Shanzu Orphanage, Mombasa, Kenya.

history of us with shanzu-

Our first trip to Kenya was in 2006 for a safari/beach holiday.

We had friends who had previously done the same and also visited a local Mombasa school and an orphanage, during their stay.

This seemed like a good idea for us too. we booked an organised visit from our hotel, and were delighted to find we were the only ones going on the visit. We had vehicle, driver and guide to ourselves.

In conversation in soon became obvious that our regulation carrier bag of woolies sweets from GB was totally inadequate! So we called at local store and stocked up on provisions-sack of flour, sack of maize, sack of sugar etc.

Also exercise books, pensils, a huge bag of Kenyan sweets and an enormous box, ( i reckon approx. 10kilos ), of biscuits.....and the list goes on.....oh and lots of washing powder. We were greeted like heros and treated to lots of singing and recital of Kenyan poems as we did rounds of school classrooms.

A truely moving experience, that giving so little could bring so much joy into the lives of the children, not to mention the dedicated staff.

We have never been seriously into chatiry work, this was a great experience, but that was it.

The following year its Kenyan holiday again-we are hooked on safaris by this time! Again we stock up on provisions and head of for Orphanage. We are greeted regally.

Orphanage director Christopher is amazed because quite a lot visit Shanzu once, but here we were for a second time. They moved school desks outside under a shady glade and threw a party for us. We bought a goat for the pot, which i had to butcher!, (thankfully they had done the honours and ended its life for me).

We all had a fabulous time with the children singing and dancing.

A truely humbling experience. They had so little and yet gave so much.

At this point we were hooked. We promised ourselves that from this moment on we would do what we could to continue bringing a little happiness to their very difficult lives.