Dr. Robert Mendonsa, Founder and CEO, Naomi’s Village

My name is Robert Mendonsa, and I am an orthopedic surgeon by training, but also the founder and CEO of a nonprofit called Naomi’s Village, Inc., which predominantly works in Kenya with orphaned, vulnerable children.

I’ve had a private practice in a Dallas suburb for over a decade after completing my residency. Then, in 2003, I had the opportunity to visit Kenya for the first time. I came with my wife, Julie, and our two children, who were four and five years old. We were there for one month, and I worked in a rural hospital doing orthopedic surgery. We returned the following year for two months, and during that second trip, my wife went down into the Great Rift Valley with an outreach group. They were helping children with HIV/AIDS. Julie saw thousands of children, many of whom were homeless, orphaned, destitute and living on the streets. It really broke her heart.

We came back to Kenya two more times for two months each and eventually moved here in 2008. Initially, we moved here for me to do orthopedic surgery and to train Kenyan residents, but we also wanted to start a children’s project. That’s when we started Naomi’s Village.

The name comes from the Book of Ruth in the Old Testament. Naomi, who lost her husband and her two sons at an early and unexpected time in her life, is a central figure. Her name means “beautiful, pleasant and delightful,” but because of her losses, she changed her name to Mara, meaning “bitter.” Naomi was very unhappy, but her joy was eventually restored by her daughter-in-law Ruth’s dedication, leading to the birth of a grandchild. This child restored her family lineage and her joy. We see many of our kids the way God sees them—as beautiful, pleasant and delightful—even if they’re experiencing bitterness due to life’s hardships. Our mission is to provide them with hope and restore them to family.

We moved here in 2008 and broke ground with Children’s Home in 2009. It took about 14 months to build the main home. Our vision was to bring in orphaned children and raise them as leaders, who would not only succeed personally but also be part of the solution for others. At the time, Kenya had 2.6 million orphans according to UNICEF. We knew we couldn’t help all of them, so our vision was to raise a group of kids—equip, empower and provide a future for them so they would grow up and help others, creating a ripple effect.

Since then, we’ve expanded and built another school campus that takes in children from the community living below the international poverty line. We also have a preschool, Leap Preschool, and a few community development programs.

Commitment, first and foremost—an absolute heartfelt commitment to these kids and a clear vision of where we’re headed. Perseverance has also been critical, as moving from Dallas to rural Kenya and starting something new was challenging. We encountered many cultural differences and obstacles. Corruption, a severe issue in Kenya, is a major obstacle. We’re committed to maintaining integrity in our organization, as we believe it’s essential to raising ethical leaders. Without resilience and an unwavering commitment to our mission and values, we wouldn’t have succeeded.

We have five main initiatives. The first is the Children’s Home, which houses 96 orphans, from babies to teens. It’s a beautiful campus with facilities to raise children as servant leaders.

Our second initiative is Cornerstone Preparatory Academy, a school that has about 500 students, including children from our Children’s Home and the community. About a fifth of the students are from Naomi’s Village, and the rest come from nearby communities.

We also have Leap Preschool, which prepares children from backgrounds of multivariant poverty for kindergarten. Many of these children start school at a disadvantage compared to middle-class peers, so we provide a two-year early education program before they start primary school.

Our MTOTO Program, meaning “Mother-Toddler-One-to-One,” pairs a community health nurse with young, single, first-time mothers to support them during pregnancy and their child’s first two years. This nurse acts as a resource, providing training on topics like nutrition, parenting practices and early literacy to help these mothers raise healthy children.

Finally, our Maendeleo Initiative addresses community development, working to improve local infrastructure. The area around our campus lacks running water, electricity and adequate sanitation, and residents often struggle with health issues due to environmental toxins, indoor cooking smoke and other challenges. For our programs to be successful, developing the surrounding community is essential. Through Maendeleo, which translates to “development” in Swahili, we can help thousands more people beyond the children we directly support.

One young lady, Evelyn, was among our first 14 children, joining us in January 2011. She lost both parents and had no hope. Today, she’s college-aged and recently completed training in South Africa. She’s also been to Malaysia and the Philippines and will soon go to Indonesia to work further in developing countries. Evelyn always wanted to be a doctor, and she now plans to attend college, go into pre-med and eventually serve as a doctor in Kenya.

There are other examples, too. Recently, some Cornerstone students noticed an elderly woman in need in their community and began discussing ways to help her. They’ve since provided her with food and supplies and are now talking about building her a house. Seeing our students initiate these efforts on their own demonstrates the success of our approach.

We see so much fruit of what we’ve been doing for the last 14 years since we opened Children’s Home. We see all the time our kids noticing the needs of others in their community and then beginning to establish efforts to do something about it through their own voice, efforts and work.

I’d tell potential donors that poverty’s effects on children are solvable. Decades of research in the West have shown us what children from trauma and poverty need, yet much of this research isn’t applied in policy. Our ministry and organization are very focused on being research-based and doing what works. We have this endless amount of faith and hope that with the proper resources and by doing things the way they should be done, kids can come out of poverty by the thousands. So, I would tell potential donors not to be moved by just emotions when they give but look at what the organization actually does and what its track record is. Naomi’s Village is an organization that if you give to it, there will be proper stewardship of funds, and we will use the money in such a way that people benefit maximally.

We’re still constructing key buildings, including the rest of our high school and a new world-class preschool. Our goal is to complete all of the infrastructure to ensure our programs are sustainable long-term.

We also want to support as many graduates as possible to pursue college or vocational training, whether in Kenya or abroad. One of our graduates is currently pre-med in Arkansas, for instance. We want every child to have the opportunity to pursue their dreams without barriers. Ensuring they have access to resources is essential to keeping their hope alive. We’re also focused on maintaining quality in every aspect, from facilities to training staff, and that will likely be our focus for the next few years.

God created these children, and there are over 50 million orphans in Africa. Their potential to become leaders is immense if their suffering is alleviated. The value of all those lives combined is an incredible gift to humanity that I think is being squandered because most people don’t know such a circumstance exists. They know the concept of poverty and orphan crisis, but they’ve not stood on the soil. They’ve not smelled it. They have not touched a child who is suffering and learned their name, and so, it’s not personal to them. So my final message would be for people to come visit Africa and see for themselves. Stand in the midst of the suffering that’s going on here, and then ask yourself, what is it that you’re supposed to do with that knowledge because that’s what happened to us, and it’s made all the difference.