Melanie Pessin President and Founder at East Africa Children's Hope (E.A.C.H)
Melanie volunteered at Upendo for 4 months in 2006.
There she fell in love with the children and realized that it wasn’t volunteers and manpower that Upendo needed most; what they needed was money.
After returning to the US Melanie began hosting annual happy hour/raffle fundraisers and was able to donate $5,000 -$7,000 annually to Upendo.
Over the years support for Upendo has grown and now EACH is made up of 7 dedicated volunteers who are dedicated to helping Upendo and other organizations like it.
Please see below some examples of what Melanie accomplished thru her programme E.A.C.H.
Her help has especially been critical in 2008 when Upendo was going through a crisis.
In 2007, E.A.C.H.'s donations funded the purchase of textbooks for the schools as well as salaries for newly hired and existing teachers.
In 2008, due to post election violence, Upendo lacked basic necessities such as food and supplies. Fortunately, we were able to send emergency funds to get the children through this difficult time. That same year, funds were sent to Upendo to build volunteer & staff housing, and purchase a water pump & tank, enabling self sustaining water storage for the compound. This water set-up greatly decreased the previously labor intensive water retrieval from the well that was necessary several times each day.
In 2010, the EACH annual fundraiser was able to provide Upendo with its first income-generating project, in a giant step towards self-sustainability for the orphanage. Donations funded the purchase of posho (grain) mill that allows Upendo to mill its own grain and also to mill grain for the local community. To date, this posho mill allows Upendo to earn an average of $3.50 per day by milling grain for the community while saving money by processing all grain for their needs on-site.
Message from Melanie :
" When EACH started working with Upendo in 2006 there was only one classroom for the 30 girls living at the orphanage. Now they have a complete primary school with over 125 students, from the orphanage and the surrounding community.
Thank you to all who made this possible. Now it's time to build an additional dormitory and a secondary school ! "
There she fell in love with the children and realized that it wasn’t volunteers and manpower that Upendo needed most; what they needed was money.
After returning to the US Melanie began hosting annual happy hour/raffle fundraisers and was able to donate $5,000 -$7,000 annually to Upendo.
Over the years support for Upendo has grown and now EACH is made up of 7 dedicated volunteers who are dedicated to helping Upendo and other organizations like it.
Please see below some examples of what Melanie accomplished thru her programme E.A.C.H.
Her help has especially been critical in 2008 when Upendo was going through a crisis.
In 2007, E.A.C.H.'s donations funded the purchase of textbooks for the schools as well as salaries for newly hired and existing teachers.
In 2008, due to post election violence, Upendo lacked basic necessities such as food and supplies. Fortunately, we were able to send emergency funds to get the children through this difficult time. That same year, funds were sent to Upendo to build volunteer & staff housing, and purchase a water pump & tank, enabling self sustaining water storage for the compound. This water set-up greatly decreased the previously labor intensive water retrieval from the well that was necessary several times each day.
In 2010, the EACH annual fundraiser was able to provide Upendo with its first income-generating project, in a giant step towards self-sustainability for the orphanage. Donations funded the purchase of posho (grain) mill that allows Upendo to mill its own grain and also to mill grain for the local community. To date, this posho mill allows Upendo to earn an average of $3.50 per day by milling grain for the community while saving money by processing all grain for their needs on-site.
Message from Melanie :
" When EACH started working with Upendo in 2006 there was only one classroom for the 30 girls living at the orphanage. Now they have a complete primary school with over 125 students, from the orphanage and the surrounding community.
Thank you to all who made this possible. Now it's time to build an additional dormitory and a secondary school ! "