Watercolors for a Cause

For Kinya with Love (SOLD)
For Kinya with Love (SOLD)

Since 2008, I have contributed over $8,000 from sales of my original watercolors to help two children living in poverty in Kenya, Africa. My contributions paid for Jackline and Kinya to attend boarding schools during grade school. We purchased an acre of land and materials to build a home when Kinya’s family became homeless.

I’ve grown to know Jackline and Kinya through letters we’ve exchanged since 2003. On a trip to Kenya in 2010, I had the great fortune to meet both them and their families. I visited Kinya’s new home and witnessed her family’s struggles in poverty. We celebrated their triumphs together, too! Kinya’s mom had built a lean-to kitchen and her teenage brother had built his own hut on the property. I learned about customs specific to an extended family living on the same property in Kenya.

Jackline graduated high school in December 2012. She dreamed of going to college and worked hard to gain her high school diploma, which is an extremely rare accomplishment in the slum where she grew up in Nairobi. In the end, Jackline encountered unsurmountable obstacles to continuing her education at the college level, however, we celebrate her high school diploma which gives her an advantage many others do not reach.

Kinya graduated from elementary school in December 2013. She hoped to graduate high school in December 2017 but ran into challenges that reset her goal to December 2019.  She continued pushing forward with her education but before graduation she discontinued her studies to raise her new baby. Kinya is able to share with her child many of the advantages she has gained from reaching her level of education.

You can help me continue to help others like Jackline and Kinya by clicking here to select to purchase a studio painting created especially for Watercolors for a Cause!

On the road to Kinya's
  On the road to Kinya’s

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