our story
The HOPAFoundation Story
Nyaduong - the village atop a hill
Nyaduong is a fertile land just like the Masai Mara plains, 50km away, which has been continuously feeding the wildlife roaming free on it for ages. Unlike the animals which have maintained the ecosystem, Nyaduong has lost its fertility as human population has grown, leading to the overutilization of the land. While the fertile lands were a blessing to our ancestors, providing them with food to keep growing, it had a negative correlation to the level of education in the area. This blessing unfortunately made our relatives to take education for granted. Generations down, the land has become sterile and, sadly, the culture of education has not been fully embraced. This is a scenario that is replicated in several ever-growing villages across Africa.
“Education was the only inheritance they were bequeathing us”.
Our parents were different, they saw education as the only way out of poverty for their seven children. Despite their rudimentary education, they endeavored to grant us the best education; their mantra was “education was the only inheritance they were bequeathing us”.
Life in Nairobi
In their quest to give us the best education they could afford; they took a difficult decision to raise us in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, where they believed the standard of education was better than in Nyaduong, Migori. Several relatives advised against our parents’ decision commenting that, “children raised in the city are disrespectful, will become rogue later in life and will never know their roots”. Despite the resistance, they bit the bullet and moved us to Nairobi.
Life in Nairobi was not smooth sailing; my mother had to take on several menial jobs to make ends meet whereas my father had to travel & live in remote workstations away from his family, months on end to keep the only reliable family income flowing. In Nairobi, we were exposed to hard life early on and it gave us real impetus to take our studies seriously. Our father would always remind us that education was the only sustainable inheritance that they would pass on to us while our mother made it her personal mission to get the seven of us to graduate at university level despite her not getting beyond primary level education.
Calm before the storm
Beyond their nuclear family, they expanded their quest for education to several relatives and friends who they sponsored to school & mentored through various life stages. Our house in Nairobi was always full of relatives or friends who came over to further their studies, seeking out job opportunities or just visiting the big city. We would occasionally host strangers whom our mother would take in; either lost in the city or don’t have a place to spend the night.
Two years after seeing their last child graduate university, Harun & Perez were both diagnosed with cancer; prostate cancer & bile duct cancer respectively. Fortunately, they lived to fulfill one of their life ambitions. They passed on two months apart in first half of 2013, leaving behind a legacy of courage, focus, love, and a united family.
A growing legacy
As a family, in memory of our father and mother, we have set up Harun Ogutu Perez Akinyi (HOPA) foundation to sponsor promising but needy children in a bid to promote education and to carry on their everlasting impact on the community. Since its inception, HOPA has raised more than $100,000, educating more than 30 orphaned & vulnerable students through secondary education and university.
HOPA started as a local organization but has morphed into a large organization with massive impact on the community. Not only do we sponsor children to school, but we also support the local Nyaduong Football Club, providing opportunities to talented kids to showcase their skills. HOPA also supports the Nyaduong Primary & Secondary institutions through supply of additional teachers, books and, more recently, a playground to help the little ones enjoy school.
The vast and fertile lands that our ancestors had are long gone and now more than ever, reality of education being a way out for the community is ever present. Life is all about the small actions that we do today that result in big differences in the future. Your donation today will help change the lives of many children who seek a leg up in their quest for education.