Answering the Question of Tomorrow

Today, we visited Strong Tower Orphanage and met a group of lovely children. The orphanage houses over 35 boys and girls from the ages of 3 to 17.

In addition to providing food and shelter, Strong Tower teaches these children basic life skills including, personal hygiene, cooking, laundry and farming. With these skills, Strong Tower ensures that once these children leave at the age of majority they’ll be able to live independently. It also provides these children with educational support and motivation to pursue their dreams. There are high hopes that these children will grow up to be leaders of tomorrow and fill different gaps in society. Some may grow up to be doctors, teachers or lawyers. The possibilities are endless. These children have so much support but it’s important that this support is continued so that they can live up to their full potentials. One of our fellow students, Jean Sauveur, summed it up nicely: with hard work and hope you will be able to overcome all of life’s challenges. We agree with Jean, but how can we sustainably support these children when they are faced with so many barriers to achieving their goals other than working hard and having hope?

By: Olivia Petersons (MMASc in Global Health Systems in Africa Candidate); Aleksey Paltsev (PhD and Collaborative Program in Global Health Systems in Africa Candidate); Joyce Mutiso (BSc Egerton University)