A home for girls
The Canadian founder of the Gateway to Heaven orphanage had passed away, and the funds he left for its support were exhausted. So Compassion Beyond Borders began funding Gateway, which became a home for 30 girls, most of them orphaned by AIDS.
CBB and Gateway then planned for permanent funding for the orphanage by building a for-profit school that would earn an income to support the girls’ home by educating middle class children in the neighborhood. Three adjoining plots of land were purchased and a school was constructed at a cost of $100,000.
The academy
The Queen of Love Academy began admitting students at the beginning of the Kenyan school year in January 2010. In addition to the neighborhood children, the Gateway girls also study at the school, getting a first-class English medium education beginning at age three in nursery school. Gateway no longer needed to pay the required fees for its girls to attend public school.
Now, the academy is earning an income to support the Gateway home--the orphanage no longer needs CBB's funding. The home and the academy are struggling to make ends meet, but they are managing.
A community center
Gateway to Heaven is not only a home for girls, it is also a community center. Girls from the neighborhood receiving CBB scholarships come to Gateway to get a meal once or twice a day. CBB pays for the cost of their food through the administrator of its scholarship program for girls orphaned by AIDS, but Gateway does the cooking, serving and clean-up. And CBB's Goats for Girls program is supplying goats for these girls to get milk.
