When a safari company suggested that a struggling orphanage for children with HIV could be the focus of her next visit to Africa, Denise Dore couldnt get the idea out of her mind.
The Air Canada flight attendant, who had helped set up a tiny school in Kenya in 2008, contacted the social worker who started and runs the Toto Love Childrens Home, learned of its tremendous needs and decided to help.
Two other mothers and flight attendants quickly jumped on board and solicited donations from colleagues and friends. They travelled to Embu, Kenya within the year.
We were shell shocked, Dore wrote for the groups former website about what they found.
The living conditions were rustic, if not deplorable All 16 residents were crammed into three small bedrooms, some sleeping in old metal cribs without mattresses The two house mothers cooked on a tiny propane burner, had no refrigeration and the food pantry was bare.
They secured an acre in Embu for $20,000 to eventually build a larger facility to accommodate growing need. They still owe $9,800 on the land.
Richmond flight attendant Tracey Rathwell got involved last year.
When Dore lamented to Rathwell in February that a volunteer who had planned to travel to Kenya in March could no longer make it, Rathwell volunteered with five weeks left to fundraise and collect donations for the orphanage.
Sensing Rathwells enthusiasm, her Marpole friend Mary Ross donated a portion of her online food sales to Toto Love, raising $800 in five weeks.
That quick success coupled with her friends passion inspired Ross to create another online business last summer, FundraisingStars.ca, where organizations can sign up for free to raise money by receiving a percentage of food sales.
The flight attendants behind Wings Bring Hope make good use of their low-cost travel passes and extra baggage allowance. Rathwell and Dore brought eight huge hockey bags stuffed with clothing and other items to the 16 orphans, who range from newborns to teenagers, housed at Toto Love last March.
Instead of the listless children shed expected, Rathwell encountered kids who laugh, sing and support one another despite their grim conditions. She couldnt believe how ecstatic the orphans were when Wings Bring Hope replaced their broken-down fridge.
When we first brought it in, their eyes lit up like Christmas trees, they were so excited, she said.
Rathwell notes Dores teenaged niece also benefited from the two-week trip.
She just came out of this whole experience with just such a wonderful, fantastic attitude and this new lease on life, Rathwell said.
For these two kids, who neither need or want for nothing, it was just an extraordinary experience for them, as well, she added. To really understand firsthand what it is to be an orphan child in Africa living with HIV, you can talk about it, you might even see it on TV, but to actually physically go there and do something positive, I mean, honey, theres no feeling sorry for yourself after that. You know to count your blessings and then to pay that forward.
Dore may return at the end of January. Shes seeking the donation of a laptop for the head of the orphanage and soccer balls and pencils for the kids.
For more information, see wingsbringhope.com.
