The photos in this portfolio were taken during my first trip to Kenya in 2009. We had to make arrangements for the construction of a dormitory inside the Bala Mercy orphanage, run by Bishop Domnic Ochoo.

All this talk about immigration, these sour tones against others, this saying that “they must be helped at home”, made me remember how three young girls founded a charity (Elpis) and managed in a few years to raise the funds and phisically build an orphanage from nothing.

On October 28th, accompanied by the Bishop’s brother, we went for a walk around the Bala Mercy.

We were a few kilometers away from Homa Bay, a small town on Lake Victoria.We wanted to make a portfolio of the people who gravitated  towards the orphanage both for the project of long-distance adoptions and to get an insight into real living conditions.

Two things struck me: nature, as always in Africa, and seeing how people can adapt to live in a few square meters in mud huts without any primary services.

As shown in the photos, almost all families are managed by oldwomen.

Here, the men have almost all died from malaria, cholera and HIV.