cankle takes manhattan: one home many hopes

many of you guys probably received the email below, but i thought it couldn't hurt to put it out for all you bloggers out there!! this is an organization my friend ryan cabrerra got me involved in and i've got to say, it's turning out to be one of the most life-giving projects i've been apart of. if you've been looking for a way to support something that is actively changing lives for the better, look no further!

read below for more details...

so here's the deal. i never do this. fundraising is not my cup of tea and i have never been torn up by something so badly that it made me want to badger my friends and family for money. but then i was introduced to one home many hopes, completely fell in love with the idea, and now here i am on a team raising money for this sweet group of girls.

“one home many hopes” is a loving home for orphaned and abandoned girls in mtwapa, kenya. OHMH finds, rescues, houses, loves and educates former street children and equips them to be the future agents of change in their community. founded in 2007, OHMH will house and educate their children (currently 32 girls, ages 2 to 15) through college so they will one day be the women who will stop other children from suffering what they did.

the whole organization started when anthony mulongo, a kenyan man, came to mombosa (eastern kenya) to check up on a six year old girl and her ten month old brother whom he had met on a previous work assignment. they did not have a father, had lost their mother to AIDS, and were living on the streets. he eventually found the little girl... only to learn that days earlier her baby brother had died on her back while searching for food. anthony took the little girl in and one home many hopes began.

i heard that story and immediately thought- but by the grace of God, that could have been me. by His grace alone, i was born in the wealthiest country on the planet and into a family that has taken care of me from the moment i entered this earth and i never had to wonder about whether or not i had the newest name-brand jeans in my closet, much less where i would get food for myself and my baby brother at six years of age.

i know this isn't the greatest economy to ask for a donation and i completely get that not everyone can spare cash at the moment. but for those of you who would like the opportunity to give, just think about what it would be like if you had slept on a pile of trash as a child. or gone days without eating. or not taken advantage of the best education your parents could afford.

these little girls on the other side of the world don't need video monitors or polka-dotted shopping cart covers or high school musical dvds... they need the basic things you don't think twice about giving your own kids you have been blessed with. more specifically, they need us to help build them a home so they can continue to learn and love and develop and have a chance at life... just like we had.

so for the next TWO weeks, i am accepting donations on this website:

http://www.firstgiving.com/sarahmyers

i only have $400 more to go, so that means that anything helps, no matter how big or small. 100% of the money i raise goes to build the living room of the first new home the girls have ever had.

and if it helps to have a face with the cause you are supporting, let me introduce you to the little girl i spoke about earlier. this is Gift. (yes, that is her God-given name... pretty perfect, huh?)

thanks to OHMH, she is a thriving teenager who is now mentoring the younger girls and living her life, looking forward to what is to come, just like us.

"when someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required." -luke 12:48

i love ya'll & thanks in advance,

sarah

i didn't have enough room on the email to include more pictures of the girls that are making up OHMH at the moment, so thank goodness for blogs! here are some more of the precious ladybugs you are supporting...