| Orphanage Business |
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| Written by Tim Brown | |
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NDALANI, Kenya - It’s a nice day out—overcast and cool. Charles Mulli walks me over to a
 collapsible table underneath a canopy of bright green foliage. “Welcome to my office,” he says. This man used to be one of the richest businessmen in Kenya, but seventeen years ago he sold everything to start up a refuge for Nairobi street kids— the Mulli Children’s Family. There’s a splash behind us as some of his kids jump into a lazy chocolate river. Mulli has a million other things to do, but he shuts off his cell to answer all my questions…
The new metal shop will
provide critical vocational training
How is MCF doing?
“Since MCF set up a high school in 2000,” says Mulli, “students have been scoring the highest grades in the district [of 189 schools]. First-year there was a 100 per cent pass and the school made it into nation’s newspapers.” Mulli also points out the success of the MCF Karate team—ranked #1 in East Africa
Tell me about your agriculture program
AIM helped sponsor a
$100,000 irrigation system “From the start we asked ourselves ‘how can we be self-reliant’?” says Mulli. In 2003 he became the first African businessman to export green beans to Europe. These are shipped everyday in high season, three days a week otherwise. MCF has recently begun harvesting from a new greenhouse watered by a $100,000 irrigation system sponsored by AIM Canada. Mulli says MCF also grows corn, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, kasava, oranges and mango. He is able to employ nearby villagers and make a healthy profit at the same time; today farming is paying half of the orphanage’s expenses. I have heard that MCF is improving the local environment. Can you explain? “If you had come here 10 years ago you’d have been really surprised,” he says. “We have so much of the animals and birds back.”Mulli says that 70,000 trees have been planted on MCF soil since 1995. Moreover, he says he refuses to use chemical fertilizers in the fields since the ground is naturally fertile. Future goals?
•Mulli says his biggest goal is to continue meeting the physical and spiritual needs of both street children and local villagers.
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