As co-founder of the non-profit organization the Dundori
Orphans Project, Scott has shown he’s anything other than an average college
student by going the extra distance – literally.
The Dundori Orphans Project serves the orphaned and widowed
in Kenya, particularly those affected by the AIDS epidemic. It is a
Christ-centered humanitarian organization which takes on a holistic approach by
serving and building lasting relationships with the orphans. By providing food
for these children, the organization plans to expand the feeding program to
meet the needs of more orphans, enable educational opportunities in the
community, foster spiritual growth, and ultimately deliver hope for the future.
Kim Moir, Scott’s mom, was a young nurse when she traveled
to Kenya with a missionary and his wife to work in a much needed community in
the mid 1980s. After 10 weeks, Kim returned to the states while the missionary
and his wife would stay and make Kenya their permanent home.
“She really wanted to stay in Kenya and help the children,
but she said for some reason she just felt like she was supposed to come back
to the states,” Scott said. “But now it makes so much sense as the puzzle
pieces have started to fall into place.”
Kim has not returned to Kenya since her visit 35 years ago,
but she did reach out to her friend Edith who lives in Kenya for the
possibility of establishing an international adoption agency in order to
facilitate adoptions for people in the United States. Unfortunately, Kenya has
many restrictions on international adoptions, making it very difficult to do
so.
The Dundori region has a high orphan rate. In a five-mile by
five-mile radius there are roughly 3,000 orphans. These orphans live with
either their grandmothers or extended family members. The grandmothers
typically have four or more orphans living with them and must do their best to
provide for the family on their meager wages of less than a dollar a day.
In 2007, Kim received an email from Edith’s husband,
Nicholas, who was feeding orphans in his community. Nicholas was using his own
money to buy food and a woman within the community was preparing meals for the
children. He was reaching out to Kim as he jump-started his organization, the
Dundori Orphans Project.
“Growing up, my mom would always tell crazy stories of the things
she saw in Kenya,” Scott said. “It made me want to go and see Kenya, to really
experience it.”
Scott did not have contact with Nicholas until December 2009
when they started to plan for Scott to visit Kenya in the summer of 2010.
“For two months I lived with Nicholas and his family,” Scott
said. “They had no international help, so when I returned to the states I was
able to help build that international support.”
Although it can take somewhere from six months to a year to
be accepted as a non-profit organization, the Dundori Orphans Project was
certified in just two months.
In order to continue serving these orphans and hopefully more, the organization would have to make a few adjustments to its operations.
“We needed to make our own site in order to make the food
for these kids,” Scott said. “So we did fundraising and built a kitchen and
storage.”
Scott will return to Kenya for a third time this summer for two
weeks, and he’s not going alone. His mom will be educating the women and
children about proper nutrition and health, and his dad will be teaching
courses for men, to help them be more aware of and supportive of their families,
as often times the father will leave the children. Scott and three of his friends
will do necessary construction to complete the building site for the dining
area to feed the orphans.
“We needed to expand our facilities before we can include
more kids in the program,” Scott said.
The Dundori Orphans project prides itself on being a very
transparent, efficient organization. With the organization meeting peoples
needs on a personal level, it is easy to see where the finances go. Scott
explained that each dollar donated is put directly into the funding of the
project to build facilities, feed the orphans, and fund a woman’s salary in
Kenya who cooks the meals for the children and oversees the orphan care center.
The project uses local labor, which creates jobs for people in the community
and empowers them to help others.
“There was that
thought in the back of my mind, wondering if what we were doing for these kids
was really making an impact,” Scott said. “Was I truly making a difference?
Were these kids grateful?”
Scott found his answer at the end of his first trip to Kenya
at the airport on his last night before returning to the states. Conflicts with
his flight plans had delayed take-off for another five hours. Nicholas and his
family had already left the airport, but it was a man named Sylvester who
helped Scott in more ways than one.
Sylvester was a cab driver who offered to take Scott to a
restaurant, an offer that Scott wouldn’t be able to pass. During the drive, the
two strangers built a lasting connection as they found parallels in their
lives.
Sylvester was one of 29 kids. His family was polygamous,
meaning he had one father and three mothers. The family was poor and the
notable high school Sylvester was accepted into was far too expensive. A couple
at his church took it upon themselves to pay his four years of tuition and gave
him a raincoat as a gift. They changed his life. Sylvester attended the high
school and now works as a cab driver, in which his earnings are first invested
in his family, then he tithes to the church, and whatever amount of money
remains is donated.
“Sylvester was the
one to reassure me,” Scott said. “He told me he had wished every day that it
would rain just so he could wear his raincoat.”
That answered all the uncertainty Scott had about his impact
in these children’s live. He was helping create opportunities that would not
otherwise exist for these orphans, and that is not going unnoticed by them.
Scott, Nicholas and all others involved are responsible for
32 orphans currently being fed. As the site is finished this summer, they will
be able to start accepting more orphans into the program.
“This is my last visit to Kenya because there isn’t really
any need for me to be there anymore,” Scott said. “Everything we are doing will
be to focus on increasing the international support.”
The Dundori Orphans Project has planned for spring events locally
to help increase awareness of the students and the community through a pancake
feed, benefit concert, bingo night and percentage nights at various locations
on Mass St. All dates have yet to be set.
As Scott balances his passions of giving back to the
community and achieving his degree in accounting, he will graduate in the
spring of 2013. He then plans to sit for the Certified Public Account (CPA)
exam and eventually pursue a career in public accounting for several years, to
gain experience.
“I do not see myself ending up working in public accounting,
but there is valuable insight and experience to be gained while working for a
firm,” Scott said. “Opportunities to be involved with nonprofits open up even
more once you have your CPA and experience in public accounting.”
Scott would like to continue working with non-profits and
assist them in being as financially efficient as possible.
“Ideally, I could work on the administrative side of a
non-profit organization, overseeing operations that go on in the United States
or on the ground where the organization is working,” Scott said.
Scott has experience volunteering with other organizations
throughout the state such as the Flint Hills Summer Camp and the Salina Rescue
Mission.This summer he will be working at a Kanakuk Kamp in
Missouri, K-West, which is an activity driven, Christian enhancing camp for
kids.
Even though Scott would like to focus on his career after
graduation, he would still like to be involved with the project in at least
some capacity.
“My faith is calling me to help these kids. This is what I
am supposed to be doing.”
