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I am heading back to Kenya May 8 to 25, 2009, returning to visit the same ministries I worked with during the Summer of 2007, Rehema Preparatory School and In-step Children's Home. I am SO excited to have the opportunity to go back - it's hard to believe it has been two years already and in that time, the student numbers and the number of chidren at the home have BOTH doubled!

Rehema Preparatory school was founded by Alfred Mbako as a place for the marginalized children of his community - those in poverty, with HIV/AIDS or orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Many of these children would not have a chance at primary schooling otherwise. Rehema School is very much a grass roots project, in need of much support.

In-step Children's Home was founded by Jeff and Carla Piccici and they provide a safe, loving home for children abandoned in and around the Kitale area - these children are found abandoned outside hospitals, in maize fields, left with neighbors or discovered in dumpsters by police, often suffering from malnutrition, TB, malaria, or any combination of diseases. They are taken in and given a new chance at life in a home full of grace and mercy.

I will be dividing up my time between the two projects, spending one week at each site - I will be helping with the daily ins and outs at the children's home and hopefully teaching a nursery class for a group of the children there. At Rehema, I will be visting families of my former students, bringing classroom supplies and preparing creative lesson plans for Pre-K to 4th Graders.

Now that I am working full-time, I have the means to fund my own trip and will not be fund-raising for my travel costs, but I did want to take this opportunity to raise much-needed donations (both monetary and in the form of school supplies) for Rehema School.

All donations given through the Paypal donation link will be matched with THREE dollars from the company I work for. (A gift of $25 becomes $100 total!) If you are interested in donating directly to the projects in Kenya, or in donating school supplies, feel free to contact me for more information: kenya (at) stephshieh (dot) com