We came to Kenya to climb a mountain. It only took one night at a nearby children's orphanage to change those plans, and to convince us to stay. Even so, we never meant to start an international NGO - especially not while living on the ground floor of a home for 170 AIDS orphans who knock every thirty seconds to update you on their ever-changing needs.

But we learned that the best laid plans are rarely the backdrop for success.

Living at Tumaini Children's Home changed our lives, and made us see a need we couldn't ignore. Children's homes are often a child's last resort, but they still serve as one of the first lines of defense in keeping impoverished children from lives of drug abuse, starvation, and sexual and physical abuse. These homes rightly spend the large majority of their limited resources on feeding, clothing, and schooling the children they house, leaving little for anything else.

That's where Hope Runs comes in. We provide enhanced on-site programming in health, physical fitness, and technology in children's homes around the world. Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVCs) face the most impossible task of overcoming their pasts. By extending even the smallest amount of the training we received growing up in a developed nation, we hope to better equip them for bright futures.

We have seen a need, and we've committed ourselves to never turning our backs on it.

Hope Runs is for the Little Monsters who changed our lives. For you, our precious little troublemakers and mwenda wazimus, a thousand times over,

Lara and Claire