My name is Rachel Howell and I am a junior at Baylor University, seeking a degree in elementary education.  I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to travel to Kenya in May,  2017 on a mission trip with the Baylor Women's Leadership 2017.  I was excited prior to my trip for many different reasons.   I was thrilled with the idea of sharing my love of Jesus with new people and getting to see new places.  Although I did accomplish these goals, my trip was very different than I expected.  I was not prepared for how much the people of Nairobi would touch my heart with their smiles, their thoughtfulness and their gratitude for even the smallest kindness.  I was not expecting how much the terrible living conditions and abject poverty would instill in me a desire to do something to help these people. I was also not anticipating that God would put a burning desire in my heart to take action and use my gifts and skills to make a difference in Kenya.  While in Kenya we visited two of the slums in Nairobi - the Kibera Slum, the largest urban slum in Africa, and the Korogocho Slum.  A slum in Africa is an area with no permanent buildings.  Most people are crowded into homes constructed of mud, cement, carboard and tin.  There is no privacy in the slums and the area is extremely dangerous.  The Kibera Slum is estimated to be the home of 250,000 people.  The living conditions are truly appalling.  The average wage for those who work and live in the Kibera Slum is less than $1.00 per day and approximately 50 % are unable to find work of any kind.  Additionally, as Kenya has been in a terrible drought, food supplies are limited and jobs picking and selling crops, which accounted for a majority of the jobs for those in the slums, are not available.   

    As part of our trip, we visited several schools in Kenya which had the most profound impact on me.  As an education major, I have done observations in many different schools in Texas.  I love interacting with elementary age children and getting to know them.  The same was true for me in Kenya.  However, the differences in the education experience in Kenya and in the United States could not be more different.  First let me tell you a little about the education system in Kenya.  Children can go to school until eighth grade in Kenya, provided their family can afford to pay for their supplies and they are not required to be at home to watch their younger siblings.  After the eighth grade, the students take a test to determine if they qualify to continue their education.  Only approximately 40% of the students will pass the test.  Even if a student passes the test, however, they can only continue school if their parents can afford to send them to boarding school, an impossibility for many in Kenya.   After I returned from Kenya, God placed the idea on my heart to form a non-profit organization to benefit the children and families of Kenya.  I named the non-profit organization Unstained Ministries because I was inspired by the verse James 1:27 (Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world).  

All funds received go directly to benefit children and families in Kenya.