Founders Story
Rev. Dr. Alfred Muli was born and brought up in Kenya. As he was growing up, Dr. Muli attended Muisuni church where his father, the late Rev. Stanley Muli was the pastor. In 1976, when Dr. Muli was only a youngster; this church opened a children’s home - a community development program. Since then, three overseas sponsoring organizations have come and gone. In August 2017, Muisuni church approached Dr. Muli asked him to help the church with the sponsorship of the children's home, which was on the brink of being closed.
Even though for some time Dr. Muli had been aware of the possibility of this need coming up, he did not feel like he could provide this kind of help. Dr. Muli told the church he needed time to think about it. With his demanding job and other engagements, Dr. Muli was not ready to take on an additional responsibility of this magnitude. When Dr. Muli shared with Nancy, his wife, she surprised him with her immediate embrace of the idea of helping these children. Upon sharing with their children, they followed suit in wanting to help. But Dr. Muli remained adamant.
Around this time, Dr. Muli started thinking about the story of the Good Samaritan. Dr. Muli was particularly challenged by the insightful observations of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
In this story, a man who was travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho falls in the hands of robbers who beat him and leave him half dead on the roadside. A Levite and a Priest who happened to be going down the same way at various times saw the man but simply passed by. But a Samaritan man, headed to Jericho, stops, and helps the man. In his last civil rights movement speech titled, “I have been to the Mountaintop” delivered in Memphis, Tennessee on 4/3/1968, the night before his assassination, Dr. King provides an insightful, heart-searching observation about what was going on in the mind of the Levite and the Priest. They knew this was a dangerous road and so they are thinking, “if I go there to help, what will happen to me?” In other words, selfishness propelled inaction. On the other hand, however, the Samaritan man reverses the question and asks, “if I do not help this man, what will happen to him?” In other words, selfless concern and compassion for others compelled his action.
Dr. Muli realized he had been like the Priest and the Levite. Selfish concerns caused his reluctance. Very quickly, however, God changed Dr. Muli’s mind and asked himself the good Samaritan question – “if I do not help these orphaned and vulnerable children, what will happen to them?” Dr. Muli accepted that God wanted to use him to help these vulnerable children.
As Dr. Muli considered this task; he observed a critical problem. In the past, foreign organizations had taken control of the home and failed to involve the local church. Dr. Muli sought to solve this problem through a partnership that involved forming a non-profit organization based in the USA which would play a supportive role while Muisuni church assumed the operational responsibility of the children's home. Dr. Muli named this organization Anaweza, a Kiswahili word meaning “He is able” based on Ephesians 3:20, God can do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine. It is the goal of Anaweza to point the children at the home and the leaders of Muisuni church to God alone because God alone can meet their needs. It is hoped that through Anaweza, many can grow in their faith as they learn to depend completely on God’s divine provisions.
Anaweza Foundation’s sponsorship of Muisuni Children Home began in December 2017. Over the period, Dr. Muli saw a need to change the Anaweza Foundation sponsorship into a New Model. Please click here for more information on the New Model.