Disadvantaged and Forgotten Children

CampOhana believes that disadvantaged and forgotten children, who are often marginalized, have the right to a life of opportunity and the freedom to choose their own future.  To enable these kids to succeed, CampOhana has developed several programs:

• Educational Programs: This includes both formal and information education with emphasis that that teaches the kids to be self sufficient while taking advantages of what is available in their communities.  These programs are aimed for the uplift of all through formal schooling and teaching life skills such as handicraft skills and agriculture.
• Cultural Experience Programs: Community development can be greatly enhanced by external experience and perspectives. To fully realize community potential, CampOhana encourages volunteers to visit their premises in Kenya and work with the kids.  The volunteers bring fresh ideas while fostering internal cooperation.  This multi-cultural perspective reinforces the bonds between the kids and volunteers who strive to help the kids.
• Agricultural Program: The main economic activity in rural Kenya is agriculture.  Camp Ohana Agricultural Program is run at the Camp Ohana Campus, located 28 miles Southwest of Nairobi in Kajiado County Kenya. Through the use of a space and cost efficient vertical farming systems, the children participating in our agricultural program, learn how to grow fruits and vegetables in a sustainable and practical manner while fostering a sense of community and charity through learning to “help the other fellow”
• Clean Water Program: Water is a necessity of life.  To ensure that the kids have clean water, CampOhana has drilled a borehole that provides clean and safe drinking water to families in the immediate area.  CampOhana continues to operate and maintain the clean water program to benefit the local community.  This is especially critical since Camp Ohana Campus is located in a region that is classified as dry and has a population of about 200,000 people.
• Health and Wellness Program: The Health and Wellness program ensures the well being of children and youth in western Kenya. Through this project over 300 children’s lives are impacted as they gain access to supplies and teaching methods needed to complete basic health, oral and hand hygiene practices every three months. The involvement of CampOhana and local volunteers ensures that the education materials and needed supplies (tooth brushes, toothpaste, dental floss, hand soap) are readily available so that the Health and Wellness programs can run every three months

Recreational programs: To foster teamwork,CampOhana has recreational programs:

• Boys Soccer: This program involves a group of local boys from various villages that make up CampOhanaVillage. The program runs every weekend and daily during the school holidays. The children play soccer and engage in leadership, team and skill building exercises
•  Girls Soccer: This program was introduced to empower the local girls at CampOhana village through the love of soccer and as an extra curricular activity for the girls. The Girls soccer program meets on weekends and daily during school holidays. Teamwork, responsibility and leadership are key components of the CampOhana girls soccer program
• Girls Choir and Dance Program: This is a standing group of local girls at CampOhana village in who meet every weekend and daily during the school holidays to create, learn and practice traditional songs and dances. The goal of this program is to provide a fun extracurricular activity for the girls, preserve their culture through song and dance and to foster friendships and enhance self-esteem
•  Boys and Girls volleyball: This a newly created coed program to foster teamwork and cooperation between the boys and girls
• Environment and Wildlife Defenders Program: Through this program children are taught the importance of protecting the environment and conserving wildlife through both theoretical and practical experiences

Photography program: This is a first of its kind, a photography program introduced that teaches the local children at Camp Ohana village photography skills.  The key is that the kids can directly interface with well wishers by sending them photos of what they are doing while learning and developing photography skills.