It's hard to imagine, but South Africa has an estimated 2 million orphans! That's why Kids Caring 4 Kids was so excited to help build and outfit the Kerus Orphan Care Center near Pretoria with our partner, Kerus Global Education.

Bright Hope International provides orphan and medical care, education, farming resources, and more to the people in Nguuni, Kanziko, Kenya. But they had so many AIDS orphans that over 30 girls had been living in two cramped classrooms! They desperately needed a dorm where these girls, ages 3-17, could live with caring adults, eat good meals, and experience “family.”

With your help, Kids Caring 4 Kids has given over $60,000 to build the new Hope for Life Center in Kenya. This project was done in connection with Kendall's local church, Wheaton Bible Church in suburban Chicago.

Hope for Life was started by an amazing Kenyan woman named Josephine Kiarii. She quit her job as a government official and formed this organization to reach out to more than 100 kids in the community orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

The first major project supported by Kids Caring 4 Kids was in AIDS ravaged Zambia, in partnership with World Vision in 2004. 

It was during this year that Kendall Ciesemier, founder of KC4K, underwent two liver transplants and asked friends and family to send donations instead of flowers or gifts.

Worldwide, a child dies from a preventable, water-related disease every 15 seconds. Most of these children are younger than five.  A majority of them—80 percent—are younger than two. Diarrhea alone kills 1.6 million children each year, equal to about 4,500 children per day, according to the World Health Organization.

Not only are bicylces fun, they play a VERY important role in rural Zambia. It is especially difficult to complete a secondary education. Family dependence on the contribution of children in economic activities, the impact of HIV/AIDS on families, the increasing populations of orphans, the growing number of child-headed households and extreme levels of poverty have resulted in only 60% of Zambian children in primary school completing their secondary education.