Joe and Julianne Kurwoski went to Kenya in 2000 to do what to most people would seem impossible.

Their mission, headquartered in a Catholic hospital compound in the Archdiocese of Kisumu, was to help transform the lives of African children struggling to survive, having lost their parents to AIDS.

Over a period of three and a half years, the Kurwoskis, supported by generous donations to an orphan fund they established, were instrumental in taking hundreds of those children off the streets, enrolling them in school and giving them hope for a future.

Since moving back to their home in Cameron Park in 2003, the Kurwoskis, who are members of Holy Trinity Parish in El Dorado Hills, are no less committed to those orphans in Kenya who have literally become members of their family.

They continue to provide for the care and education of 11 Kenyan orphans in Kisumu and have adopted 13-year-old Adhiambo, who they have since renamed Maureen.

Maureen was a five-year-old orphan when the Kurwoskis met her at a clinic in Kisumu.

She had a non-malignant tumor over her right eye, and when efforts to locate a doctor or hospital to perform the surgery in Kenya failed, Julianne flew with Maureen to Atlanta, Ga., for the operation.

After completing her school year in Kenya in 2003, the Kurwoskis brought Maureen, the child they couldn’t leave behind, to Cameron Park.

Now a teenager with a quiet grace and creative spirit, Maureen is a seventh grader at Holy Trinity School where she continues to work at mastering English, her third language.

Determined to continue their support of orphaned children in Kisumu, the Kurwoskis have hired a native Kenyan they’ve nicknamed “Mama Teresa” to watch over the boys and girls they have taken off the streets and enrolled in boarding schools.

“We’re hoping to finish what we started several years ago,” Julianne Kurwoski said. “When we left Africa there were an estimated 18 million orphans and there are more now.”

A recent newsletter sent to update their friends and supporters abouit the AIDS orphans project, Kurwoski, a former Franciscan Sister of Penance and Christian Charity, includes updates on the children they are currently educating.

There is Stephen Ochieng, who had lost both parents. Now a senior in high school, Ochieng has set his sights on a vocation to the priesthood.

“Stephen wants to run a center for the orphans, to continue what we started,” Kurwoski said.

Another member of the Kurwoski extended family is Meshack Omundi, a high school graduate who has already begun making a name for himself as an actor and playwright.

Kurwoski said when she, Joe, and Maureen made their most recent trip to Kisumu this past December, administrators from two schools expressed their desire to hire Meshack to teach their students.

And then there is Gift Kimario, now an elementary school student.

The Kurwoski’s also met Gift, whose parents died when he was an infant, during their mission in Kisumu.

It was Gift’s grandmother, who was raising him, who asked the Kurwoskis to take her grandson into their education program.

While funds were already stretched to the limit, Gift was added to the Kurwoski’s growing family.

“He is God’s project,” Julianne Kurwoski said, “and God will provide.”

Unfortunately, for the first time since the Kurwoskis began providing financial support to educate children in Kenya, funding is in place for only the first half of the 2007-2008 school year.

Donations designated to support the orphan project go directly to Special Ministries, an organization dedicated to meet the spiritual, physical and mental needs of Kenyan children.

For more information on the Kurowski Orphan Project, call Julianne Kurwoski at (530) 676-3866.

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