24 Feb Foundations of Our Kitalale Home: Main Building Renovations
The completion of our Kitalale Boy’s Cottage brought about a moment of collective excitement and happiness amongst our children and our extended family. Without your continued support, we would not have been able to give our older boys’ their own space to thrive and grow.
Today, we have equally delightful news to share with you! We got the chance to make upgrades to our main building, and today, those repairs are finally complete.
Main Building Repairs
After eleven years of continued use and poor original construction, our main building needed a fix. Since we had such a quality contractor building the boy’s cottage we decided it would be ideal to also have his team work on our main building and do some much-needed updates and repairs to our existing home.
Since our home’s opening in 2010, we feel so blessed to continue to provide our children with the care and resources they need to grow and thrive. Our renovations included building new and redoing existing bathrooms. We updated the tiles, fixtures, and plumbing system, and remodeled the kitchen area to make it more functional. In addition to these major improvements, we also built a new septic tank.
This is a big win for our Kitalale home as old design faults and poor workmanship had led to a significant breakdown of plumbing pipes and the septic tank. After making much-needed changes to the pipes to allow for smooth disposal of waste, our bathrooms have improved in their functionality greatly, and our children are beyond happy to use the new facilities.
They’re enjoying it so much that one night an auntie was woken up by some noises in the bathroom, only to find one of our older girls admiring herself in our new bathroom mirrors in the middle of the night. It fills our hearts with joy to see our children loving the renovations made in their home.
New Basketball Court
As much as the children love the new bathrooms, they are equally excited to play on their new basketball court that we added to the home area.
Before the new full-sized basketball court was constructed, our children used a little parking area behind the main kitchen to dribble and shoot the ball. Many of them developed their love for the sport and learned how to dribble there for the first time. So naturally, we needed to build a two-hooped court for them to explore their passion for the game more.
We converted a minimally used gravel parking area to house the basketball court. Currently, it is one of the most popular areas in our Kitatale home. The children use the basketball court regularly by forming teams and playing games. In particular, the court has attracted Praise Philip, Aaron, Joyline, Ivy, Viola, James, Meshack amongst other children to play on a daily basis.
Expanding Our Outdoor Seating Area
At our Kitalale home, we’re blessed with good weather most of the year-round. Our children, aunties and uncles, and staff serve and eat most of their meals here. This is why we decided to construct a new outdoor seating area by the shady trees for our children to enjoy. Now functioning as a meeting place for our staff and a reading area for our children, this is a highly cherished and sought-after space in our Kitalale home.
When our COO, Elaine Storck, visited our home for Christmas, we hosted an ‘ice-cream party’ for our children there. Our older children happily served the younger children their ice cream, and then everyone huddled together to enjoy their dessert on the new picnic tables. The home plans to host future birthday celebrations, postcard parties, and other festivities here.
We are eternally grateful for your help in making our children smile and giving them the opportunity to grow and enjoy their home.
Celebrating Our Staff: Amos and Lillian
Celebrations are in order as the newly renovated building is appreciated and loved by all our children and staff. This is particularly true for two special staff members, Amos and Lillian.
Amos, our Accountant, and Lillian, our Matron, met while working together at the Kitalale Home. When they got married in November 2019, our entire home celebrated with them. We were so excited for them to start their new chapter at Children of Hope together.
Amos and Lillian live at the home for 5 to 6 days each week. So, we wanted to create a better space for them so that they could feel more comfortable spending long hours there. We renovated their bedroom and bathroom and added a small kitchenette for them.
When Lillian saw the kitchenette, she was over the moon. She said that she could finally use the area to cook food and have some family time with Amos. Lillian and Amos are so happy with the bedroom and seating area with wardrobes.
The two of them are all smiles, and our entire Kitalale home smiles with them.
Reactions and Testimonials
As you can tell, our children and staff are delighted with the new renovations, and cannot contain their excitement for it. When asked what they liked the most about the new upgrades, all began to chime in about their favorite additions to the home.
“With the new kitchen drawers, working space, and sink, the kitchen is just amazing! Cleaning dishes and putting them away is now much easier; the kitchen space is now bigger with the island having gone; we now have ample space to move around and share the work easily,” said kitchen staff.
The housekeepers were especially excited about the bathrooms. They love the plumbing and bathroom renovations as it has made a huge difference in the overall sanitation of the rooms.
Our children, on the other hand, are extremely excited about the basketball court and outdoor seating area.
Faith, a first-year high school student at our Kitatale home is delighted to see the new renovations completed.
She said, “The changes everywhere are perfect; it makes our home very cool and nice. My favorite place is the picnic tables; we all have a fun time there braiding our hair, telling stories, and enjoying each other’s company.”
Praise, our basketball superstar, could not contain her excitement about the new basketball courts.
She said, “I love basketball so much and I dream of playing it competitively at school, which is why Uncle Abraham has been showing me some tips on playing and beating the opponent. The new court is a good size, the rims and the board are bigger so it is so much fun playing on the new court with my brothers and sisters.”
As you can see, our children and staff are thrilled to have the much-needed changes in our homes. These renovations have made a huge difference in the lives of our children by making their living experience a more comfortable one.
If you would like to continue to support our children, please take a moment to make a donation here.
We’re so blessed to have you be a part of our family.