WELCOME
PASSION
WHY ME
DO
WHAT I
DO
MUST
The poverty in Kenya touched me deeply.
Touched and shaken.
I traveled the country to help, leaving it again without making a difference would be unthinkable.
Helping people in need, seeing their gratitude and joy, but also experiencing the suffering up close, touches on such deep painful levels that any word in the tragedy could not be surpassed in banality.
For me it is like a call, a place where I have to be in order to bring at least a little bit of light and above all the smile of hope into the world.
Because in hope lies the spark of confidence.
Alone I'm a drop in the sea,
together we are the ocean
Founding of the non-profit organization
SMILE OF HOPE on 4.5.24
THE REAL-LIFE
SHIMBAHILLS
The slums behind Ukunda
Despite poverty, you will find smiles everywhere in Kenya; that is what characterizes this country.
The smile of children deserves
to be omnipresent
IMPRESSIONS
THE DESIRE TO REDUCE POVERTY
CAUSES US TO
CHILDREN IN THEIR DEVELOPMENT
TO PROMOTE.
CHILDREN ARE THE SEEDS OF THE FUTURE.
THEIR POTENTIAL
TO PROMOTE ACCORDINGLY
IS A BIG
ISSUE.
THE CHILDREN'S SMILES INSPIRED US
THE NON-PROFIT ORGANISATION AS
SMILE OF HOPE
TO BE NAME
We want something
MOVE
THANK YOU
DOES OUR HELP HAVE A FACE
OUR FIRST SCHOOL SPONSORSHIPS 2024
HARISSA
A young committed man, 24 years old....
His dream is to become an engineer....
HARISSA'S HOME
His story
Harissa is a 24-year-old young man who lives with his two sisters and his mother in a slum district behind the small town of Ukunda on the border of the bush.
The father left the family very early, so the mother was on her own.
She cooks soups and sells them in the small barracks on the side of the road. This money is not enough for the mother, 2 sisters and Harissa to live, no, not even to survive.
As an adolescent, Harissa had to take on the role of head of the family.
Instead of going to school, he helped keep the family alive with small jobs.
The rent costs 9 euros per month, and there was often not enough for food.
He learned to repair tuktuks and mopeds on the street, received a few Kenya shillings in return, gave this money to his mother so that she could pay the rent.
There wasn't enough for the food.
He was often hungry, but only had a glass of water to drink and went to bed on an empty stomach, hoping that the next day would be better.
His biggest dream is still to become an engineer, which is why he still goes to elementary school at the age of 24 to make his dream come true.
He sleeps with one of his sisters on a thin dirty foam on the floor, without privacy and always fighting for survival.
SMILE OF HOPE helped.
- The school fee for Harissa was paid for 1 year.
- The rent of the desolate accommodation was financed for 1 year.
- A bed and a mattress were purchased for Harissa and the children.
When Harissa heard about the help, he cried.
In the meantime, the family has found a better house that is closer to the school and under better conditions.
Harissa goes to school every day.
Shimba Hills
See for yourself and enjoy our success.
Handover of the first school sponsorships in the Shimbahills.
SHIMBAHILLS
Handover of sponsorships
Sleeping place
and
Kitchen
successes
Many people are affected by the bitter poverty, running water is a foreign concept, there is usually only one well, if that for an entire village. These wells are operated with a rope pull and people often have to walk for miles to get water. The water is carried home on the head in desolate plastic containers.
There are no kitchens, often no electricity and many people sleep on a raffia mat on the floor. Uneven clay floor with stones and remnants of the coral subsoil.
Even in the Shimba Hills, many people do not have a bed; parents and children sleep on raffia mats or on thin foam.
We were able to help:
With the donations, Smile of Hope was able to purchase 8 beds and 8 mattresses for various families.
The joy and gratitude was very great.
Check out this wonderful joy in the following photo gallery.
HANDOVER OF THE BEDS
SEE FOR YOURSELF THE JOY OF PEOPLE
Pictures speak louder than words, seeing the joy is always heart-touching
successes
HELP FOR MAMA JANE
Mama Jane lives with her two children far below the subsistence level.
The man died last year from a serious illness.
Mama Jane is unemployed and picks herbs and tries to sell them. Her house is located on a remote hill in the Shimba Hills.
There is neither a toilet, nor water, nor a roof that covers the entire small mud house.
It rains into the house and a worn-out foam mattress gets wet.
Mama Jane can't afford the 65 cents a day for electricity...
As soon as the sun goes down, everything is black. Overshadowed by the grief of the deceased husband, the hunger, the wetness and the constant fear of existence.
Mama Jane is very ill herself, she doesn't know how to feed her children and she can't find any work.
Smile of Hope SoH helped.
The roof has been repaired so that rain does not get into the house.
To prevent the family from sleeping on the floor, a bed and a mattress were purchased.
The daughter's school sponsorship was financed for 1 year.
Education as a way out of poverty.
A food package for about 6 weeks was financed.
But look at the pictures yourself.
THIS FAMILY NEEDS CONTINUOUS HELP
AND SUPPORT
In the beginning there was hope,
let us not let them disappear
successes
RIZIKI
Riziki
Read the full story in soul-light.ch
Riziki still cannot walk, paraplegia due to fracture of the 6 and 7 vertebrae in the lumbar spine
At the age of 18, she fell into an unsecured well shaft on New Year's Eve 2021 to 2022 and suffered a back injury.
In the meantime, she has undergone various therapies and an operation, but the treatment in Kenya is difficult in convalescence.
Smile of Hope helped:
To make everyday life easier, donations were collected to finance a wheelchair. In the meantime, however, other assistance has reached the family and a wheelchair has already been financed.
- Riziki, therapy oils to promote blood circulation were financed.
- Since the mother is a single parent, cannot run her small shop on Mainroad, as she takes care of the daughter and Riziki's younger sister already has a baby, the family has hardly any income and was supported with a food package for 2 months.
In the future, we will try to involve a physiotherapist who will support Riziki 3x a week, because with the vertebral injury the prognosis looks rather stagnant without appropriate treatment. A partial feeling has come back and the hope of achieving even more exists and gives the family courage.
We try to help in the long term with a focus on developing a solution for self-help.
Let's let the pictures speak for themselves.