Trip to Africa Inspires Alumna to Help Build an Orphanage

Dana Clerkin and husband smiling with Sogoo children holding donated items
Dana and her husband with children outside smiling holding donated items
Dana and Patrick Clerkin with the Sogoo children receiving donated items.

Dana Pugh-Clerkin, CCAS BA ‘78, grew up knowing she would one day travel to Africa. “I would watch this show called Wild Kingdom that played on Saturday afternoons. Something stuck with me. I knew I would get there.” 

Years later, after graduating from GW, raising two children, and working in the fundraising field, she finally did. In 2011, Clerkin and her husband Patrick planned an African safari in Kenya. Little did she know that this trip would lead to a whole new chapter of her life. 

Clerkin calls meeting their safari guide, Eric Chulule, “divine intervention.” Eric came from a small village called Sogoo, located about 130 miles northwest of Nairobi. He shared with Clerkin that his brother Matthew still lived in the village as a pastor of a Christian church that took in AIDS orphans – children whose parents had died from AIDS. Eric also mentioned Matthew’s dream of building an orphanage so that more children could be taken in. “That is when my world came full circle,” Clerkin says. 

Up until that day in 2011, Clerkin’s life had increasingly become centered around caring for and feeding children. For many years, she was a stay-at-home mom, and then when she went back to work, she joined the School Nutrition Foundation to help implement nutritious meal plans in schools both nationally and internationally. On top of that, Clerkin and her husband also served as foster parents for an emergency foster care organization. So when Clerkin saw an opportunity to interact with children, she took it.

On the last day of their safari, the Clerkins and Eric went to Sogoo. While there, they met five girls who were being cared for by the church, as well as Matthew and the orphanage committee. “Matthew showed me his plans and his budget for building the orphanage, and it was about $20,000 USD.” With her background in fundraising, Clerkin went home wanting to help. “I felt like our worlds were colliding for a reason.”

Back in the US, Clerkin began to fundraise on behalf of the orphanage committee. What started as friends and family giving small amounts of money and donated items to send to the village turned into an official non-profit, The Sogoo Children’s Project. “That was when I really began working with Matthew, Eric, and the committee to figure out what to build and how to build it.” 

Dana Clerkin in front of Harambee House sign
Dana Clerkin, in traditional Dorobo attire, in front of Harambe House, a temporary building the orphans stayed in while the orphanage was being built.

For Clerkin, working with the local community was an essential part of building the orphanage in a sustainable way. “We can’t go over there and pretend that the US has all of the answers, because we certainly don’t. I did not build the orphanage. They built it; I just helped them. What is doing the most help in these countries is supporting grassroots efforts.” 

Though The Sogoo Children’s Project had the funding it needed by 2014, there were many more challenges ahead. “It was a huge learning curve. We needed land and a water retention system before construction could begin. I’m not a builder; I knew nothing about it, so it was a process.”

In addition to the construction obstacles, Clerkin and the orphanage committee also had to work through challenges that arose from cultural differences. From 2015 to 2017, a lull in progress occurred. 

“The girls who were originally there had become of marrying age, and guardians came back to marry them off for their dowries. The girls had to go with them because they were not legally in the orphan system. The church had taken them out of the kindness of the members’ hearts. This devastated Matthew,” Clerkin explained.

Dana Clerkin shoveling the ground
Clerkin at the groundbreaking of the orphanage.

As a result the Sogoo team learned how to navigate the court systems and social services so that something like this would never happen again.

In the fall of 2019, the orphanage was officially completed and had the capacity to house 80 children. But for Clerkin, the actual building was not what she was most proud of at the end of this eight-year journey. She saw the Sogoo community come together. “To me, the physical structure is amazing, but to know that this community is giving back to their own with what they have is incredible. This was more my dream coming true than putting a roof over these kids heads.” 

The only time Clerkin shared about her involvement with The Sogoo Children’s Project on social media was when the project was complete. She shared one photo of the finished orphanage. She had many surprised responses: “People said, ‘Oh my gosh, you built an orphanage in Africa?’ And I would say, ‘Yeah, and next week I’m making cupcakes for my grandson’s birthday.’ It’s just part of what you do. I don’t want it to come across like I saved the world. I didn’t. I just helped this village take care of its children.”

Clerkin hopes that her story can inspire others to make an impact in their communities. Her piece of advice for current GW students: “You can make a difference. It’s so cliché but so true.”

Now that this chapter of her life is coming to a close, Clerkin is excited about the new adventures that the future holds for her and her family, but she will forever be tied to Sogoo. “I will always have my heart there. They made me a mother of the Dorobo tribe. It is a whole new world that I never thought I would be a part of, but it happened.” 

 

-Katie Kowalski

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