Communities Given the Chance to Fly

A group of women opened a clinic in Kenya this year. The clinic belongs solely to those women, and the clinic serves approximately 20,000 Kenyans entirely under their direction.

After one of the women died of cholera, funeral services were provided for the family by an organization called Give Us Wings, which had worked with the women for a number of years to get the clinic off the ground. After speaking with the widower, the organization helped with funeral costs and paid for the coffin. If the family had paid for the coffin themselves, it would have depleted nearly all of their resources.

Because her mother was deceased, the daughter of the family would now have to spend hours each day collecting water, causing her grades in school to fall. Without education, she could not hope for a better future. Give Us Wings hired help for the family so that the children could stay in school and focus on their studies, relieving them of the burden of domestic duties.

Documenting Voluntourism (Part I of II)

The Positive Footprints initiative was created by World Nomads, a travel insurance company. World Nomad’s website explains, “We believe there is a moral obligation to give a little back to the communities in which we travel. The Footprints Network was founded as an online philanthropy project to do just that.” The Footprints Network raises money for community development projects which Positive Footprints documents.

In this episode, documentary producer Trent O'Donnell was sent to Kenya to capture the essence of a World Expeditions voluntourism trip. He headed into the heart of the country with 16 other travelers who built desks, refurbished classrooms and assisted in installing a new water tank.

This is a story of traveling with a purpose and the effect it has on all people involved.

Positive Footprints - Kenya from WorldNomads on Vimeo.

Positive Footprints
Footprints Network
World Expeditions

Volunteering in Kenya

Displaced Kenyans gather to receive aid from volunteers.

On December 27, 2007, the disputed re-election of Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki spurred an outbreak of ethnic and political violence around Nairobi and Western Kenya. Subsequently hundreds of thousands of Kenyans fled their homes, and now live in or around crowded displaced persons camps.

Rafe Steinhauer volunteered in Kenya for more than two months with the Global Volunteers Network (GVN). He taught math, English, and soccer at schools in Nairobi and Maasailand and helped aid missions into displaced persons camps after the post-election violence. In Nairobi, Steinhauer taught at a rehabilitation school for teenage boys who had committed nonviolent crimes. I asked Steinhauer some questions to find out what his experience was like.

Computers for Education

Leaders not pictured: Ms. Amy Bellus, Fr. John Forliti, and Mr. Rob Peick

Computers have revolutionized the way we interact and go about our daily lives. Case in point: you are reading this article from a computer or smart phone connected to the internet. Having a computer has becoming the norm and an expected expense — or graduation present — for American students entering college in the fall.

Not every student is so fortunate. Many students in Kenya have never seen a computer, much less expect to use one to further their education. Education itself is considered a luxury. This creates a digital divide between those who are virtually connected to the world and have the tools to enhance their education, and those who aren’t. Computer skills increase the chance of employment and can potentially become the gateway to a better life for an African student.

A group of eight students and three staff members of Cretin-Derham Hall in St. Paul, Minnesota, made it their mission to close the technology gap for students in rural Rabondo, Kenya. On June 8, the “Kenya Krew ’09” journeyed to the village to teach the students of St. Timon’s Secondary School how to use the ten Dell computers they had received through a generous grant from the Augustine Foundation. “There were twenty or thirty students who would gather around the computers at a time and we would show them things like how to open a Word document, what a monitor is, and how to save their work. Basic stuff,” explained Megan Kramer, a student from the group.

More than 200 students are enrolled at St. Timon’s Secondary School. Five of its eight teachers are paid by the government, and the others volunteer and receive a modest stipend from the money raised by the Rabondo Community Project USA, a nonprofit organization started by Timon Bondo, who grew up in Rabondo and came to Minnesota to further his education.

During a return visit to Rabondo in 1996, Timon was struck by the destitution of his village. Restoring hope to his home was not an easy task for the blind and elderly man, but he could not ignore the orphans and widows of AIDS left to fend for themselves, or the lack of sanitation facilities, safe water, electricity, businesses and access to basic health care. The first story in NEED magazine’s premiere issue tells how Timon created Rabondo Community Project USA to provide resources to educate the children of Rabondo.


Photos Courtesy | Rabondo Community Project USA

Thirteen years later, the children of Rabondo are receiving not only a roof over their classrooms, but also the technology to truly excel in their academic endeavors.

This is not to say that donating computers to Kenyan students is the simple solution to improve their lives and further their education. Without the technical training, internet connectivity, and a way of maintaining the machines, the computers are useless. One big issue is the variance of software compatibility, which leads to chaos in the classroom as teachers struggle to make the machines work. It is not as easy as visiting the Genius Bar at the Apple store, or calling the Geek Squad to troubleshoot computer problems. Many computers donated out of goodwill go to waste or end up polluting the land without the proper expertise to ensure the computers are useful.

Aware of this problem, the Kenya Krew ‘09 travelled from St. Paul to Rabondo to share their knowledge of how to operate the computers. When the school year resumes, they plan to tell their fellow classmates and teachers about their experience in hope of fundraising for the village to maintain the computers.


Students of CDH class of 2010: Brian Boyle, Maura Daugherty, Sam Dooher, Louise Gappa, Mary Henry, Megan Kramer, Cecelia Leatherman, and Revalon Wesson

What started as Timon’s passion to encourage the children and empower the community of Rabondo, has grown to a number of inspired individuals including the Kenya Krew ’09 as well as the Rotary Clubs of Alaska and White Bear Lake, Minnesota. The Rotary Clubs’ donations have made it possible for a well to be dug that will furnish St. Timon’s as well as the surrounding area with safe water. Work is expected to be completely by October of this year.

As the parents, students, and leaders gathered in a St. Paul house to share stories and experiences from the trip, one parent asked the group, “Who would go back?” All eleven members of the group raised their hands without hesitation.

Rabondo Community Project USA

Timon Bondo is deeply grateful for the help he has received along the way to improve the lives of the Rabondo community. He is currently seeking an intern to assist his continued effort to provide Rabondo with necessary resources by helping him with tasks that are difficult due to his failing eyesight. For more information, contact the staff of NEED magazine.

It’s All about Self-Sufficiency

When Charlie Hartwell visited Kenya as the last stop on a trip around the world, he was saddened by the poor conditions he saw there but also encouraged by the warm-hearted people. “I couldn’t stand the poverty, but I love the people,” he says. That motivated him to want to help. He tried social work, and while he didn’t make the impact he wanted through his job, he did meet Jonah Kitheka, a Kenyan social worker. Hartwell, Kitheka and Hartwell’s friend Jimmy Jacobs started the organization Provide International in 1986.

For the first couple years they worked to partner US sponsors with Kenyan children living in the slums of Nairobi. They provided children ages five to ten with a nutritious lunch every day. In return the sponsors received information about the children whom their donations helped feed.

The efforts were helping, but they weren’t achieving their ultimate goal of self-sufficiency for the people of Kenya. Provide International was supporting Kenyans instead of allowing them to make their own success.Noticing the need for medical care, they added a healthcare program. Hartwell found progress on that project to be slow and at times frustrating. The locals often had different ideas about how to do business. But they succeeded at creating a clinic.

In 1995 Hartwell turned the program over to the Kenyans. He had intended from the beginning for Kitheka to take control of the Kenyan branch of the program, and in 1995 he decided to transfer all of Provide International into Kitheka’s hands. The goal had always been self-sufficiency, and the locals seemed to have an idea of how they wanted to proceed.

IMPACT | Volunteers Travel to Kenya to Rebuild Rabondo

The IMPACT blog series demonstrate that stories have the power to inspire and create change.

ONE | NEED Issue 1


Preschool and kindergarten students in Rabondo used to study outdoors due to overcrowding. Photo | Candice Towell

Timon Bondo

“The article has had a lot of impact. … We have had many volunteers who want to come and visit or just come to talk to us about what we need and how they can help.”

Before Timon Bondo’s article was published in NEED magazine, his nonprofit work was difficult to start. “We used to not know where to go … but now people have learned; that’s why I think the magazine is doing a lot of humanitarian services,” he says. Two years since the article’s publication, The Rabondo Community Project USA has made remarkable strides.

NEED CONTRIBUTERS SPEAK OUT – TAKE TWO

Kyra Gibson, Liz Werner and Timon Bondo present at The Beat Coffee House

As I looked around the Beat Coffeehouse last night and saw a room full of NEED supporters and friends I felt a rush of energy. This could have been partly due to the vanilla latte I just drank, but mostly it was wonderful to see people come together for a socially-minded event.

This is the second NEED contributors event we’ve hosted this summer and it went just as well as the first. The three speakers were Kyra Gibson, Liz Werner and Timon Bondo.

Timon started the evening by describing what it was like to grow up in Rabondo, Kenya. As Liz asked more questions about Timon’s nonprofit work, a quiet respect seemed to fill the room. Personally, I’m always inspired by the good works of the Rabondo Community Project USA.

The next speaker was just as moving. Kyra Gibson spoke about her experience in Nepal, where she spent seven weeks in a home for girls rescued from the sex trade. The personal stories she shared about Shanta, founder of the Peace Rehabilitation Center, and the girls living there touched everyone listening.

As the evening came to a close, people mingled, finished their coffee and asked how they could help. Thanks to everyone who stopped by. If you weren’t able to make it, why not join us at the Meet & Greet that NEED is hosting on July 29?

Hope to see you there.