The Walnut Room

Optimus Youth

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From the inner-cities of the United States, to the plains of East Africa, to the slums of India, millions of children are being neglected and forgotten. These children are the seeds of our future and will always be with us. International aid groups and missionaries are doing amazing work, but the local communities themeselves are essential, and overlooked participants in this struggle.

The goal of OptimusYouth is to support well-positioned community efforts at home and abroad by providing requisite resources and skills to better serve the local population. OptimusYouth is a bridge to pass along the support of our international donors to well meaning leaders, projects, and neglected children around the world.

Our mission is best evidenced by the Sunshine Project, a collaboration between OptimusYouth and the Kenyan-operated Caroline Wambui Mungai Foundation that increased the capacity of a locally operated orphanage in Wangige, Kenya. By working with and empowering the local community, the Sunshine Project tripled capacity at the orphanage from 24 children to 80 children. Additionally, the project supports the local community by buying local products, providing dozens of jobs, and most importantly, housing, feeding, and educating children for years to come.

We believe the best way to foster lasting change is to work within a cultural context and provide local partners the resources to meet their specific community needs. Our audacious friends in Kenya are evidence that the plight of our neglected youth is not always a product of apathy or a lack of community will, but instead a lack of allocated power and sufficient resources. There are under-funded and understaffed community efforts similar to this all over the world in need of your support. So long as we have the ability, OptimusYouth will seek out these brave leaders and be the bridge that offers your support.

We are not an organization who fails to see the enormous challenges in our endeavor. We do not rely on idealistic slogans or claim we can end poverty outright. We are simply helping people help people. Underserved children deserve a life absent of pain and violence. Each child deserves a life flourishing with love, happiness, and opportunity. We set realistic goals and WE MEET THEM. The world faces many challenges, but those with the desire to create a better future for neglected children need to be supported. It is time that those of us who have the privelege to make a difference directly support those who are selflessly fighting for a better future in their neighborhoods.