Simon and Kenyakids – second part

Franz Kellner

by Franz Kellner

Story
2001 – 2022

The Gates Foundation’s rejection challenged my friends and me to come up with ideas on how we could help people, especially the children in Kawangware. The Advent and Christmas seasons were particularly busy. Over the years we spent several hundred euros on shipping clothes, sleeping bags for street children, and toys. From the many photos that Simon sent me, I created several years standing calendars, which sold quite well. Because I was not good at painting, I used a program to create virtual landscapes with inspiration in German and English and actually found buyers who liked them.

One of the most beautiful events was an Advent celebration in the hall that a Viennese church made available to us, where we showed artistic performances, singing, dancing, and a short story from me about the project. For us, the donations of around a thousand euros were a great success.

Even the best people have their weaknesses. Simon’s great strengths were his love and tireless commitment to his poor, human fellows. He always wanted to help straight away. He was advised by my IRFF friends and me to use this large donation to get involved in the macro business that was developing in Africa at the time. Unfortunately, he did not have the confidence in this development. Whatever arrived in Kawangware from the USA, Europe, etc. over the years was used immediately. Above all, it gave the children a short, nice time, but not the desired goal. Some friends, including from Austria and other countries, visited and helped Simon on site and were very impressed by his commitment. Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to visit Simon myself, partly for financial reasons. Nevertheless, I felt a deep, real relationship with Simon. A 10-minute phone call at Christmas was a moving experience for us.

In 2007, I read an article about Indian farmers’ wives who helped their poor farmers by taking and selling photos at family celebrations with the help of donated cameras and solar printers. So I thought Simon could try that too. I bought a small photo printer, a digital camera and color cartridges and sent it to Simon. He took a lot of portrait photos and, according to him, even photos for passports. The next problem was that he couldn’t buy the right ink cartridges in Kenya for the printer with European configuration. So I sent him another larger pack. However, it turned out that the product and shipping costs swallowed up the profit. So I stopped this artistic project.

In March 2009 we were able to register “Orphans and Street Kids, Kenya” as an NGO in Kenya.
End of the second part.




© Franz Kellner 2024-11-03

Genres
Novels & Stories
Moods
Adventurous, Challenging, Emotional, Reflective
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