天美传媒

Caroline Mungai was pursuing a master鈥檚 degree in early childhood education at in November 2004 when she died of at age 25. For Anne Mungai, Ph.D., the chair of Adelphi鈥檚 , the grieving process after her daughter鈥檚 unexpected death led to a family commitment to honor Caroline.

鈥淐aroline鈥檚 dream was to start a school for poor kids,鈥� said Dr. Mungai, who is also director of Adelphi鈥檚 in the . 鈥淲e are doing what Caroline planned to do.鈥�

In January 2005, Dr. Mungai started an orphanage and school in her native country of . A month before Caroline鈥檚 death, Dr. Mungai鈥檚 mother-in-law had died, leaving behind a four-bedroom house on 3-1/2 acres. The house became the first dormitory for 15 orphans.

Kenya has 2.5 million orphans and sub-Saharan Africa has 12.5 million orphans鈥攍argely because HIV, the disease that causes , has claimed the lives of so many adults. Children who had been abandoned鈥攊n alleys, next to dumpsters, in churches or wandering the streets鈥攈ave been rescued by the Mungai family and given love, nurturance and a place to call their own.

Today, the orphanage and school is home to 40 children. To each child, Dr. Mungai is 鈥淢ama.鈥�

鈥淜ids who never slept in a bed now have their own bed; kids who never had shoes now have shoes,鈥� said Dr. Mungai, who returns to Kenya for a month every summer. 鈥淭here is a future for these kids because we are educating them.鈥�

The Mungai home employs 16 full-time workers, including teachers certified by the Kenyan government and women known as 鈥渕others鈥� who stay with the children round-the-clock.

Several members of the Adelphi community have visited the orphanage and school, including , Diana Feige, Ph.D., Laraine Wallowitz, Ph.D., (the former director of Adelphi’s early childhood education program in which Caroline Mungai was enrolled), and .

鈥淭he experience made me much more aware of the inequities in terms of how resources are distributed worldwide,鈥� said Dr. Feige, who visited with her husband in 2009. 鈥淏ut those children have a sense of dignity about themselves and a tremendous sense of family.鈥�

Dr. Greene, the associate provost for faculty affairs and international diversity, visited with his wife and daughter in 2007.

鈥淪eeing those children invigorates your commitment to social justice issues,鈥� Dr. Greene said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 important for your children to see how other children live. It鈥檚 important to see that, despite the challenges they face, those children are as vivacious and playful as any children in the world.鈥�

Education is what Dr. Mungai and her husband of 35 years, George, a high school math teacher in Brooklyn, New York, has always stressed to children, including their four daughters: Catherine, who earned an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and works for the City of St. Louis; Lilian, who graduated from the Hofstra University School of Law and is an attorney in New Rochelle, New York; Pauline, who holds a medical degree from Ross University and practices in Maryland; and Caroline, who continues to inspire others even after her death.

鈥淲e have told the kids Caroline鈥檚 story, and they know that without her passing they would not be in that home,鈥� Dr. Mungai said. 鈥淒o you know what those kids call themselves? The children of Caroline.鈥�