Jacob

Jacob (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Jan 2010

Born : 23 Nov 1999

Siblings : Finley

Jackie

Jackie (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Jan 2011

Born : 02 Jun 2004

Siblings : Max

Jack

Jack (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Jul 2007

Born : 12 Nov 1999

Henry

Henry (450x800)

Arrived at EAMO : May 2010

Born : 25 Jun 2008

Ian

Ian (450x800)

Arrived at EAMO : May 2012

Born : Date Unknown

Siblings : Maureen

Hannah

Hannah (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Dec 2003

Born : 16 March 1997

Gloria

Gloria (450x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Nov 2013

Born : 22 Jul 2007

George

George (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Nov 2010

Born : 2004

Siblings : Dedan, Ryan, Cliff, Frederick and Joyce

Geoffrey

Geoffrey (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : 2009

Born : 03 Aug 2001

Frederick

Frederick (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Nov 2010

Born : Unknown date

Siblings : George, Joy, Ryan, Cliff and Dedan

Freddy

Freddy (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : 2006

Born : 02 Feb 2002

Siblings : Abe

Fred Ochako

Fred (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Mar 2011

Born : 2003

Fred Nyabuto

Fred Nyabuto (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Oct 2012

Born : 01 Jan 2003

Siblings : Samson Nyabuto

Francis Kimani

Francis (800x600)

Arrived at EAMO : Aug 2013

Born : 01 Jan 2012

Finley

Finley (450x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Jan 2010

Born : 02 Nov 2007

Siblings : Jacob

Faith

Faith (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Nov 2009

Born : 12 Nov 2001

Siblings : Sandra

Evans Kibet

Evans (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Jan 2010

Born : 21 Apr 2007

Evans Ondieki

Evans Eli (450x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Oct 2012

Born : 10 May 2008

Siblings : Seth and James

Eva

Eva (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Jan 2010

Born : 04 Jun 2001

Eunice

Eunice (450x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Jun 2013

Born : 2007

Siblings : Terry

Eugine

Eugine (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Feb 2012

Born : 2009

Siblings : Nicholas and Clinton

Esther

Esther (800x600)

Arrived at EAMO : Jun 2005

Born : 01 May 2006

Ernest

Ernest (450x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Jun 2012

Born : 16 Oct 2007

Siblings : Noah

Eric

Eric (450x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Feb 2013

Born : 01 Jul 2008

Emmanuel Opiyo

Emmanuel Opiyo (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Sep 2006

Born : 15 Dec 1997

Enock

Enock (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Nov 2009

Born : 15 Dec 1998

Emmanuel Kipchumba

Emmanuel Kipchumba (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Jan 2010

Born : 23 Sep 2004

Siblings : Obama

Emmanuel Akwamba

Emmanuel Akwamba (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Oct 2012

Born : 10 May 2001

Elizabeth

Elizabeth (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Nov 2005

Born : 15 Jan 2000

Siblings : Veronica, Sophie and Suzy

Eliud

Eliud (450x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Feb 2009

Born : 29 Sep 2005

Siblings : Jared and Jeanie

Edward

Edward (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Feb 2013

Born : 13 Nov 2000

Siblings : Angelique and Esbon

Eddy

Eddy (450x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Jun 2011

Born : 19 Jun 2008

Siblings : Samuel, Beatrice Chebet, Martha and Nola

Duncan

Duncan (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Feb 2009

Born : 14 Aug 2003

Siblings : Benson, Willy, Gina and Bob

Dominic

Dominic (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Oct 2012

Born : 18 May 2002

Dennis Mutai

Dennis (450x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Oct 2012

Born : 05 Aug 2007

Dedan Kiprono

Dedan (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Aug 2009

Born : 17 Jun 2002

Siblings : Colin

Deborah

Deborah (450x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Apr 2014

Born : 27 Dec 2008

Siblings : Abraham and Loice

David Morgan

David Morgan (450x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Feb 2014

Born : Unknown

Daniel

Daniel (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Oct 2012

Born : 20 Jan 2001

Siblings : Sanapei

Dan

Dan (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Sep 2005

Born : 17 Dec 2000

Siblings : Michael

Cynthia

Cynthia (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Jul 2009

Born : 05 Apr 2002

Siblings : Lynne

Colin

Colin (450x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Aug 2009

Born : 05 Aug 2008

Siblings : Dedan Kiprono

Clinton

Clinton (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Feb 2012

Born : 2002

Siblings : Nicholas and Eugine

Cliff

Cliff (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Nov 2010

Born : 2006

Siblings : Ryan, Dedan, George, Joy and Frederick

Cindy

O

Arrived at EAMO : Nov 2009

Born : 16 Aug 1997

Christine

Christine (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Feb 2009

Born : 09 Dec 1995

Siblings : Vincent

Charlotte

Charlotte (800x450)

Arrived at EAMO :  Feb 2010

Born : 07 Jul 2009

Charles

Charles (450x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Aug 2010

Born : 2009

Catherine Odour

Catherine Odour (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : 2009

Born : 17 Feb 2002

Siblings : Micah and Shane

Catherine Njoki

Catherine (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : May 2010

Born : Unknown, thought to be 2005

Casey

Casey (450x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Mar 2008

Born : 21 Jun 2007

Caroline

Caroline Dianna (800x600)

Arrived at EAMO : Aug 2006

Born : 03 Nov 1998

Brigid

Brigid (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : May 2013

Born : 28 Jul 2003

Siblings : Martin Kiptoo

Brenda

Brenda (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Oct 2009

Born : 01 Jul 2002

Siblings : Phylis

Bradley

Bradley (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Dec 2006

Born : 7 Oct 2006

Betty

Betty (800x600)

Arrived at EAMO : Jan 2012

Born : 1999

Beth

Beth (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Jul 2012

Born : 18 April 2004

Siblings : Danson, Magdalene, Jonah, Annette and Annie

Bennie

Bennie (450x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Oct 2012

Born : 2009

Siblings : Teresia

Benjamin

Benjamin (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Nov 2009

Born : 15 Dec 2000

Ben

Ben (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Jun 2005

Born : 21 May 2003

Siblings : Minnie and Philemon

Beatrice Tamara

Beatrice_Tamara (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Oct 2012

Born : 18 Jul 2005

Beatrice Chebet

Beatrice Chebet (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Oct 2012

Born : 18 Jul 2005

Siblings : Samuel, Martha, Eddy and Nola

Ashley

Ashley (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO :  Oct 2012

Born : 30 Dec 2005

Annie

Annie (450x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Jun 2012

Born : 28 Jun 2006

Siblings : Magdalene, Danson, Jonah, Beth and Annette

Annette

Annette (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Mar 2012

Born : 04 Sep 2003

Siblings : Magdalene, Danson, Jonah, Beth and Annie

Anne

Ann (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Dec 2004

Born : 16 Jan 1997

Anita

Anita (450x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Aug 2013

Born : 01 Sep 2011

Angelique

Angelique (800x600)

Arrived at EAMO : Feb 2013

Born : 25 Nov 1998

Siblings : Edward & Esbon

Adam

Adam (450x800)

Arrived at EAMO : May 2008

Born : 01 Apr 2008

Abraham

Abraham (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Apr 2014

Born : 2 Nov 2013

Siblings : Deborah & Loice

Abe

Abe (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : 2006

Born : 2 Dec 2005

Siblings : Freddy

Abby (Abigail)

Abby (450x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Feb 2008

Born : 4 Nov 2007

Aron

Aron (600x800)

Arrived at EAMO : Oct 2005

Born : 12 Feb 2000

Making Way for Progress

How time fly’s, its been 15 years since we arrived in Kenya and now we are beginning to tear down some of our old wooden buildings that May and I and Ben and Danielle built when we first started taking in children.

The picture here shows the old dining room that eventually became a classroom coming down to make way for the much needed library for our EAMO Academy.

One of our ex Gecko’s safari campers who then came back some time later to volunteer is raising funds for us to build this Library. Thank you Ann sooo much for the hard work you are putting in to raising these funds for this needful project.

You can contact Ann at – ann.treloar@gmail.com

New Classroom:

The new Nursery Classroom is finally opened, yeah!

Thanks to donors, we are now using the 1st of two new classrooms. The children have been attending school in one of our very old original EAMO buildings like the one pictured above. There is still painting of fancy things on the the walls to come along with new cupboards.

Just as a matter of fact in case you did not know, all the buildings and furniture are made on site on the EAMO campus by our very own stone mason’s and carpenters called “Fundi’s”.

The Nursery:

Just had to put this picture in of the little one’s in the nursery. They are all little bundles of joy. But don’t forget, they were not always this happy. Mostly when they come they are struggling with some health issue or many health issues.

Doctors Day:

EAMO has been blessed by a regular visits from a team of Doctors from Canada. This is their 3rd visit and the 3rd time many kids line up for a check up. Most families will have 2-4 kids to care for, try looking after 222 kids with health issues. But we must say, the kids lined up are usually the new one’s that come that are suffering from malnutrition. EAMO kids are generally healthy. Due to the fact that they are mostly vegetarian of course 🙂

New Kids:

Since the last newsletter we have taken in close to 10 children.

Most of the time upon admission the details are little as they come from the Children’s Court through the District Children’s Office.

Following is a few cases:

Two brothers, Jeremiah, we were not given the name of the other boy, the sisters name was Sara. Jeremiah and Sara were malnourished, but the “no name” boy was seriously malnourished with a terrible case of measles.

We admitted “no name” to the hospital 3 days after he arrived. After another two days we requested the hospital to release him so as we could take him to another hospital as he was not getting better. They told us he would die if we took him out of there, well, that night the boy died in that hospital!!!

Two boys, Steven and Joel not from the same family, were brought to us by the Children’s Dept. Both boys were malnourished and covered with boils.

Ernst and Noah were not able to be cared for by their mother which left them severally malnourished. Noah, the two year old was so sick and weak we had to put him back on baby formula. Both boys are doing better now.

Again from the Children’s Dept, one boy and one girl were taken out of the Court’s Remand Home were brought to us. Sorry we can’t give the details as nobody knows them!!!!

More Good News:

The ever helpful Eric Rajah from “A Better World” Canada, introduced us to an organisation that is going to install 20 computers for our PC/Lab. Not only are they supplying and installing, they are even going to give training to all our teachers and then on top of all that, they will maintain them and even replace them after a certain period of time. What a break through for us. This is what we have been waiting for for soooo long. Thank you again Eric for looking out for EAMO once again.

Only problem is now, as you can imagine and understand, this organisation has stipulations to the setting up of such a deal. They need a certain size classroom that is dust free, with full security, 20 electrical sockets and UPS’s (Unlimited Power Supply) before they will install.

At the moment, EAMO is using up every one of its rooms for its 220 plus kids, so we are looking for a donor for the new PC/Lab building that will be 8m x 7m that will be attached to our own high school. We are looking for roughly $20,000 Aud to complete this building.

Once this building is finished, the PC’s will be installed and all of the EAMO high school will have access to the internet (restricted of course) to further their studies. Great news hey!!

Urgent Needs:

EAMO financially operates mainly on its sponsorship program, but it is still not enough to cover the monthly budget. The balance still has to come through generous donations in which there is no control over. Consequently, every now and then, our accounts get a little low and now is one of those times.

So, if anyone can assist us right now, it would really be appreciated by all here.

Thank you all so much for understanding and supporting EAMO for the past 15 years.

Thanks, and kind regards to you all.

Ralph & May Spinks

Founders of EAMO.

Swimming Pool

Since now we have our own bus to take the children out on out-ings and sometimes to the hot springs where there are both hot and cold water pools where the kids have been learning to swim, the children have been pestering me to let them start dig-ging our very own swimming pool. I kept telling them that we need more buildings before we can even think of a swimming pool. After a long time they convinced me to let them get started! I thought, well it won’t cost us anything to dig a hole in the ground.

I have inserted a few pictures of our “Jolly Barnyard”. This is some of our big boys delight. It all started with Nathan coming to me and asking if he could have some used wood and nails to build and small pen for some chickens. I agreed so he went and built him rough little chicken coup. The I found out that one of the other boys was getting a chicken given to him. I wondered where he was going to put this chicken and thought he would come to me and ask me for wood and nails like Nathan did. But he didn’t come so I suspected the chicken never came. Then I found out later that Nathan had built more than one pen and that we had many chickens down there and that Nathan was showing traits of becoming quite the business boy.

They say to me Dad, have faith that we will get money to build our swimming pool just like the purchasing of the property and the bus that we prayed for for some time. How could I refuse to let them start digging? Attached are a couple of pics of the big boys digging and the progress so far. You may think to yourself that that is a big job for them to do. Don’t worry, they just love to dig. We are currently digging a new pit toilet that goes down about 20ft, and they love it. In fact if I did not stop them from digging deeper, they would keep going!

Ralph Spinks

Another new baby

We have a new baby in the Nursery now, her name is Jody, named after a recent visitor. Jody is 2 1/2 weeks old. She was 2.9 kg at birth and she is very healthy and happy now. Her story is as follows. The nurses at the local hospital said that they thought the mother may have been raped by a relative. After the mother gave birth in the hospital, she just said that she wanted her baby to be adopted out. She did not even look at Jody once, she just left the hospital. May was in the hospital getting blood tests done for two of our HIV children, and decided to go and check out how the nursery was going. She met up Jody and another tiny baby that was too small for her to take. May has been taking formula into the hospital so that tiny baby can be fed. The hospital does not give formula, but does give straight cows milk from the carton! Will keep you posted. The pic (right) is Eunice looking after Jody. Eunice is one of our girls. She is 15 years old and has been with us for 10 years.

School Holidays:

School holidays are here again. The children have worked hard all year at school so now it’s time to have a break. We already have 4 boys in secondary school, 1 in 1st grade and 3 in 2nd grade. We had 2 of these 2nd graders attending the “Menengai High School”, but we have decided for 2009 that they will be joining the other two at the nearby “Uhuru High School”. We also have 6 of our EAMO Primary School children joining the boys and attending Uhuru High School too this coming year. With 10 of our children going off campus now, we have decided to purchase a used Nissan Urvan for their transport.Jack, our Assistant Manager and Accountant has recently obtained his driver’s licence, so he will be driving the 10 children to and from the school. EAMO Primary School on our campus will continue on with a small change in a few of our teaching staff. Management has big plans to uplift EAMO Primary in 2009, so we are all excited about it. Please don’t for-get that we are still looking for experienced volunteer teachers either currently in service or retired. We have mentioned before, that we are really keenly seeking people to come and teach and supervise our teachers in and effort to give our children the best quality education possible. Please write to us if interested.

Testimony from a Visitor:

As I entered EAMO I observed the entrance sign at the gate. It is a picture of smiling, laughing, and healthy children. A three-some combination that my travels through Kenya, in the past month, have shown hard to find. As I spent two weeks at EAMO I saw the picture on the sign as a reality. During my stay I spent most of my time with the babies. EAMO currently has 16 babies and I was amazed everyday at their capabilities, care, and progress. Each of the babies comes to EAMO with a past of no smiles. Each was struggling to survive. Now 16 babies have smiles and yes also tears, but these tears are typical childhood tears.

I saw these smiles during my hours I spent helping and playing with the babies. One of my favorite moments with the babies was prayer time before a meal or to close worship. To see the eight older babies kneel, fold their hands, and then repeat their simple prayer to God was a special moment. When there are 16 babies, the task of care is enormous. Imagine 16 babies getting a bath every morning. This means four in the tub at a time. I found this to be a picture perfect moment. Also imagine nine little potties lined in a row with nine babies learning how to be potty trained. Potty training nine at once is a big job. Outside we would all go for a walk with one baby holding each of my hands and two holding the sides of my skirt. I enjoyed the walks and challenged myself to teach the babies something new each day, maybe a song, a new English word, or even how to count to ten. It is through all these moments of prayer, worship, bathing, potty training, and numerous others that I saw the entrance sign picture as a reality. As the babies said, “Bye Auntie Shan, a hug Auntie Shan” I felt the love that these babies are being shown and the love they are learning. As I exited EAMO I waived good-bye to the smiling, laughing, and healthy children. As the laughter and activity began to fade I thought EAMO is accomplishing its motto of “We put back the smiles on faces.” It is these smiles and happy moments with each child that I will remember.

Shantel Jamieson, Canada