Cathy Doherty is a family nurse practitioner living on Lopez Island who has been in practice for 38 years. She began volunteering at Children of the Rising Sun orphanage in Malindi, Kenya, 10 years ago and is leaving for her next trip in mid-May of 2025. She will be addressing medical, educational and daily life needs of the children and staff.
Hal Seifert will join Doherty for their fourth trip to Malindi together to help out in any way he can. Seifert is an excellent carpenter, plumber and problem solver. He is able to fix most things and will work on sanitation, water, electrical problems (when there is electricity) and carpentry projects.
Doherty has been a pillar in Lopez’s small island community for decades. Both she and Seifert are two of the most giving people around. We have set up a fundraiser to help support them in their passion to help others. In addition to funding the cost of supplies and equipment, purchased donations will also cover their travel expenses as these have continued to rise with each trip.
Doherty and Seifert will stay onsite at the orphanage with the children and staff for just over three weeks. In addition to all the hard hands-on work they do during that time, they are also looking to make lasting changes and fund sustainable programs that can support the children and staff in their absence. Some previous examples of this have been purchasing a refrigerator, setting up meal programs, purchasing a cow for milk and providing scholarships for those children that want a high school education. Due to rampant corruption, it has proven impossible to simply mail items or try to do these things remotely.
Donations can be made through GoFundMe at https://gofund.me/01b28c58.
Doherty’s story (as written by her):
Many years ago my high school friend Diane Stemach, called me and asked if I would go to Africa with her to volunteer in an orphanage in Kenya. This was not on my bucket list. I still had a son in high school. I voiced all the reasons not to go — cost, bugs, snakes, heat, long plane trip, expense. She had an answer for everything. I went and want to keep going.
The kids and their “Aunties” (caregivers) were amazing. They were given lemons but always seemed to make lemonade. They sing their prayers every night, help each other with homework and chores, and find time to play. No one complains. On my arrival at the orphanage, after two days of travel, I was greeted by children wanting to play Bingo — when are we starting?! It is their favorite game, as we bring small toys and sunglasses for prizes. It is the first thing we do. The kids never ask for anything, except Bingo.
The Lopez community and my relatives have supported these trips, buying jikos (cookers), medications, dental care, school supplies, clothes and shoes. Now, I am once again asking the wider community for help as the needs are so great. I am trying to raise funds for medical care, medications, dental care, clothes, food, books, school supplies and scholarship money to send older kids to high school. There are so many needs that it is hard to know where to start.
Dental care is not readily available due to cost. Many children have dental cavities, broken teeth and abscesses. On my last trip, I was able to provide funds for six children’s dental care. With donations, I could take the 10 oldest children for dental care before they age out of the orphanage. I personally take them and pay for services.
Donations can also pay for everything from mattresses, soccer balls, solar lights (waka waka lights), pencils and sharpeners, and books; items that enrich everyday life for the kids. They typically make soccer balls from plastic bags wrapped in twine. I want to get a real soccer ball. The lights enable the kids to do homework at night as there is only one light bulb in the eating area, where most activity takes place. Lastly, there is always a shortage of pencils. On one trip I brought workbooks to the adjacent school. The teacher had 80 kids in the class and only three pencils. I found a place in Malindi the next day that sold school supplies and purchased 100 pencils.
This school is on the same property as the orphanage. There are about 800 children. Most classes have 60-80 kids in crowded conditions. Learning is difficult when hungry. There is widespread food insecurity. A European donor has started a feeding program of porridge for the younger kids. With enough money, I would like to expand that to all the children. At the orphanage, beans and rice are served twice daily, sometimes with kale or ugali, and bread for breakfast. There is a garden that helps supply some veggies, and there is a milking cow as well. The younger kids and HIV-positive kids get milk daily. I buy extra food, fruit and vegetables. Donations buy fruit, chicken, eggs and vegetables.
This is a tiny place on the other side of the world. A small donation could have an amazing impact on a child. The orphanage is a safe place for these children. Donations and volunteers keep it going. All donations to my cause go directly to care and services for the children at the orphanage and school. There is no middle man. It is a joy to bring all my supplies, and as I unload, see the kids welcome us, smiling, laughing, shouting Bingo?
For more information, contact Sarah Munter, 480-305-3076 or sarahcmunter@gmail.com.
