A story from Alex, Shangilia Director

Almost every day I drive into town about 30 minutes by way of a bumpy old potholed road to purchase food to feed all the children and staff at Shangilia. I use Pastor Kefa’s old car, a 1994 Toyota Corolla, and honestly I’m surprised it still runs. I pick up enough food to feed 80+ people daily, and you wouldn’t believe the size of the bags of beans, corn, rice, and other supplies we need, each one is the size of a child - typically 3' tall x 2’ wide! If you’ve ever seen the roads in Kenya, you know what a roller coaster they can be, and the weight of the food makes for an interesting ride home of bottoming out and hitting roots and potholes.

We often have to take more than one trip when transporting supplies and food back to the orphanage, or hire help, and the 21 year old car is not designed for hauling large loads daily. When it rains, the road is extremely difficult to get through, in particular during the 3 months of the muddy rainy season.

We are hoping to purchase a used pickup truck, one that is reliable and durable enough to take on the terrible roads in Kenya, and that can easily perform the supply hauling needed at Shangilia. This vehicle would be used daily for food and supply transportation back to the orphanage, rain or shine.

We’re partnering with Love for Kenya to buy a truck that meets our needs. We’ve worked with Randy Stensgard, the president of LFK who is experienced in finding cars, and he recommends a used 4x4 Toyota Hilux with under 70,000 miles for about $30,000. Vehicle prices in Kenya are 30% more expensive than in North America. Currently we have a donor committing $11,000, Love for Kenya has raised $2,000 and a group (iTeams) in Canada has raised $3,000, making a total of $16,000. Our goal is to raise $14,000 by July 20th.Please help us meet our goal. Any donation you can make is very helpful!