Moms & Teenagers Volunteering in Africa

When A big dream comes true and gets much bigger in reality than in your dream:

7 Moms & 7 teenagers volunteering in Africa – unforgettable project in Summer 2019 and what TOYS have anything to do with this project?

Here is another “Personal post”.

This time I will share with you about this project that took 2 years to prepare and wonderful 10 days that will remain unforgettable for the rest of my life as well as my daughter’s life!

It all started in 2017 when I thought how wonderful it could be to travel with my 13 years old bat-mitzvah oldest daughter and do some good somewhere in the world…

For me Africa had always “called” me in some way and will always do I guess. Something about the culture and the cutest kids there just make me smile!

And then I started to talk with some friends and moms around me of this “ideal” trip in Africa parent and teenagers volunteering there for 2 weeks!

2 good friends, others moms I value very much, joined into my dream and then little by little another 4 came along, each very unique women, moms with their teenager. So we quickly became a group of 7 moms and 7 teenagers!

Then, I met a wonderful lady who has been volunteering in Kenya for more than 5 years, always in same village, Masogo, with the same local wonderful organization, Golden Girls Foundation, a non-profit organization that trains beautiful women (inside and outside) to help girls in Kenya remain in school and keep safe.

For us, the security was a must as we would come with our own kids to a place we have never been, so getting to a place “known” was crucial, and this is how we decided to go to Masogo and started to get in contact with Ben & Golda, the couple behind Golden Girls Foundation.

We had our group. We had our location. We had the best partner locally (that lady called Edna) and in Kenya (Ben & Golda)!

Then we started meeting all of us, listening to each other and trying to put together a trip, our project! The beautiful process made this possible to include our teenagers in the thinking, planning, dream.

We decided to spend 2-3 days in the safari which was an amazing experience, where I felt the natural world, the animal strong world that is so beautiful when we, human beings, stay out of it.

After the safari, we joined the village in MASOGO for a week of volunteering. Each mom and each child took responsibilities: gather money, donations, toys, school supplies…

The kids all do sports, basketball, horseback riding, swimming, roller hockey and figure skater…so an idea came to build there in the village a basketball court and teach the kids at that school basketball!!

When you want to do good, lots of people want to take part of it and each came along in his own way. This was another big lesson for me! I approached SBI Kenya (construction company located also in Kenya) who joined forces and agreed to build the basketball court there for us. We had basketball clubs donate clothes and balls.

As we got closer to the date of the flight, the excitement got bigger and bigger towards the big trip.

Our teenagers volunteered for the whole week. Each day at the local school we played and learned with the local kids. We connected. We got attached. We loved every moment there. We learned so much.

We did not come to teach or show our way. We came to share, connect and learn together…

…and we indeed learned so much.

Thanks to great colleagues in the TOY industry, we got new toys donated, shipped there. Thank you Pixie Crew (read post). Thank you Yogi Fun (read post about yoga games). Thank you Kiddo Booklets (read post). Thank you to Bubabloon and Minene who sent may children textile as gifts.

I always believe in playing, games, toys. This is my way to share, enjoy, get to know each other and this is the reason we brought so many toys with us, we played there a lot and we go those great donations.

Here is my last post I published on my private Facebook on July 18th, 2019 when we got back:

“I am a believer in helping each other and educating my kids that way. I also believe children from 12 years old are capable of “giving” so I organized a special trip for the last year and we just came back…

7 moms and 7 children 11-12 years old.

We left to volunteer in a village in Masogo, Kenya.

We gathered money and lots of donations, traveled with 800 kilos of suitcases and bags (thank you Ethiopian Airlines), big hearts and great energy…

We volunteered in a school with 90 children every day. We did a nice activity with 50 local women, all mentors volunteering themselves at Golden Girls Foundation , that help girls continue to secondary school and teach them about their body and how to protect it.

We got great cooperation from companies to help such as SBI Kenya who is finishing to build there a basketball field for the kids as well as basketball clubs from Israel who donated sport clothes. We received the cooperation of DHL Express Israel to ship donations from great toy & baby brands I represent (Pixie Crew, Minene, Kiddo, Yogi Fun, Bubabloon).
We received from Eco Bank as donation that will allow 10 additional kids to attend school…and so much more…

but we learned even more in the process and while there.

We learned that when we start a project, so many great people and companies open their hearts and help!
We learned about gratitude from the local women and kids.
We learned that life is not all about “getting more and quicker” but slowly and together:)

I am grateful for such an experience…and want to thank all the people here and not in this network for the help!”

I will share here pictures of this wonderful trip of teenagers volunteering in Africa!

Thank you Edna Halup who gave us all the great feeling, supporting before and while there.

Thank you to the 6 moms and 6 other children who made my dream possible.

Thank you Golden Girls Foundation as you welcomed us in a magnificent way.

Thank you SBI for the basketball court!

Thank you, all the local companies who donated so much, and the people around us who donated money!

Thank you Nivi, my daughter, who was there with me, during this unique trip. This made us closer to each other. I learned some new things about you and I can only recommend to any parent to have 10 days volunteering with one of his/her children one-on-one! Each child deserves such a gift! Each mom or dad deserves such a quality time!