Family Hope Charity in Kenya - 2009

Located on the coast of the Indian Ocean in East Africa, Kenya has a population of about 38 million. There are 45 different ethnic/tribal groups in Kenya who trace their origins to three distinct racial groups who at various times in history migrated to East Africa, some from as far away as Egypt. The groups are; the Bantu, the Nilotes and the Cushites. This ethnic diversity is one of many of the beautiful characteristics of the people of Kenya. Recently though, it has also been a source of much political tension which has bread a great deal of violence. The country’s principal economic drivers are tourism, tea, coffee and manufacturing. The population of Kenya is by enlarge very poor with up to 68% living on less than $1USD per day. Kenya is the home of Family Hope Charity and its two programs for the chronically poor; Kujenga Tumaini in Kiambiu/Nairobi and Nyumba za Amani in Kuresoi/Rift Valley.

The capital of Kenya is the city of Nairobi and has a population of approximately 4million. Nairobi is really three cities in one; there is the white/expatriate Nairobi (e.g. Karen--a section of Nairobi named after Karen Blixen,) the Asian/Indian Nairobi, and the African Nairobi which contains 70% of the
population who live mostly in the city’s large slums. And although the slums are the home of most Nairobians they only take up 5% of the city’s land mass. Consequently, these ‘informal settlements’ are crowded, filthy, violent and places certainly not an area one would wish to bring up family.