It’s time to CELEBRATE God’s goodness. Take a look at what he has been up to the last few years. This container project began in 2019 just before the world seemed to turn upside down. The dream was to put in these containers and modify them into a solid metal building that would house a medical clinic, technology center, and library for the children of Saviour King School in Kibera Slum, as well as house a training center for the Lily Among Thorns young mama’s empowerment group.

When the world seemed like it might be slowing down, God did what only God can do… stir the hearts of his people and make things happen. And He did just that!

And look at it standing tall and proud today! It serves over 500 children and families in Kibera Slum. It will help to expand their learning in the necessary technology skills they will need to reach their dreams. These kids are working hard for the careers they dream to acquire one day, and now they have a much better chance. Is this not amazing? This is reason to CHEER! Let’s clap and shout.

Now, we just need to stock it with library books, supplies, and resources. We have a few ways you can help with this. 1. Purchasing the bookmark in the store help to purchase new books for the library. 2. You can click the donate button below to give towards this project.

Together we can make a difference!

Donate

Do you know what it feels like to have your kids go hungry? I mean, haven’t eaten for a couple of days hungry? How about thirsty? And again, not just thirsty but thirsty for a few days, thirsty. For many, this is hard to imagine, for many others, it’s not. There are things we can do.

And what about having some limitations due to accidents, injuries + disabilities? Having some uncertainty of how to provide the basics for your family.

I have one. What about being a widow and having your home in disrepair. Unable of how to handle it and the 10,000 other things your spouse was overseeing. This added on top of your heavy weight of grief. I actually know this one.

Yes, some of us can resonate more with certain needs due to our own personal experiences. That is exactly why we have provided an array of giving areas because we KNOW what a difference it makes in your own life when you can pour out a little love into an area where you were hurt. This is where PAIN finds PURPOSE.

So let’s see which one pulls on your heartstrings, or reminds you of a loved one. Because these make FABULOUS Christmas gifts for the hard to buy for. And we have a terrific one for a Teachers appreciation gift.

Just click on the image and it will take you to our giving catalog where you can donate towards any of these projects.

We would like to introduce you to Emi. She is one amazing human! We had the privilege of having her join us on our recent Outreach Trip to Africa this last month and BOY was she a joy to have along.

This girl is a shining light to anyone who comes near her. It was so inspiring to watch her in action as she loved on whoever she came in contact with. She made the best out of every hard situation, even slopping mud became a joy-fest.

Watching her in action we knew she was a world-changer! And look at her now, back just one week and making her birthday an opportunity to gather people alongside her to reach out to the world with a little more love. She has chosen to BRING MORE DANCING by asking her friends and family to join her in raising funds for the GoEden Kids Dance Team of Garden of Eden Children’s Home located just outside of Nairobi, Kenya.

We love you Emi and are SO PROUD OF YOU! Thank you for making a difference!

DONATE

A note from Emi:

“Hi y’all! For my birthday, instead of asking for presents, I wanted to bless kids around the world. I’m a dancer and when I was in Africa, I learned how important dance was to them. So, as my birthday present, I call you to donate towards the Garden of Eden Dance team. I’ve met these kids personally and they all have big hearts and groovy dance moves. Thank you in advance!”

Sincerely,

Emiline Hansen

Can I have your permission to get a little real + raw here? Because to be honest, I don’t have a lot of space for cushy, kind, pleasantries. I guess that is what immense grief does to you. Tack on six months of forced isolation. You have one big ball of surreal life. So here we go, here is my story on finding the purpose in my pain.

I’ll back up a little bit for you. For those that don’t know, the cover photo on this website is of my late husband and I. It was our last trip to Africa together. He looks a bit tired + haggard in the photo because, well, unknown to us when we set out on the trip, his cancer was back with a vengeance. By the time of this photo we knew there was problem. He was in some serious pain but he was praying it was just a weird nerve pain.

It had been a few months since he had completed chemo and the word “ remission” had been mentioned. We felt safe… enough. Because to stay in the space of honesty, once cancer hits you never really feel completely safe again. We had a feeling this may be our last trip together, we prayed it wasn’t so, oh how we prayed. The majority of our kiddos came along with the team we led, outside of our one daughter who stayed back to grow our little grandson in her belly.

This trip was precious to us for so many reasons but mainly because we were once again doing what we loved to do together. And we were doing it with our African friends who had long ago become family. It was a time that held reflection, encouragement + dreams.

As our trip continued his pain increased and by the time we arrived home it was unbearable for him. No sleep, no ability to lay down for longer than 5-10 minutes at any hour of day or night. Nothing, absolutely NOTHING, brought relief of any kind. It took over a week to get in for more tests only to find that yes, the cancer was back and growing rapidly. Our only option, bone marrow transplant. I am not going to walk you through the whole journey because it would be a novel. I will say we did everything we knew to do. It just wasn’t meant to be. Seven months after we returned from Africa he passed away in our home. That same afternoon I would be setting up for our daughter’s formal wedding the next day, where I would now walk the aisle to stand alone in front to give her away to her new husband. Surreal. Numb. PAIN.

So, wow… that is a lot, and it is heavy. But that truly is my pain. A pain that doesn’t easily subside. A pain that visits me every day in unexpected ways, and in unforeseen moments. But I want you to hear me… all along I have known with the most assuredness that there was some sort of purpose to come out of my pain. After all, pain brings awareness + compassion. It softens our hearts to a point of understanding that we had no idea existed. The very thing that hurts us the most also has the ability to be the very thing that drives us to bring change + hope.

For instance, in the thick of my husband’s treatments we pressed on to start this nonprofit. In his last hospital stay, where we were trying to buy time to remain together for the wedding, we held our first board meeting. And three months after he passed away I took a dream team with me to serve, and to gather material to use to spread awareness on this very platform. All of this pressing-on in the thick of pain because of the very solid belief there is indeed a purpose in all pain… and when you find it, when you use it, healing will come your way.

Little did we know on those first few flights to Africa, over 10 years ago, that God would be weaving our stories together so tightly with those we were going with the intention to serve. Oh, over the years we have learned so much, how they love so deeply, they serve right back, they give more than they receive. And in the wake of my grief, remembering the kind of LOVE that they so genuinely expressed to us, gave so freely of despite their circumstance; remembering this LOVE drove me to keep going, to keep my eyes focused out whenever I had the ability. I always had a passion for serving the vulnerable but until this I did not have a good understanding of just how vulnerable they felt. Now I had more in common with them than I wanted to. Sorrow + Lament: the treasures we hold but never asked to carry.

So many of our current projects here at Pamoja Love involve helping widows: food programs, medical care, even child sponsorship as it reduces the burden of school fees for many widows. However, today I want to take a minute to share about the Home Building projects we partner with. These situations are widows who live in very dismal circumstances. Their homes are literally falling apart, dirt floors, with many people in a very small space. The homes typically have one, or two, very small rooms . Our partners have witnessed this desperate need way too often and have in return developed a brilliant response to meet the need. They set up this beautiful partnership with the widow in need where she works with her community to provide some of the basic building materials + labor needed to begin the project. Once she has established the groundwork, then we come in to do a large portion of the home, in the end the community comes in to help finish up the mudding of the internal walls. It is a shining example of working TOGETHER for the good: local leaders + church + community building a safe haven for a precious woman who most likely has felt very alone, unseen + unworthy. This is a B E A U T I F U L thing, isn’t it? This is where I find my pain brings me tremendous purpose, it drives me to help continue to reach out in love.

I mean, who wouldn’t want to be a part of something like this? And imagine being able to go and meet the family you helped build the home for, to see them thriving. It’s possible. To see how this project brought people together for the good, developing long lasting ties. Hope restored, you just can’t put a value to that. If you would like to join in this and spread a little hope + love here is the link to donate towards it. $625 gives a very basic but SOLID home with a dirt floor. $1000 and we can give them a concrete floor so they don’t have to worry about jiggers burrowing in their feet. (if you don’t know what I am talking about click here to learn about the jiggers project or click here to watch video)

Can you imagine how our current world circumstances have increased the needs? Ugh. I would absolutely LOVE to raise awareness and provide for the long list of women who are waiting. Want to join me? Let’s talk about creative ways to help meet the need. Reach out to me, I just know God cares so deeply, and so do I! I stand here 100% believing that TOGETHER we can help make a difference. Let’s be HOPE bringers.

Be LOVED,

Kimber Ryan

Founder: Pamoja Love

To read more about the Home Project click below:

A Safe Shelter from the Storm: Homes for the Vulnerable

Click below to learn about jiggers from dirt floors:

Facebook Video: Jiggers

Gathering together for a meal and celebrating is a favorite pastime for all people around the globe. It is a place to nourish your body and your relationships.

Can you imagine struggling to provide the most basic of food staples: flour, oil, sugar, and rice, to feed your family on any given day? Hungry children, possibly no food for days. It is unimaginable for most.

By giving a gift of $25 you can provide a nice supply of food that will bring a HUGE SMILE to the face of someone in need, and a full belly for them and their families.

We have the food blessing happening in several different areas in Eastern Africa, between Tanzania and Kenya. We are hoping that thousands of people will be served by this provision. Thousands…

and that means every $25 counts.

Would you please share this need with your friends and family? If you would like to purchase a meal in honor of someone else we would be happy to provide you with a digital graphic sharing what you purchased in their name.

What a wonderful and creative gift idea for 2019.

In our culture well-checks have become a building block for our kids basic developmental needs. We check to make sure they are on track physically and mentally a minimum of four times within a child’s first year. Let alone seeing to any and all medical concerns as they arise.

In Kibera Slum the expense of getting to a medical professional for treatment is beyond what most can imagine. For crying out loud, just having dinner to serve is a frequent challenge for many.

Hospital scene from Queen of Katwe film

Last night my son and I watched Queen of Katwe again (thank you Disney Plus) and I was washed with in-my-face awareness once again. In this true story of a family living in a slum of Uganda we watch a little brother get hit by a Boda Boda (a motorcycle taxi), the older sister has to give another Boda Boda driver the rent money in order to get her brother to the hospital for urgent care. After they receive the care you see a conversation transpire where the Mom is approached with having to pay the bill immediately. The boy can’t have any further treatment, or leave, until the bill has been paid. But it took all the money they had to even get them there. (This is real life for most of the world.)

So, what does the family do? This ethical, caring and responsible mother is basically given no other choice than to have her daughter hobble her son out of the building and take off unnoticed. She had no way to pay the bill. In fact, moments later it is suggested by another Mama in the neighborhood that she find herself a Sugar Daddy - and sell her body to help pay her rent and feed her children. I am telling you, THIS too often is the only option they believe they have left. We can do better. We can all work together to help people find other avenues to improve their lives. I just know we can.

Every.single.time I think of each family’s story that I have been exposed to I am overwhelmed with a drive to DO SOMETHING. Of course it is too big for most people to tackle on their own. BUT together… TOGETHER we can help to build something that beautifully serves a very tangible need that is indeed LIFE-CHANGING to many. This isn’t the idea of some outsider hopping in and saying “Let’s do this”, this is people grabbing hands around the world to help provide materials of a dream the local leaders are already in the works of building.

The school has come up with an incredible dream to construct a two-story modified shipping container unit that will house a medical clinic, as well as a technology and trade classroom. The medical clinic would help ensure students would have good healthcare while also caring for the health of their entire family. Considering the many ways illness can create roadblocks for children attending school you can see the desperate need for this. An on-site medical clinic could make all of the difference In the world to this community.

The building cost for modified containers into classrooms is $7000.00 per classroom. Then we need to furnish and stock the space to care well for those entering the doors.Medical CLINIC cost is $30 per sq. foot - how many square feet would you like to sponsor?

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” —African Proverb.

If you feel compelled to join in this project and change a lot of lives, here is the link to the giving page:

https://www.pamoja.love/givingcatalog

If you would like more information about Kibera Slum: https://www.pamoja.love/blog/teachers-helping-teachers-around-the-world

Nearly 600 students attend Saviour King Educational Centre in Kibera Slum, Nairobi, Kenya. We have seen first hand how much these kids LOVE their school and their teachers. This place is beyond just a school. This center is filled with HOPE BRINGERS (teachers and staff) that speak into these children’s lives, bring them a solid education, along with the encouragement to DREAM BIG and GO FOR IT! No wonder these kids love school.

This isn’t the only reason these children love coming to school. They also come for the food. The meals they are provided at school can easily be the only solid meal they may receive that day. So imagine the thrill when 600 bananas arrive on the scene, along with an added dose of nutritional veggies for their lunch bowls.

That is what a $100 donation can achieve. The basic cost of one families holiday meal can light up the faces of 600 children! We would love to be able to offer this to the school kids once a month.

What if a classroom of kids gave $4 per child to cover one days food gift? Or what if co-workers came together and instead of a HUGE outpouring of food for the staff party you put some of the budget towards bananas? When many people are willing to invest their “little”, together it amounts to a lot. That is what we LOVE about our nonprofit. It is all about working together as we give with the little we have to accomplish something BIG in the name of LOVE. Pamoja Love. Together Love.

If this is something that makes your heart sing at the idea of - please click this link : https://www.pamoja.love/givingcatalog There you will find the 8 giving catalog projects we are highlighting this year. Click the “DONATE” button below the project you would like to join in. And make sure to keep checking back on our blog, we will be sharing more stories about the incredible people we are partnering with to make a difference around the world.

We would love to have you be a part of the Pamoja Love family!

If you didn’t happen to read our previous post on the Teachers Helping Teachers Around the World - then you will want to make sure and click that link (article title) and read up on what community this particular project serves.

Kibera is the largest slum in all of Africa, second largest slum in the world. It is about one mile square with an estimated 1 million people living within it. If you are one who lives on a plot of land this could be very hard to imagine. I’ll try to help you here, the average home is 12ft x 12ft, built with mud walls, a corrugated tin roof, and dirt or concrete floors. Some of these homes have a partition to create two living spaces within them. They do not have running water, plumbing of any kind, and many do not have electricity. And the shanties often house 8 or more people with many of them sleeping on the floor.

Kibera is filled with story, just like everywhere else: tight-knit families, broken relationships, joy, challenges, and dreams of a better life. However, the biggest struggle is probably finding an affordable wage to provide for your family. And with that kind of struggle you find all kinds of coping mechanisms, numbing agents, and desperate, risky, options to provide just enough for that day.

We are so thankful to work alongside local partners who understand what it is like to live here, and who are taking steps to help bring the change people are looking for. Thomas and Beatrice Omolo are bringing hope, dreams and opportunity to the next generation of Kibera. They founded a school in 2008 with 100 students attending, they now have nearly 600. These children are earning an excellent education but let’s not stop there. When families enroll their kids at Saviour King they are cared about and loved on as a whole unit. How could one couple possibly do this for 600 students? Well, they couldn’t. But the teachers, they are the ones carrying out the mission on a daily basis.

These teachers at Saviour King Ed. Ctr. don't just teach these children, they choose to live in their neighborhoods and do life with them. They daily pour their hearts and lives into the well being of these precious children and their families.

So Maddy, one of the Pamoja Love Dream Team Members, came up with a brilliant idea in October as she was in Kibera walking the school grounds and witnessing the teachers loving on the kiddos. She dreamed up the idea of the Teachers for Teachers Project. A project that a school, or a group of friends, could join hands to make a global impact with. We know teachers understand the joys and challenges that come with teaching, and then to imagine the extra demands put on these teachers when parents are struggling to provide the basics like food, medical care, etc.

But we can send them some encouragement and remind them they are loved and cared about. Every $250 donation will provide 5 teachers with a Christmas meal package for their families along with a personal gift. This will be such a huge encouragement to them.

We have made this giving opportunity super easy. You can go to our giving catalog page online and select Teachers for Teachers. Or if you want to each give individually to one teacher you can go to the “Donate” tab and make a $50 donation with a comment listing “Teachers for Teachers”.

We hope you will share this giving opportunity with people you know that would have a heart for It.

Click here to visit the Giving Catalog Page

Together we can make a difference.

-Pamoja Love

In the last 24 hours we have had two people with upcoming birthdays ask if they could run a campaign to build widows homes. The concept is to have friends and family give a little, with purpose, to collectively accomplish a lot TOGETHER.

The goal is to celebrate these birthdays by raising funds to build widows homes. The project starts at $500 and goes up depending on location and type of home needed. Does this $500 cover total cost? No…. the recipients of the home begin by having some investment and end with some labor with the help of the local community and church. That leaves room for us to join in what they are already doing. Fabulous, right?

With $500 raised we can provide one dirt floor home for someone in great need. And it may not seem like much to you but trust me, it is HUGE to them.

So all it takes is 50 people giving $10, 20 giving $25… Or 5 giving $100.

What if we Could do even more… like raising enough to put cement floors in to guarantee it would be jigger free. (If you haven’t seen the video of this check out our FB Page) That would cost an additional $500.

Jen Hansen dreamed up the idea to do a campaign supporting a woman in Western Kenya for her birthday. ( see Team Members tab for details) She would love to see her friends and family donate towards a widows home vs. buy her a gift.

Linda Gist loves working with the Koko’s In Maasailand and for her birthday she would like to start a campaign. You can donate below by clicking the donation link.

We absolutely love the fresh new ideas people are coming up with to get involved. Let us know if you have an idea. Together we can make difference!

Please join these incredible projects and share some love by jumping over to the “Get Involved” link and make a donation to “most needed”, make sure to add a note letting us know who’s campaign you are supporting.

Linda working to build a home in Maasailand.