Local charity group does a lot with a little

The Daraja Children’s Project, a student organization that works to help AIDS orphans in Africa, does not have a lot to give.\nBecause of its lack of funding, the group tries to utilize its limited funds in creative ways. Rather than simply writing a check for the $6,500 it raised this year, its most recent project was to buy cows for poor families in Kenya with the money, so the families could support themselves and earn additional income.\nThe idea, said Meghann Beer, one of the organization’s two directors, is to focus on small, contained projects that have a big impact.\nRecent projects also include providing a stove and bunk beds for an orphanage where they were cooking over an open flame and children were sleeping on the floor. The cows provide milk for the families, who can sell the extra milk to provide a small amount of sustainable income. \n“It’s not enough just to send money to these orphans; you have to take care of the families that take care of the orphans, too,” Beer said.\nDaraja has raised more than $12,000 for Kenyan orphans by hosting two or three fundraising events a semester. Its funding also substantially increased when the group received a $5,000 grant from the IU Student Foundation. \n“Daraja is a Swahili word for ‘bridge,’ and that’s what we do: We bridge donors and projects,” said Philemon Yebei, a graduate student and group director. Yebei and his organization work to provide ways to keep orphans in Kenya with their families and provide more sanitary living conditions for them.\nBeer has visited Kenya twice. \n“The needs are so great, and we are a small organization, but you really can make a difference in the lives of these kids,” said Beer on the state of poverty in Africa.\nSenior Christopher Gilg helped prepare the presentation for the grant and has been a member of Daraja from its creation. \n“The thing that sold me on Daraja was that you can actually see the progress,” Gilg said.\nAfter Yebei’s wife, Violet, visited Africa, the couple decided that something needed to be done about the poor living conditions there, so they founded the group in 2006. Yebei hopes the group will continue to grow so Daraja will be able to provide support to even more orphans in Kenya. \nBut Yebei claims that the work not only benefits those in Africa; it also benefits the students who participate in Daraja. \n“I want the experience to build the character of the student,” Yebei said. “It molds the person all around. You can see their lives change.”