovered that they were homeless or had horrible, unsafe living conditions which makes learning impossible. They needed a safe place to live which prompted us to open the Children’t home”
The shared name, Mogra, is a combination of Momma Hannah’s two children, Moses and Grace. The home is a haven to over 330 children which increases weekly due to the need and the time it takes to raise a child. The school provides an education from 3 years old through high school and assists the students with exam preparation. “It is difficult and costly because the government changes curriculum every year or so and we try to keep up,” explains Hannah. This leads to outdated, incomplete, or severely damaged books which are checked out and returned each day of class to prevent further damage or loss.
One of the largest continuous expenditures is acquiring clean water. Nairobi does provide water service which is several hundred dollars a month but comes only intermittently to their area. Their two alternatives for the 10,000 liters a day need for drinking, cooking, and cleaning are purchasing 10,000 liters a day for $350 per day (which is extremely cost-prohibitive) or carrying hoses and a water pump down to the local river which is time consuming and supplies unclean water.
To help the students and children the most, TBM Water Ministry provided the funding for an on-site water well at the cost of $28,000. “This well is far costlier than most of our projects,” explains DeeDee Wint, VP of TBM Water. “To best serve these children, the well had to be on-site with holding tanks and new pipes. It had to supply a lot of clean water every day for years to come. So, we have to drill deeper, provide more equipment and acquire the appropriate permits to construct a usable well.”
To help TBM continue to reach communities in need of clean water and hygiene, continue praying for, and donating to the water ministry at tbmtx.org/givenow. Your prayers, encouragement, and financial support reach people around the world in times of need, while sharing the love of Christ in the most practical way.