Shisasari Community One major concern in the community is the amount of orphans or half orphans. Orphaned children are vulnerable and often left to fend for themselves against impossible situations. According to the UNICEF website about 1.2 million children have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS and 2.6 million orphaned due to all causes throughout Kenya. Other serious diseases include malaria and other water borne diseases.
Anthony Isayi, the Projects Director was born and raised in the Shisasari community; he attended Shisasari Primary School. In 2005, Anthony and his wife Tricia partnered with others to begin a feeding program to provide porridge for orphans at Shisasari. A group dedicated to helping the Shisasari Community started OOI.
Operation Orphans International works in Shisasari, a rural community in Kakamega, Western Kenya which is made of about 10,000 members. The major economic activities are agricultural, including small scale farming of tea, maize, sugar cane and dairy farming and industrial activities including gold mining, milling, and pottery. More than 60% are unemployed and many live on less than $2.00 per day.
About Kenya Kenya is a developing nation almost the size of the state of Nevada; it is located in East Africa. According to CIA World Facts-book, Kenya has a population of about 41 million people (July 2011 est.).
It has 40% unemployment rates (July 2008 est.) with 50% living under the poverty line and over 22% of the population living on less than $1 per day (UNDP, 2007).
The gross national income is $580 (World Bank 2007). According to UNAIDS, there are about 1.3 million people living with HIV/AIDS in Kenya and about 1.1 million orphan children under age 17.
Shisasari Primary School educates 800 students; approximately 165 are orphans, in Kindergarten- 8th grades. There are twelve teachers hired to teach 1st-8th grade. This is a public school and funded by the federal government. With help from OOI, the school has recently received electricity and one faucet with city water.
OOI began feeding orphans in 2005 at Shisasari Primary School. It was found that orphaned students were under performing in school because they were hungry. In 2006 we registered as a non-profit organization in California.
Because secondary school is so expensive throughout Kenya, we currently sponsor 5 students including tuition, boarding, uniforms, and personal necessity shopping. Also, we sponsor a kindergarten program, which is also not government funded, and pay a small stipend to three kindergarten teachers. We feed over 300 students a daily porridge breakfast and 160 orphans lunch of maize corn and beans.
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