Partner Page: Rose Bugusu

127 Partners

ROSE BUGUSU

Tumaini Miles of Smiles is a children’s home and school led by Rose in rural western Kenya. Named after the Swahili word for “hope,” Tumaini provides care and protection to their community’s most vulnerable – orphans, widows and abandoned babies. Rose is proud to say that of the 163 students who have finished eighth grade at Tumaini, 100% have continued to high school.

Partner Grant

127 Partners

ROSE BUGUSU

Tumaini Miles of Smiles is a children’s home and school led by Rose in rural western Kenya. providing care and protection to their community’s most vulnerable – orphans, widows and abandoned babies.

Welcome to Tumaini Miles of Smiles!

In 2005, God placed in Rose Bugusu’s heart a vision to provide quality education in a rural community in Kenya. That same year he provided the needed resources to open the Tumaini Miles of Smiles Center in Malava, Kenya. Just one year after her initial steps to start Tumaini, Rose discovered that several of the children attending her school were suffering physical abuse at home. Though her initial vision for Tumaini had simply been a school for the materially poor, she decided to expand it to include a children’s home for those who could not live with their families.

As Tumaini grew over the following year, Rose began to see more and more needs. Sometimes she had no idea how God would provide for the needs of Tumaini, but she followed her mother’s example in prayer and anticipated him to work in wonderful ways.

All these years later, Rose continues to serve as the Director. Rose’s ministry blesses the children in her care, widows that live nearby, and her entire community. Tumaini Miles of Smiles Center is breaking the cycle of poverty by strengthening families, empowering widows, and educating children to become contributing members of society.

Meet Rose Bugusu

Rose Bugusu was born the youngest daughter to a farming family of six in a small, rural village outside of Kisumu, Kenya. While materially poor, Rose’s mother provided a powerful example of reliance on and obedience to God. Despite none of her other siblings attending high school, God worked through Rose’s sister to provide the needed school fees to continue her education. Rose began to recognize God’s active presence in her life during those high school years. Having experienced poverty herself and the difficulties surrounding education beyond the 8th grade, God used Rose’s life experiences to grow a passion in her heart for education, discipleship, and the vulnerable. Today Rose is a mother to Moses and Sara Beth and the Director of Tumaini Miles of Smiles Centre in Malava, Kenya where she runs a children’s home and school, maintains various agricultural projects, and serves her local community.

127 Partnership Highlights

We partner with local leaders in a number of ways, including specific equipping, partner grant programs, and connecting.

High School Student Scholarships

In Kakamega County, where Tumaini is located, only twenty percent of students go on to attend high school after the eighth grade. The primary school at Tumaini, Brightsmile Hill School, has a graduation rate of 100%. During the last decade over 300 students have graduated the eighth grade and all have gone on to attend high school. This is nearly double the national average! In 2022, 34 eighth graders successfully completed their national exams and graduated, the largest class to date. All are attending various high schools in Kenya. 127 Partners with Tumaini to provide full and partial scholarships to incoming high school students .

Family Empowerment Program

Rose’s passion for family preservation is evident in this empowerment project. There are many windows in the community surrounding Tumaini, many who have children that attend Brightsmile Hills School. Widows represent some of the most vulnerable members of society in Kenya. It can be a struggle for widows in Malava to put food on the table and afford tuition for their children. They often end up placing their children in the children’s home at Tumaini just so their children can eat and go to school. This project aims to keep these families together by providing seed and fertilizer for widows to grow on their own land. Widows are empowered by growing their own food, which allows them to put food on their table and even sell the surplus to fund their children’s tuition. In early 2022, 127 Worldwide approved a partner grant for Tumaini to supply seed and fertilizer to 30 families. Rose started this program in 2021 as a trial and the project was so successful that widows even gave back to Tumaini, filling sacks full of beans to use at the school and children’s home. We pray for another successful harvest for these families.