Reddit Users Help Kenyan Orphanage Raise $70,000 After Serious Gang Attack

Omari works at Fraja Orphanage in Ngong’ suburb of Nairobi. Early this month, he was attacked and slashed many times by thugs who were trying to invade the orphanage. Omari stood his ground and defended the orphanage plus kids from the attackers, some of whom were armed with machetes.

His friends, some of who are American volunteers working at the orphanage posted his scarred images on Reddit asking for $2,000 (Ksh 164,000) to help build a wall around the orphanage. Reddit  is a social news website, where the registered users submit content, in the form of either a link or a text “self” post. All donations were through All donations were through www.longonoteducation.org website.

The original post by Reddit user, The Lake, read

Meet Omari. Two days ago he returned from the hospital after being hacked in the face by a machete defending an orphanage of 35 children by himself. Think we could raise the $2,000 needed for the remainder of the cement/barbed wire wall to keep both him and the children safe?

Within19 hours, the pledge had reached over $70,000 (Ksh 5.7 Million) and most of them were below $10 and came mostly from Reddit users through the PayPal donation link. Omari appreciated with a photo posted on Reddit.

The Faraja Orphanage is home to a total of 35 girls and boys aged between two and seventeen years. The orphanage has not been in good condition and the chickens and vegetables they raise for food and economic upkeep had not been doing good. The attack by gangs were not attacking for the first time but this last time they had attacked, they left a permanent mark.

After the attack, the kids found it hard to continue living in the orphanage fearing the worst.

Funnily, even Weebly which is the web service hosting the site gave a $10,000 (Ksh 820,000) to the cause.  The orphanage now uses the excess funds for food and supplies for the children.

After building the wall, they posted this photographic evidence http://i.imgur.com/t3Kxu.jpg and Omari appreciated in a unique way http://imgur.com/RceN3.