Beatrice letter to supporters

December 20, 2008

Dear friends of Humble Hearts:

I wish to pass our warm Christmas greetings and wish you a Happy 2009 as I also share with you brief highlight events of Humble Hearts 2008.
We have currently 250 children out of which forty are deaf and mute. These children learn and happily play together. HH was initially founded on the grounds of educating deaf children from the poor of the poorest Nairobi slum dwellers’ families. It was after thorough research that we realized that there was lack of communication between the deaf children, the community, and even their families. That is when the concept of bringing in their siblings to learn sign language came up. As we opened the door for their hearing siblings, they came in with their neighbors and friends, resulting to the current total number of 250 children.

Angel Cottage
Angel Cottage houses 35 deaf children. The house in which the children live was meant to be a temporary one-year solution for fourteen children as we looked for land to construct a better place in which to house them. With the 35 needy children, space for even playing cannot be seen. The children sit squeezed together when it is time to doing their homework. Instead of jumping around like other children, you will find them seated in groups signing stories to each other. No word is heard from them except for giggles which always tell they are enjoying each others company.
Rainy days are a nightmare since the children have to be alert to ensure that the water does not get into their rooms by draining out the water with buckets since there is no drainage to let the water out.
The challenges faced at Angel Cottage are just overwhelming. We have incidences of the children falling down from their beds. This is because the beds in which they sleep three are just meant for one child. Airborne diseases spread easily and very fast amongst them. We are always on the look out for any such crisis and seek temporary solutions.

Angel Cottage Construction
Constructing a permanent home for the children is the best solution. The construction has now been going on since 2006. The initial estimated funds to finish the construction were 3.5m Kenya Shillings, but the estimates have doubled with the inflation. Construction materials are going up every day. For instance, when we started building, cement was $5.8 right now it has gone to $11, which is almost double. We have currently built up to the wall plate. Our next major step is to construct the slab, do the finishing and have the children move in.
Sadly the construction has stopped due to lack of funds. The hopes of ever finishing the building are dwindling away each day.

Humble Request
We are kindly calling for urgent help from our friends all over the world to help us give these children a better place to stay, study, play and call home.
We thank God for help to pass us through 2008 peacefully. Our hearts are restless as we look forward to entering 2009 with the issue of the construction not yet solved.
Kindly let us put our heads together and think of ways and ideas that can help raise funds towards finishing the construction. We all at the end say we have run a good race, for this home will help many generations to come even after us.
I finally wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy Two Thousand and Eight.

Your Friend,

Beatrice Anunda
Director Humble Hearts School
Nairobi,Kenya