Kenyan woman speaks of journey to founding orphanage
By Mary E. Witlacil
witlacil@mscd.edu
A Kenyan woman being sponsored by Metro's African American Studies department spoke to a class Nov. 16 about going from being homeless to building a home for orphans.
During her brief return to Denver, Eunice Kihenjo, the founder of Tumaini Ministries, a Kenyan orphanage, spoke to professor Derrick Hudson's African Politics and Government class.
Kihenjo said she did not escape struggle or hardship before reaching her decision to move back to Kenya and start an orphanage. In 1986, she moved from Kenya to the United States in pursuit of the American dream. She lived on the East Coast for 15 years before her marriage came to an end.
Recovering from a broken marriage, Eunice moved from New York to Denver to live with her cousin, with the hope of starting fresh. She said, "I would lift up (my) eyes unto the hills and would be filled with hope." Yet, barely two weeks after moving to Denver, her cousin died tragically in a car accident, leaving Kihenjo stranded and homeless in a foreign place. She said, "it almost broke me."
Photo by Chuck Iversen / Special to The Metropolitan
Eunice Kihenjo, who founded the Tumaini Ministries, an orphanage in Kenya, speaks to an African American Studies class, Nov. 16. Kihenjo related the problems she encountered throughout her life, such as homlessness, divorce and a tragic car accident
Shortly after becoming homeless, Kihenjo began volunteering at the Denver Rescue Mission and attempted to acquire a job with the Issacar Community, an urban leadership program in Denver geared toward 18- to 30-year-olds. As an uneducated 40-year-old single mother, she didn't exactly fit the requirements, but was offered a position regardless.
While working for the Issacar Community, Kihenjo became acquainted with Hudson, then an organizer for the Issacar Community and now a tenure-track Metro African American Studies professor and Denver-based board member for Tumaini Ministries.
Also, during her time at the Issacar Community, Kihenjo began to educate herself about the millions of Kenyans orphaned or dying due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
"How can I help the orphans?" Kihenjo said she thought at the time. "I was broken, financially broke, uneducated and angry."
A student at the Issacar Community pointed out that Kihenjo was angry because she wasn't doing anything to help the orphans. After thinking about it, Kihenjo recognized the truth in the student's statement and began praying.
In September 2002, Kihenjo registered for non-profit status and two months before she was planning to leave she was still unable to afford the plane tickets to Kenya. With hope and a generous donation from a friend, she left, as scheduled, in July 2003.
By February 2004, without a kitchen, she had moved into the Tumaini house and began accepting orphans.
Initially, Kihenjo rejected children with HIV/AIDS, but under self-scrutiny decided that to deny children with HIV/AIDS, her orphanage would be abandoning the abandoned.
Now, her orphanage houses 33 children with room for seven more. Some of the children are HIV/AIDS positive and others were just abandoned.
"Sometimes, it feels like a sleep-over," Kihenjo said. "After play time I imagine they'll all go home, but Tumaini is home."
Tumaini is always accepting donations, large or small. For more information on how to make a financial contribution or to offer time as a volunteer, visit www.tumainiministries.org.