A FAITH JOURNEY

In 2010 Wanjiru traveled from the US to Kenya and called the Gitombo Community together. The community agreed on a three-tier focus
to break the cycle of poverty. These three were:

1. Water.

2. Education.

3. Microfinance

Wanjiru struggled to start working on the above projects but God is faithful! Ten years later, through PAAV all have been tackled.
Wanjiru returned to Denver, where she worked for Christian Living Communities (CLC). She started sharing her vision with her friends, who were very supportive of this initiative.
Wanjiru gave all these plans to God and there were some obvious DIVINE APPOINTMENTS. To start with, a non-profit had to be formed and Wanjiru didn’t know how to go about it. However, one day, while at a CLC management staff retreat, in Keystone, Colorado, Wanjiru met Andy Stewart.
As they introduced themselves and talked, Wanjiru learned that besides his work, Andy had a ministry in Uganda and was in the process of forming a nonprofit.
God was at work. Following subsequent meetings, Andy took in Wanjiru’s PAAV vision under the
new True Impact Ministries (TI) with one vital condition: that nothing would be done before Andy and his TI team visited Gitombo. They visited Gitombo on their way to Uganda. Their visit energized the community! Water and Education were again highlighted as priority needs.
A sponsorship program was started for children to attend boarding schools. The program started with 10 children from very poor families.
With water being the first urgent need, Wanjiru and her friends started to raise support. Sufficient funds were raised and an 820-foot borehole was built.
In August of 2013, the community celebrated the water with ice cream, a gift that was donated by Dorothy, a godly woman, in her final days of life, who wanted her last gift, on earth, to go to the Gitombo Water project. After the joy of piped water, Wanjiru and the community proposed starting a school.
When she went back to Denver, she shared with her friends the joy of the community water and the idea of starting a school in Gitombo. In 2014, Wanjiru started the process of forming a non-profit organization she named as per her initial vision: Project Adopt A Village. PAAV International Ministries was registered in Colorado as a non-profit organization. One day a friend called Wanjiru and told her that her deceased aunt had left her $2,000.00 to be given to a charity of choice! That donation was used to put up the mabati shack which became the first school in Gitombo B. Upon completion, three children were available to attend and a teacher was hired. However, the teacher often left the children in class while she went out looking for other children to join the school because more children meant that she would be guaranteed a salary! Upon hearing this, Glea, one of Wanjiru’s friends, and known in the community, said she would pay the teacher’s salary! The teacher stayed in class and more children joined in. Thanks to Mr Kamau Gathu who superintended this school project, together with Wanjiru’s family. At the end of 2015, the school had 25 children ready to move to Grade 1. But the school had no land for expansion. The school did not have permission to build on the County’s property that was designated for a water project. The challenge before the team that met in Mr Wahinya Gathu’s home in 2015 was: How/where to accommodate/take the 25 children?

DIVINE INTERVENTION: God provided a way where there seemed to be no way! Amazingly, Mr Kamau Gathu received information that the property on the western side of Gitombo B was for sale. The said property had a big house which had been abandoned for many years. The price quoted was astronomical for Wanjiru and she immediately dismissed the idea of buying it. The solution came through her mother who upon hearing this went to see the property. While at the site she turned to Wanjiru, asking her to reconsider. She pointed to the house and stated: “There is your school.”When the owner heard that the property was for a school, he was so excited about it that he called off his assigned brokers and chose to sell the land to do a school in the community. Wanjiru went back to Denver leaving the sale plans to her family, not knowing exactly how God was to work it out. Back in Denver, she called the PAAV Board together and they unanimously agreed to the proposal. A big step of faith! Within a relatively short time, the $50,000 needed was raised. Renovation began. The projects were quite a task and costly, taking a long time. The community came together to do the mammoth clearing and cleaning of both the inside and outside of this deserted house. God is faithful. The school relocated and by January 2016, the school was in session. The house was rightly named SOMA House. Other activities like digging pit latrines, and construction of semi-permanent classes, activity rooms, storage rooms, etc. have been done over the years. A concrete water storage tank was constructed to harvest rainwater. New toilets were later built moving from mud-pit latrines to Asian-type, water closets, and urinals. More land was acquired. Great teamwork! The school has grown and more teachers were hired from other counties and the surrounding areas. The school is registered as PAAV-Gitombo Community Primary & Junior School. There are 212 children, from Pre-primary, Grades 1-9 plus 25 sponsored children in secondary schools and colleges.