About Us
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- Published on Thursday, 03 February 2011 14:18
In 2000, the United Nations identified the unavailability of primary education and water, hunger, and HIV/AIDS to be major factors contributing to poverty in the developing world. Therefore the UN created the Millennium Development Goals which would create a “new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and setting out a series of time-bound targets - with a deadline of 2015.”[1] Kenya is not immune to these systemic factors of poverty. While progress is being made, nearly one in five people lives in poverty, there are more than a million orphans from AIDs, and primary education is relatively unaffordable.[2] Global and domestic economic conditions have raised food prices make it difficult for many Kenyans to avoid hunger.
Friends of the Mercy Children's Centre
Since 2008, the Friends of the Mercy Children’s Centre has helped to promote these MDGs by assisting the Mercy Children’s Centre, a Kenyan non-profit school and orphanage, by supporting the school and the school’s community. At the heart of its activities, the FMCC provides funds for food, teacher salaries, rent, and the surrounding community’s access to water. In conjunction with its Canadian partner, One Child’s Village, the FMCC also encourages the MCC to pursue a sustainable approach to education, all the while expanding the availability of education.
Friends of the Mercy Children's Center is a 501(c)(3) organization (FEIN: 26-3312637). It is a nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation organized for charitable purposes, formed on September 16, 2008 in the State of California. All donations made after September 16, 2008 will be tax exempt. Donations made out to FMCC will directly and solely benefit the orphans of Mercy Children's Centre.
The Mercy Children’s Centre
The Friends of the Mercy Children’s Centre is proud to support the Mercy Children’s Centre because it was founded by local community leaders to address local needs. Kenyan Charles Oduor, the headmaster, saw an educational system that was unaffordable to most of the children he knew because of the high cost of uniforms, books, and other materials. Fellow Kenyan, Pius Arikama, was troubled by itinerant living situations and the difficultly to obtain low-cost food. Together they set out to provide education, food and shelter to their communities’ children. Five years later, they oversee 500 students and 34 teachers and staff on three campuses. Mr. Oduor has even left his old teaching position to run the MCC full time. In the rural campus of Bumala, located in Mr. Oduor’s hometown, the MCC has built a permanent facility on 5 acres of land and starting next year will also provide secondary education. At the Kawangware Campus , in Nairobi, the MCC offers education for preschool through sixth grade and housing. Since 2010, toddlers in Pastor Arikama’s home of Kakamega are receiving vital pre-school education.
