New mission - new blog! Follow us to Kenya!

Dear followers of our "Glorious Orphanage" charity mission blog,

thanks a lot for your interest in our charity work, we had almost 3000 followers for this blog! Busy as we are, we organized several charity events at the Sheraton Abu Dhabi Hotel & Resort within the year that past, and we are happy to announce our next mission.

This time, we chose the "impoverished children" project in Kibera, Kenya, one of the largest slums in Africa. The project is run by an Australian expat lady and we are very happy to support her and the 101 children on site. Follow our new blog on: www.kiberacharity2013.blogspot.com.

See you there and thank you for your interest.

The impact on the community...

Great news - we had another full page publication in our local UAE newspaper "Khaleej Times" at the beginning of this month, telling the story of "Glorious Orphanage" and the blog.

Being very proud of the article and hoping to have reached some people, we were not disappointed. Last week, an email reached us which touched us all:

Hello Sheraton team!

I have been living and working here in Abu Dhabi since moving from Australia nearly two years ago. I work as the Human Resources Coordinator in Abu Dhabi.
 
I was very touched to read your online blog about your visit to the Glorious Orphanage, after reading an article about it. What an amazing and rewarding trip for you and your colleagues.

Of course I'm keen to make an individual donation, and thought perhaps I should purchase some 'bricks' for the proposed new facilities, that I read about in the August 2011 newsletter on the Glorious Orphanage website. 
 
As it turns out I am taking leave soon and, for some weeks now, I've been booked to travel to Tanzania near the end of this month, for the sole purpose of climbing Mt Kilimanjaro with an adventure group. I do actually have a few spare days before I return to work and I was wondering about extending my stay in Tanzania to visit the orphanage and lend a hand. It would only be for two, maybe three, days and then I'd have to head home. Admittedly, this is a rather short period and I don't know if I could be of any practical assistance. But if I could be of any help in any way, either in the yard, or helping in the school, I'd only be too happy to assist. 

I understand that getting to Arusha from Moshi is fairly straightforward and I could make my own accommodation arrangements in Arusha.

I'd also be keen to return for a longer period later in the year to volunteer, if work commitments allowed it.
If such a visit was permitted, I would need to make changes to my existing flight arrangements this week if possible, as I am out of the country from Friday. 

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this suggestion. You must be extremely busy, and I expect you have probably been inundated with enquiries, so I do very much appreciate your time.

Thanks,

XX

We've met the gentleman together with Lujan and advised him on his trip to the orphanage. He is planning to buy the "festive meal" for the kids and maybe even food bags for the families! Of course he is also looking forward to help with cooking and playing with the kids. What an exemplary person, we are so happy for him to experience the same as we did!

On another note - Abu Dhabi Week received a call from a 13-years old girl saying "I read the article on the orphanage. I do not have money, but please let me know how I can help otherwise!". Isn't this great?

Bitten by the charity bug: Post-Tanzania plans and activities

It has been one week now that we returned to the UAE and as difficult as it was to adapt again to the "normal" life, the feedback from the local community was overwhelming!

With our blog reaching slowly but surely 2000 followers from 10 different countries, we are convinced that there is a lot of interest out there for charity work.

The media in Abu Dhabi are extremely supportive and eager to learn about the story. We sincerely hope that many readers learn about this project and if there is only ONE person amongst them who donates to the orphanage, we feel that raising awareness in this way was worth it.



Abu Dhabi Week Magazine, 8th of March 2012





Al Zajel Magazine, March 2012

With all this enthusiasm from within and outside our hotel, we have decided to donate the funds which will be raised in the next charity flea market (12th of May) as well as the September one to the "Glorious Orphanage". The "no-email day" funds will also benefit the kids again.

We are not sure yet whether we will send another "task force team" to Tanzania later this year or just giving the amount to Lujan Mourad (Fundraising Director of Glorious Orphanage UAE) who will fly to Arusha in August.

Whatever we decide, we hope that our efforts paired with future media publications will drive additional interest from individuals or corporations towards this topic. We will keep posting media articles (expecting Khaleej Times and Friday Magazine soon), as well as the further development on our fundraising activities for the cause.

If anybody would like to get in contact with Ms Mourad (for information or donations), please feel free to contact her on lujan.mourad@gloriousorphanage.com or contact us directly.

Thanks and we'll keep you up to date!

The last and most amazing day

We were quite excited driving the last time to the orphanage this morning. Especially when taking a different turn through a huge slum, it striked us again the conditions “our” kids are living when outside of the orphanage.

the neighborhood

Once arrived, we started to get the bags ready for each class room. One by one the children were called out of the class and directed to the office construction site where they received their bag, guided inside and helped by us into their track suits, socks, shoes etc. The excitement in the class rooms grew by the second, children’s eyes glued from the window to the newly dressed kids outside!

first newly dressed bunch of kids in the school yard

first moments with new clothes

what's going on out there?

In the “changing room”, we took each kid aside, removed their school uniforms, their shoes and socks – or what was left of them – and got them into their track suits and baseball hats. This was the most stunning, rewarding yet sometimes shocking experience of the trip for most of us. When removing the clothes we often noticed that they had no socks or underwear at all and in nearly all the children’s pockets we could find the little toy car we gave them yesterday. Some even still had their balloons suggesting that they carry all their “precious’ items with them at all times. A few children did not know how to put on socks – they never had any.

undressing and dressing 81 kids

who of us is happier?

I removed a girl’s shoes full of holes and discovered that she had no socks, when she spotted the new, clean socks, she laughed out loud in total joy! Another guy was very shy to undress until we found out he had no underwear. Showing him the two new panties in the bag for him, he got tears in his eyes – and us too. Which Western child would get emotional over a pair of socks, shoes or underwear?

the content of one bag

The shoes seemed nevertheless to be the most popular items in the bag. When seeing them they could not wait to get rid of the old ones, kicking them impatiently in a corner. Even if it was the total wrong size, way too big or too small, they said “it’s ok, teacher”, fearing that we might take them away. We’ve changed them later on into the right sizes.

finding the right shoe size

excited about the new outfit

When demonstrating how to wear the tights we’ve brought over, the girls went ecstatic, never having seen tights in their lives and always wearing heavy trousers underneath their school skirts! Some of the guys supposedly only knew baseball hats from magazines – when handing them over, they turned them the other way around and started to make some hip hop moves….

hip hop moves

the sportive "gang"

After all this excitement, the volume level in the class room and court yard was considerably rising. All of them jumped around laughing and showing off saying ‘I look so smart!”, followed by a very well  organized group picture for us.

us with the kids

To shorten the time before lunch a bit, they all gathered in one class room and the music was turned on. There we were – a bunch of happy, satisfied, hyper and laughing children dancing to their favorite songs!

Outside, Alice took care of the guardians who came to collect the bags with the additional new clothes and the worn items. They were gathered in a different class room and lectured for a full hour on how to take care of the children, the new items, that they are strictly for them and that they need to take good care of the new clothes and toys.

Alice lecturing the guardians

Let us put Alice in the spotlight for a minute – this 32 years old woman is running the show at the orphanage, being a mother to all kids, caring for their wellbeing just as much as for her own three children. This is quite remarkable in a country where poverty forces you to think about yourself and your own first. Yesterday we learnt that she took an orphan into her own home. The pupil’s guardian passed away on Tuesday and he had nowhere to go to.  She did organize all the shopping from our donations, packed all the bags, re-filled 20 canisters of oil for a whole day (without a single sign of complaint), wrote the messages for the guardians, organized the lunches and spent lots of time for the school kids although having three children by  herself. When handing over the remaining money to her yesterday, she said: “I would like to cry now; you did so much for us I do not know how to thank you.” She really does not count her own efforts in this, what an exemplary woman!

Alice and her 81 additional children

The guardians started to leave with the bags, each single one stopping at us, thanking us and wishing us farewell. One of them came with tears in her eyes, touching our hands and individually thanking us by blessing us. Another quite emotional moment…

the guardians

excited what their kids might have got

a little baby sister

guardians leaving happily

Finally it was time for the last treat of our trip – the festive lunch! After cooking for hours, the dishes werre served, consisting of one potato, one spoon of salad, one egg, one samosa and a piece of fried chicken! Keep in mind - this is considered the special festive meal in months!

Yves cooking



the chicken is getting ready

Julius frying the chicken

When serving the plates in the classroom, they were all sitting again with a finger on their mouth, meaning they have to behave and be quiet otherwise there is no treat. Everyone had to wait until the last person had the dish served, the meal could not be touched before that. Staring at the plates, we noticed some of them secretly licking the edge of the plate already, not being able to wait!

PSSSSSST!

waiting until everyone is served

behave and be quiet

The juices, a special treat once in a while, were served along with the meal and after a “thank you” prayer they finally started eating. What a joy being a witness of this!

Finally eating time!

not yet for these guys

the special treat - a juice!

With our project coming to an end, we said our farewells, left some more money for another food supply round to the families and received beautiful African dresses. Alice could not have better spoken our minds and feelings by saying “this was a truly beautiful day”. We left surrounded by the kids, glowing of pride in their new clothes and running after our car until we were gone.

Alice, Yves, Martina, Zoe and Julius in traditional gifts

the last good bye

To sum up, we are amazed and proud that we really made a difference in these children’s life. Not only have we as the team from Sheraton Abu Dhabi Hotel have made an impact on the way of life over here, but all other volunteers / donors / ambassadors who have dedicated parts of their life to charity work. Juma as an example, the disabled kid we saw on so many pictures, had a brain infection as a baby and could not walk. Volunteers at the orphanage fixed him leg braces and today he is walking by himself and without any help to school (only holding the hand of a same-aged friend).

 Looking at the bigger picture, founding this orphanage has made a huge difference in each of the 81 children’s life and only with volunteers, donations and the personal efforts of individuals, this work can be continued. We know it might be controversial to make publicity of a charity project but we strongly believe that only if the awareness and the stories are spread as much as possible, it will reach the right people which might follow our examples.

Our donations in the long-term like the veranda, the medium-term such as the track suits, running shoes and uniforms as well as in the short-term such as the food bags for the families, the lunch and the goodies, have definitely made a difference over here. But let’s keep in mind that Glorious Orphanage is only ONE of the many orphanages here in Arusha (which are even in much worse condition) and Arusha is only one city in Africa, so rest assured however small your donation of money, time or dedication is, it will make a big difference in someone’s life.

A huge thanks to Alice who integrated us in her family, the kids which opened our eyes and hearts in any possible way, Lujan for pointing us in the direction of the orphanage and of course our HOD team at the hotel which made this project possible in the first place and allowed us to act as ambassadors on site!

THANKS!

Tomorrow is Christmas!

We are all sorted now - when we arrived at the orphanage today, we were very happy to see that not only the running shoes had arrived but also the jump suits for all kids!

jump suits and running shoes

So we started another couple of hours of packing 81 individual bags with the running shoes, the jump suit, paired with socks from Abu Dhabi and two pieces of underwear for each one. We are so excited to see the children's faces tomorrow when receiving the bags!

81 bags to pack

socks, tights, underwear, jump suits and runners

When finished, we went to town to do another shopping trip - white boards for the school rooms, stationary such as pencils, markers, school books and pencil sharpeners. On the way back we stopped at a supermarket and bought some more items - plastic jugs, buckets, toy cars for every child and balloons.

stationaries for the school

 a few toys and household items

the Tanzanian way to transport the white boards in the open trunk

Arriving back at the orphanage, we distributed the crayons, vitamins, coloring books, sweets, stickers and the glowing stars to Alice, deciding that we only do the stickers and the cars today. The room was bursting of new items which made us overly excited for the "big day" tomorrow!

nearly finished

our goodies from Abu Dhabi

stickers, glowing stars and crayons - for some excitement in between

While waiting for the children to finish lunch, we had a look at the veranda, which grew substantially over night. Now they only have to wait for the concrete to dry and on Monday the roof will be fixed above it!

nearly finished!

The teacher explained to the children that the "other volunteers" are waiting outside to give them some gifts - but only if they are quiet and behaved! All eyes went outside the window in eager excitement about what the "teachers" might have for them!

When entering, we distributed the cars, the glowing stars and the stickers and were a bit surprised that they all put their finger in a "psssst" position on their mouth. So cute - we remembered that they only get the gifts if they were quiet!

look at their fingers on the mouth!

It didn't take long and the excitement took over - the lauhgter, "vroomm vroomm" sounds from playing with the cars and these hugely opened eyes staring at us made us quite sentimental, seeing again what little it takes to make a difference in their lifes. 

some of them saw a toy car for the first time in their live

us distributing the goodies

so excited about the new things!

playing with the cars

The absolute highlight in this was the moment when the teacher announced that those stars actually glow in the dark - they cheered with their hands in the air, totally happy and surprised, what a moment!

the second the bubble bursted - announcement that the stars glow at night!

All in all, this day was actually our preparation for the huge day tomorrow (and our last) - we'll spoil them with a sumptuous lunch, the clothes/shoes bags, the caps, a brand new and finished veranda and a little farewell bonbon!

We can't wait!