Education: The Gift that Keeps on Giving

Education is the gift that keeps on giving, and Kate Fletcher is living proof of that.

As a young girl, Kate was left at a Philadelphia orphanage where the Sisters of Divine Redeemer provided her with an education. Today, Kate’s world is completely flip-flopped; she is the founder and Executive Director of Hekima Place in Kiserian, Kenya, providing a loving home and an education for orphaned girls from the streets of Kenya. Though she never had a child of her own during her youth, at age 75, Kate is the happy mother of 68 girls. The opportunity that Kate received as a young girl is rippling through East Africa as Kate’s girls graduate college in Business, Technology, and Law…

Kate’s story demonstrates the power of educating girls; she always says, “If you educate a boy, you will get an educated man. But when you educate a girl, you educate a community.”

KATE FLETCHER

This young woman was feisty but had a generous heart
The other girls admired her; she always did her part
Though she was very lonesome, and missed her family so
She wore a brave and happy face despite her deepest woe.

She was nine when her mother took her to the place where girls could stay
She wore her patent leathers and was the youngest girl that day
She started to unpack her bag and realized she couldn’t find
Some of the treasured keepsakes she’d hurriedly left behind

She gradually became accustomed to the life and the routine
And soon her sister joined her there; her sadness grew less keen
She soon became a leader; her classmates paid attention
But between herself and certain nuns there grew a palatable tension

She joined the order anyway and was sent to be a teacher
She was very entertaining; she spoke like a Protestant preacher
The children liked her very much and wished she’d be always be there
They couldn’t imagine school without her; it wasn’t at all fair

All these things prepared her for what she came to be
Even the saddest experiences enabled her to see
That the future truly is a hopeful replay of the past
That those early feelings are really meant to last

After she left the convent and became a working girl
She met her love, her husband who held her like a pearl
He soon came down with cancer and died at night in bed
As devastated as she was, she was thrilled with what God said.

One night when she was grieving she came across an ad
For volunteers in Kenya to help the children who were sad
They had lost their parents and families to a virus known as Aids
And our grieving woman went there and felt her sadness fade

It soon became apparent that girls lived worse than boys
So she stayed and rented property and gathered books and toys
And soon there was an orphanage of girls (from babes to teens)
Who without her help would live alone in filth like you’ve never seen

Now she has some sixty boarders, who live like a family
Taught to love and respect one another, they become as close as they can be
They try to break the pattern of pregnancy and birth
And they strive for a social conscience to mold the fabric of the earth

This truly is a woman who grew up straight and strong
Who is kind and good to children and brings them right along
If they have desires unfulfilled for lack of spunk
Why she provides it for them and down it comes- “Kerplunk!”

So now that I’ve told her story, you wonder who she is
She’s really quite a woman, full of spit, and laughs and fizz
She’s also quite attractive, always smiling and always late
There’s only one name that reflects all this, and that’s the name of KATE

-Poem by Kathy English

Hear Linnet Achieng, one of Kate's "daughters" talk about life before and after Hekima Place:

Kate Fletcher inspires me. Who inspires you?