The Marafiki Global AIDS Ministry’s mission is to provide food, shelter, medical care, education, a safe living environment, and loving support to children worldwide who have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS. www.marafikikenyaorphans.org
Marafiki began in Central Ohio in 1995 as a volunteer workforce trained by medical and pastoral care professionals. In 1998, a team of 11 volunteers traveled to Kenya and saw immediately that AIDS orphans needed their help most desperately.
In 2005, several Central Ohio organizations came together to raise funds to establish the Rafiki Farm. The Farm was built to enable the children to feed themselves.
Soon it became clear that one of the most pressing needs is fresh water. Rotary District #6690 Clubs Capitol Square, Columbus, Whitehall-Bexley, Westerville, Gahanna, Belpre, Cambridge and Byesville all joined together to build a well for the farm, and the effort paid off. A team of 20 traveled to Nairobi to dedicate the Rafiki Farm, and conduct a ground-breaking for the water well.
The social services and support networks we are accustomed to in the U.S. and Europe do not exist in Kenya. There are no programs to support these most desperate of children, and the very few area orphanages are filled to capacity. The children’s only options are to be taken in by remaining family members, live with charitable neighbors, or when neither of these is available, live on the streets.
Since school is not free in Kenya, even those children lucky enough to find a second family to take them in, may not be able to go to school and must, instead, find work to pay for their upkeep. Marafiki is working to provide a home for the homeless and support for the orphans taken in by generous relatives or neighbors.
