{"id":15556,"date":"2017-04-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-04-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.adra.sk\/rozhovor-makongolo\/"},"modified":"2017-04-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-04-21T00:00:00","slug":"rozhovor-makongolo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adra.sk\/en\/rozhovor-makongolo\/","title":{"rendered":"Marachi Orphanage - The True Story of Pastor Mohamed Makongolo"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/b>Read an authentic transcript of an interview with Pastor Mohamed Makongolo, who, together with his family, cares for 44 orphans and about 100 other semi-orphans and children from poor families in the area in Marachi, on the border of Kenya and Uganda. His difficult life story will be revealed in the following lines.<\/strong><\/p>\n

- My name is Mohamed Makongolo. I am the son of Haron Makongolo. I was born in 1983 in Mumias. I have one wife and seven children. I am the pastor and director of San and Tom Covenant Orphanage and School, in Marachi slum near Busia.<\/p>\n

I would like to briefly tell my life story. When I was seven years old, I found myself on the street.<\/strong> I lived like that for about 15 years. The reason was my father, who had seven wives. There were some problems between my father and my mother, and in 1978 my father decided to divorce my mother. So we lived only with my mother, who was our sole breadwinner.<\/p>\n

That's why I was on the street for a long time. My father died in 1995 and my mother died in 2008. In 1999 I started attending church Kenya Assembly of God <\/span>in Mumias. When my family - my uncles and the rest of the family found out that I had become a Christian, they decided to imprison me. After 6 months in prison, the court released me because no crime I had committed was found. I was released on January 7, 2000. After my release, I went to live in the parsonage of Glory Church International Ministry led by Bishop Johnson Wuere. JOhnson Wuere <\/span>hosted me from 2000 until 2004, at which time I married my wife Angeline Chitai Oteng'o.<\/p>\n

After our wedding, the idea of taking care of orphans and widows came to me.<\/strong> The impetus for this was my life - what I saw after the loss of my parents. And the impetus for supporting widows was also the people I saw visiting my mother at home. I mean - men. Since my mother didn't have any work to support us, she decided to do prostitution to earn at least some money to buy food for us children. And that's also why... she contracted HIV and got AIDS. She died of AIDS. So this picture and the death of my mother, I still remember it. And when I see a widow suffering, I want to help her. That's why I started this facility for abandoned children.<\/p>\n

\"\"
With Mohamed and his family - wife and 7 children<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I started the first orphanage in the Kakamega region and there were 20 children.<\/strong> I helped them by buying food and clothes for them and also trying to cover their school expenses. I also tried to get support from my friends so that I could have my own orphanage in which I could provide a home for them.<\/p>\n

My plan began to expand further in 2010. At that time, I registered the orphanage in Kakamega region as a civil association under the name San and Tom Covenant OVC\u2019s<\/span>.<\/p>\n

I then moved from the Kakamega region to the town of Nambale. This was because I didn't have enough money to pay the rent. The owner decided to throw us out of the house.<\/strong> So we found another home in Nambala.<\/p>\n

We started taking care of the children there. But the money problem also forced us to leave and that was through the court because the owner took me to court for owing him 67,000 Kenyan shillings (about 670 $). I then travelled to Busia and started building the children's home here from scratch in 2013.<\/p>\n

That was the time when, with God's help, I met Bishops Tommy and Daniel from the USA.<\/p>\n

To cover the rent, Tommy started supporting me with $300 and Dan with $100 each month. For now, we live in a rented house for which we pay $600 a month.<\/strong> I also have teachers that I pay... well, I can't say I pay them because I only give them a small amount as a token of my gratitude. For example, I pay the head teacher 6,000 shillings (60 $) a month, the deputy 6,000, the head teacher 5,000, the supervisor 5,000, the guard 3,000, the cook 3,000, the supervisor 3,000, and other teachers 4,000 shillings every month. We also provide them with food as we have our own stock after the harvest. This is thanks to our project where we usually grow maize and beans. So we usually give them food like beans after the harvest.<\/p>\n

\"\"
School = one hot meal a day<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

To date, I have a total of 44 orphans, 56 other children who have only one parent, and other children from poor families, families who cannot earn a dollar a day. So in total, we have 150 children here.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2015, thanks to the leader of my church, I got in touch with friends from Slovakia, their names are Samuel and Marta. They came here, I think it was November, they visited the orphanage and they donated 2000 shillings for food for the children. We started communicating and they promised that when they came back to Slovakia they would talk to their colleagues in ADRA Slovakia and try to find a way to help our orphanage.<\/p>\n

When Samuel returned to Slovakia, he put me in touch with Tomas. So we started communicating with Tomas via e-mail and he told me that they had announced a fundraiser for our orphans in Slovakia. I also disclosed to them that we were having problems with land - we needed to get a plot of land and it cost 6,000 - 10,000 $. So Tomas told me that they were talking to sponsors and that ADRA Slovakia was collecting funds to try to help our orphanage. On February 28, 2017, Tomas, Daniel, Jennifer and Solomon visited us and provided our children with material help such as cups and other things that are very much appreciated, as well as a small amount of cash for food.<\/strong> We continue to believe that God will touch the hearts of others who will stand by our children and help them.<\/p>\n

Our biggest problem now is the land.<\/strong> We need it so we can build a permanent children's home on it and not have to pay rent. And we would also like to start a small project that would give us something that we could raise money by selling and be self-sustaining.<\/p>\n

If we had a project that brought us money, we wouldn't have to depend on sponsors every day. That would be a good thing.<\/strong> And we believe that with God's help we will be able to achieve this and we would like to thank the ADRA Slovakia family for their help and that they have already managed to raise over 500,000 shillings (over 5,000 $) for us. We believe, and I believe, in humble beginnings and we also believe that God will lend us His strong hand. May God bless you and may God bless Slovakia and the whole ADRA family. Amen.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Welcoming with Muhammad and \u201ehis\u201c children<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

- Thank you, Mohamed. If you don't mind, we'd like to ask you a few questions. Thank you for your life story. I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable, so you don't have to answer every one of the questions. What was the hardest thing for you when you were living out on the streets?<\/strong><\/p>\n

- The problem started when my father split up with my mother. It was difficult for us to get food. We were 9 children. My mother had great difficulty taking care of us and that's when I joined the boys on the street. These boys are on the street not because they like it there, but because of the problems that plague their families. A street boy is like..., the life of a street boy is like the life of a dog. We used to sleep outside without blankets. I remember one day I burnt my leg while I was sleeping. We made a fire to keep warm. Then I burnt my leg in that place.<\/p>\n

We took drugs like marijuana, smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol. I became a drug dealer. And our boss who sent us to sell paid us 5 shillings a day. I always took that money, that 5 shillings, home and at least it was money that could buy bread and sugar. I remember that bread cost about 2 shillings or two and a half cents in those days.<\/p>\n

It wasn't the easiest life back then, but I am grateful to God for it because it was an experience. When you're out there, sometimes you run into people who are stronger than you. I was raped once.<\/p>\n

- What happened? What motivated you to quit living on the streets and convert to the Christian faith?<\/strong><\/p>\n

- The day I was raped...I was so sad...and I went to church. They invited a preacher from Nigeria there at that time and they organized a night service. So I went there and since then I started attending the services regularly. But when my folks found out that I was going to church, they decided to handcuff me. They beat me and finally in 1999 they sent me to a prison in Kakamega region. So I was in prison, in C block. However, when I got there, I realized that God was all around. Because I found that everyone in the prison was praying. So I joined a prayer group and started to grow spiritually. Afterwards, when I got out of prison, I was a strong Christian.<\/p>\n

- Let me ask one more thing. On what charges were you sent to prison? As far as I know, in the 1990s a lot of people went over to different Christian groups, became members of different churches.<\/strong><\/p>\n

- My family did not want me to become a Christian because of their Muslim faith. They didn't want to allow me to convert to another faith.<\/p>\n

- So your family has Muslim roots?<\/strong><\/p>\n

- Yes, he has Muslim roots. But after I converted to Christianity, only one brother, my second youngest, remained a Muslim. He died last year. However, I thank God that I was able to bring him to the Christian faith before he died. So at the moment there are no Muslims in our family, they have all converted to Christianity. Because they realized that there is no way to go there, but if they believe in Jesus, everything is possible. So they started following my progress. They saw something new in me. I became humble. I became a good person. And they began to change as well.<\/p>\n

- Mohamed, thank you so much for sharing these difficult experiences with us. We are already helping 500 poor farmers and their families in Kenya, and we will try to help you too.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Captive of the curious<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

21. 4. 2017 -\u00a0<\/strong>Currently, we are trying to use the collected amount, which is constantly growing thanks to you, to help these children as efficiently as possible, so that it will give them a chance to be self-sufficient and help change their lives for the better in the long term.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mohamed was interviewed by the Director of ADRA Slovakia, Daniel Kaba, and the Project Manager abroad, Tom\u00e1\u0161 Bauer, and the orphanage in Marachi was discovered by our volunteer Samuel \u010cell\u00e1r, a recent Volunteer of the Year 2016, whom we thank for his selfless help and for the translation of the interview.<\/p>\n

Find out at\u00a0more about the orphanage in Marachi<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>or about that, how to become a volunteer<\/a><\/strong> in Kenya, Albania, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea.<\/p>\n

Who will help them if not us?\u00a0\u00a0>>Donate online now<<<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pre\u010d\u00edtajte si autentick\u00fd prepis rozhovoru s pastorom Mohamedom Makongolo, ktor\u00fd sa v Marachi, na hraniciach Kene a Ugandy, spolu so svojou rodinou star\u00e1 o 44 sir\u00f4t a o \u010fal\u0161\u00edch pribli\u017ene 100 polosir\u00f4t a det\u00ed z chudobn\u00fdch rod\u00edn v okol\u00ed. Jeho ne\u013eahk\u00fd \u017eivotn\u00fd pr\u00edbeh sa v\u00e1m odhal\u00ed v nasleduj\u00facich riadkoch. – Vol\u00e1m sa Mohamed Makongolo. Som […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":15546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[293,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-novinky","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.adra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}