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North Valley Community & Business News On what started out as a premedical school internship, Kim Krowne found her life’s passion. In December, 2006 the Northridge native took off for Moshi, Tanzania to volunteer at a medical clinic when she quickly discovered a nearby orphanage called the Matumaini Child Care Center. After peeking in to see what was going on there, Krowne fell in love with the program. “I became enamored with the kids and how happy they were even though they had nothing,” Krowne said. “They just wanted to be loved.” Since she only worked at the clinic until noon, Krowne spent her afternoons at the orphanage volunteering. She and a friend who was a nurse at the clinic began taking on projects such as improving the latrine facilities and building bunk beds so the children could start sleeping two to a bed instead of four. Krowne felt she had found something special at Matumaini and in 2008, she joined with friends and co-workers to found the Knock Foundation - a non-profit dedicated to education, development and health projects in Africa. Knock currently works in Tanzania, Kenya, and Ghana. This year, Krowne and the Knock Foundation are working on a new facility for Matumaini Child Care Center. They have bought land and are establishing new, better facilities for the children. Additionally, among other things, the foundation has introduced sustainable development projects such as the P o v e r t y E r a d i c a t i o n Piggery Project to help eliminate poverty among families who care for orphans in the area and surrounding villages. Participating families sign a contract that states they will care for the pigs and use the income from the sale of piglets to support the basic needs of their family. To date, 50 families are participating. Today Krowne spends two thirds of her year in Africa working on Knock projects and one third of her year at home in Northridge fundraising and seeing family and friends. This year has been a particularly difficult year for fundraising, but Krowne continues to try to reach new donors. She tries to get across to people how important it is to recognize that the rest of the world lives so differently than Americans. “In Tanzania, a child’s education for a year costs $25,” Krowne explained, “If people went out to dinner one less time in a year, that’s a child’s education.” Why donate to Knock as opposed to other aid organizations? Krowne says that more of donors money makes it directly to the recipients. But it’s also attitude. “We take it from their perspective. We don’t go in thinking we know everything – they know what they need and we listen,” said Krowne.
To learn more about the Knock Foundation
visit
www.knockfoundation.org
or call (818)
831-6075. Read Article Online Download Article PDF |
