Arusha expands its embrace
Some wise soul said that change is the only constant, and Kafika House has taught me that this is certainly true. For the most part, the changes we experience are beautiful blessings: the blossoming that happens as children recover is just one example… Seventeen years on, I am still in awe of the wholescale transformation that our healing journey holds.
Other changes, though, arrive disguised as obstacles, and that felt like the case earlier this month.
As you know, we’ve been renting a beautiful property in Karatu, and over the last two years we’ve really made it our home.
We’d just signed a 5-year lease in May, and I felt like we had permission to dream.
Unfortunately, fate had different plans and we recently learned that the property has been sold.
We immediately began scouring Karatu for another property. This dream home proved a tough act to follow though: our needs are quite specific, and we weren’t going to settle.
I soon saw that our best option was to widen the embrace of our Arusha facility, and fold in our Karatu children and team.
Luckily, Arusha was, quite literally, built for this.
I love that we’re not losing the incredible Karatu crew; the team we’ve built there is dynamic and strong, and it means so much that they’ve all opted to join us in Arusha.
In fact, I’m really excited for the synergy that’s set to spark with everyone under one roof.
I’m also delighted that Dr Makanza, the orthopaedic surgeon who was treating our children at FAME, will continue working with us in Arusha.
We have loved being part of the Karatu community, and I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved in our partnership with FAME.
Most importantly, we learned that we can operate a remote facility: we’ve proved that our high-love model is scalable, and nothing can take that away. When the time comes to expand again, we’ll be ready - and I’m so excited for how that will unfold.
In the meantime, we’ve been building a beautiful new partnership with Arusha Lutheran Medical Centre, and we’ve just signed an MoU with them.
It’s amazing to have another surgical partner on board to treat our children, and we’re excited for all we’ll do together.
None of what we do would be possible without generosity. If you feel moved to support our work, we would be most grateful.
With love,
Sarah