Run: Whether You Are a Lion or a Gazelle by Dr. Vincent Muli Wa Kituku
When: June 30th (Saturday)
Where: Deli George, 220 S. Broadway, Boise, Idaho
Time: 1:30 pm — 3:30 pm
Please note: If you registered for the Kellen Moore and Vincent Kituku’s event before February 3rd, 2012, you qualify for a FREE copy of this book. Email (vincent@kituku.com) or call Dr. Kituku (208 376-8724) before 29th June, 4:00 pm.
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You may or may not recall the story I wrote in 2010 of a partial orphan in high school in Kenya who shocked me and the board of Caring Hearts and Hands of Hope when he sent to us his father’s death certificate with his application for sponsorship. I had never seen anyone so desperate that he or she could expose their vulnerability to a stranger at that level. I have lost three brothers and two sisters. I have the death certificate of one of my sisters, which I make no effort to see. Whenever I do see it, my heart is always disturbed. That is why Michael’s story moved me.
Michael’s story touched a woman who decided to support him with his tuition and fees, thus making it possible for him to attend without interruption throughout his last two years of high school. Here are his results:
Mathematics (A), Chemistry (A), English (B), Biology (A-), Kiswahili (B+), Physics (A), Home Science (B), and History and Government (A). Yes, Michael will be joining university.
How Michael took advantage of his sponsorship is not the only story that has brought tears to my eyes. Rozzan's (shown here in school uniform) father died when she was young, and left his jobless wife with no land or means of support. She and her mother became squatters. This girl was acceptedto join a great high school in 2006. Because she lacked tuition, she left school and worked for two years making less than $2/day, some of which was used for meals. But as fate would have it, she conceived and had a baby boy, and the little she had saved for tuition had to be diverted into supporting her son.
What, however, is astonishing is Rozzan’s determination not to let obstacles destroy her dream of acquiring an education. She applied and was accepted to a day school near her home. She combined schooling, working and raising her son, until Caring Hearts and Hands of Hope learned about her and a sponsor paid 100% of her tuition. Rozzan had a C and is waiting to attend a mass communication college.
Another student you may recall her photo and story in the May 2010 newsletter, whose mother died the day she was born was Anne. Shortly thereafter, her father died. I met Anne when she was 22 and pleaded with me to help her re-join high school. Facing a myriad of challenges, Anne’s hope kept her focused on a better tomorrow. Like Rozzan, she passed with a C and is waiting to join a nursing college.
The above cases represent part of a very encouraging report. Of the 106 students Caring Hearts and Hands of Hope supported in 2011 (we now have 123), 19 students, either total or partial orphans or from poverty-stricken families, sat for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education. Two had As, six had Bs, seven had Cs, and three had D+. That means 84% of the needy children are either going on to university or will join training colleges.
This is great news given that many of these students previously had not been able to be in class for more than a few weeks without being suspended due to unpaid tuition and fees. Most of the current students have been sponsored from their first day of high school life. Their performance has been spectacular.
Each of the needy students has a heartbreaking story. Some, especially the girls, had repeated 8th grade several times, their only hope was to grow big and get married. One girl, at 15 was about to be forced into early marriage before a sponsor helped her with her tuition and fees. The boys either repeated with the hope that a well-wisher would one day assist them or they would be forced to seek manual labor employment.
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A few hours before leaving Kenya last year, I met Patrick. To say that he was desperate is to understate the emptiness of his eyes and voice. At 18, he had passed the 8th grade exams and had been accepted to join high school. Unlike other students, Patrick had never repeated a class. He started school at the age of ten in 2003 when elementary education became free in Kenya (remember the 75- year-old man’s story who also took advantage of the opportunity to start 1st grade — I wrote about him in 2007). Patricks poor parents had been unable to send to him kindergarten or first grade. He took advantage of the free education.
But after passing the 8th grade exams, he was staring at an empty future. I met him one day before freshmen were to report to their prospective high schools. I have never been emotionally stable enough to write about Patrick’s tears and how he broke down as he poured his heart out to me. He has been an outstanding student.
There are no words that can truly express the depth of gratitude destitute students and their guardians have when they have a sponsor. Currently, high school tuition in Kenya is about $350/year for a student to attend a promising school. Again, 100% of your donation is used for tuition and fees. You are given the photo, name and contact information of your student(s) including the school’s name and the principal’s name and contact information. Further, at the end of each term (there are three terms per year in Kenya), you receive report on your student’s academic progress. Any donation helps and in cases where the tuition is more than $350, we cover the difference with money contributed to the program by organizations and schools that I speak to on a volunteer basis and also with other small donations.
Here is my special invitation for you to help fight poverty, disease and break the circle of dependency by educating the most vulnerable children in this world. Please visit www.caringheartsandhandsofhope.com and feel free to donate on our secure online system. Again, any amount will give hope to an orphan or another poor child. You can also mail a check to Caring Hearts and Hands of Hope, P.O Box 7152, Boise, Idaho 83707. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at (208) 376-8724. Caring Hearts and Hands of Hope Inc, is a 501 (c)(3) organization and EIN is 27-3127770, for tax deduction purposes.
Another way to help and in the process own one of the most inspiring books for professional and personal development is by ordering your own copy of Run: Whether You Are a Lion or a Gazelle at www.kituku.com. We plan to use 100% of July profits to help in supporting these children.
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After my presentation on "Living and Working with Cultural Differences," a student from Treasure Valley Community College asked me, "What can you tell us, in brief, that will help us for the rest of our lives?"
His question caught me off guard. However, after a moment’s thought, I responded, "Love life."
I have contemplated the phrase ever since. How do we know that we love life? We are a generation of workers. Sometimes, we identify ourselves with what we do or who we work for. We may identify ourselves with the neighborhood we live in, the car we drive or the college where we went to school or tribe or political parties or even our faith. Where we live and work are factors in life. However, there should be no confusion between one’s life and one’s work.
As a motivational speaker/trainer, coach and writer, my work is real life. What I love about it is that I discovered thousands of other people can do what I do, but that only I am solely responsible for my personal, spiritual and professional growth. This makes me the primary caretaker of mind, body and soul and charges me to feed the minds, bodies and souls of my loved ones and those whom I am privileged to meet along my life’s journey.
It has been said that no man ever said on his deathbed, "I wish I had spent more time in the office." No U-Haul truck ever follows a funeral procession hauling the belongings of the deceased for him to use at his new and final residence. In our workplaces or homes, we rarely talk about the soul, body and mind. It is easier to list things to do, places to go, games to watch (A confession is appropriate here. I am glad that basketball playoffs are over, I can now have my life back!) or sitcoms to watch than to think of our purpose in this world. A list of our accomplishments is a dry comfort in the heat of savanna. Promotions, the fatter paychecks, or our car’s year and model wouldn’t matter if we learned today that we have a terminal illness. In our hour of need, what matters most is the state of our soul, body, mind and our relationships.
We really love life when our achievements include being good parents, a source of hope for someone who has no hope or being a reliable friend to others.
The beauty of life is not outside our reach. It is those moments when we take a walk, garden vegetables, hike or swim and experience moments of undisturbed solitude, spend time with a senior citizen and drink from the fountain of knowledge or see the tears of an orphan who is facing an uncertain future and know we can be the steppingstones for his or her new beginning.
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The uncertainties of today’s workplace are like a jungle infested with mean-spirited buffaloes stampeding on unsuspecting villagers. Turbulence, natural or economic, in Asia hurts computer industries in Boise, Idaho. Bettering the bottom line, technological advancement, less restricted international trading rules, and regional national or international mergers, have precipitated unprecedented layoffs. No one is sure of his or her source of bread for tomorrow, nor are there many people who are willing to commit their loyalty blindly to a single company.
