Young James Mburu has not had an easy start to life. At only nine months, his entire family was involved in a deadly car accident. Thankfully, Mburu's father, who was driving, and his mother and two sisters, who were also in the car, survived with minor injuries. Mburu and a family friend sitting in the front passenger seat with Mburu in her lap were not so lucky; Mburu was thrown out of the car, and the female passenger was killed on the spot. Discovered later by rescuers, still swaddled in his baby blanket, Mburu otherwise born a healthy child, sustained severe spinal injuries, hip dislocation, and chest injuries. Mburu will never walk, he is non-verbal, and he suffers from severe muscle spasticity and frequent chest complications, all as a result of this terrible accident.

There is a picture in my office of a group standing in front of the Transit Hotel in Maai Mahiu, Kenya. It was taken in August of 2008. We were at the end of a two-week journey that would change my life.

Karibu (Welcome) to Tribe Week, our annual celebration of Ubuntu Tribe Heart, a global community of people who believe “a person is a person through other people" and that we are stronger together. In a nutshell, the African philosophy of Ubuntu.

Kenya recently entered a second lockdown as the Covid-19 positivity rate jumped from 2% to 22% between January and March, leading to a deadly third wave. Only three months after we re-opened our special-needs school, we have been forced to close their doors yet again.

While necessary, these measures have hit the most vulnerable members of our community hardest, leaving them without a source of income. This March, one year into the global pandemic, we have renewed the pledge we made 12 months ago to provide food, drinking water, and personal hygiene products to the most vulnerable special needs kids whose household livelihood has been decimated by the financial fallout of COVID-19. And we continue to plant and harvest vegetables from the organic garden on our land in Maai Mahiu, which we regenerated from a barren piece of land to a flourishing ecosystem.

Hello dear friends,

What an experience it has been in the first three months of 2021. With all the uncertainties, I can say with complete confidence that we have pulled through! We approached the year with lots of fear and uncertainties because of Covid and sad that it still lingers to date, one year later.

Our Ubuntu Kiddos were missing school and the extraordinary personal touch and connection they received at the Ubuntu Children Wellness Center. Thankfully we came back in full swing for January!