Several charities support needy street children in a number of Nairobi slums/ML File photo

Africa Health is a non-profit organization founded by Martin Owino, a Kenyan who lives with his family in the Boston area. The foundation raised money to build Hope Center, a facility that helps orphans in Malela, Homa Bay. The center has a soup kitchen, food pantry, health center, church, sports facility and an elementary school.

The Owinos are an example of a growing number of Kenyans living in the United States, who are raising funds for worthy causes in East Africa. Through events as varied as golf tournaments, masked balls, and church fundraisers, Kenyan individuals and professional associations are sending hundreds of thousands of dollars to their homeland annually, in support of causes like rehabilitating street children, education programs and AIDS care.

"In total, I think we'll (Africa-Health) hit $55,000 dollars which we will have pumped into the center by the end of this month," said Owino, who once worked for the Kenyan National AIDS Control Program.

Anthony Mbuvi, vice chairman of the Association of Kenyan Professionals/ML File photo

According to Anthony Mbuvi, vice chairman of the Association of Kenyan Professionals (AKPA) in Atlanta, the increase in philanthropic efforts can be attributed to a rapid growth in the number of Kenyans who have come to the U.S. in the past decade. That rise has in turn led to an explosion of Kenyan groups coming together, he said.

Mohammed Gello, spokesman at the Kenyan embassy in Washington echoed Mbuvi’s sentiment. He said that after the economic hardships Kenya has endured in the past two decades, many Kenyans abroad are compelled to give beyond the circle of family and close friends.

"Many of them are of the view that they have something to return to society," said Gello. "They realize the average Kenyan needs help that goes beyond the government."

Njeri Gichohi, a law student in Boston, has been involved in projects for helping Kenyan street children since her graduation from a Nairobi high school in the 1990s.

Gichohi said she has always been fascinated by street children and marveled at how they survive by making decisions like adults.

"I thought, ‘That's such potential and yet it's going to waste,’ Gichohi said

Gichohi is still involved in street children rehabilitation work, this time as a board member and fund-raiser for Jitegemee, a non-profit based in Boston and founded by Farrah Stockman, an American journalist. It supports nearly 60 students in attending primary, secondary and vocational schools in Kenya.

"It takes effort, but it doesn't take like too much effort to make a change no matter how small it," said Gichohi.

Data on how much is sent home is tough to track, partly because some organizations like AKPA don't publicly disclose their financials. But Mbuvi said many of the organization's projects raise about $2,000 for projects like one it did in 2003 to finance the training of 50 Kenyan girl guides as AIDS counselors in 2003.

AKPA also wants to support a project in Kenya that will provide water and impact entire communities. The efforts, Mbuvi said are driven by a need to help.

Mbuvi credits former Kenya’s former ambassador to the United States, Yusuf A. Nzibo, now Kenya’s top diplomat in Saudi Arabia, with encouraging self-help among Kenyans.

"When [Nzibo] traveled around the country, he encouraged people to come together and elevate each other," said Mbuvi.

That's a mission that three of Martin Owino's sons -- David, and twins Brian and Calvin -- have taken on. The siblings lost cousins to AIDS in 1998 and were moved to start a can and bottle collection project in 1999, which they called BCD Cans for Africa.

That collection in the Boston area raised $33,000 of the $55,000 the family has raised for the Malela center. The boys were honored in late June by the Boston Celtics professional basketball team at a ‘Heroes Among Us’ awards ceremony at the Massachusetts State House.

Owino wants to use the Malela project for children affected by AIDS to serve as a prototype for what his foundation can replicate in other parts of sub-saharan Africa.

"We want to tell donors that the best way to help an African community is to empower the system of caring for all the vulnerable children within the community," Owino said.

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