In 2008, award winning Canadian author Eric Walters established the Creation of Hope in Kikima, Kenya; an organization dedicated to giving orphaned children in Kenya a safe home and a chance to restart their lives. To date, the Rolling Hills residence is home to 35 orphans and supports roughly 400 throughout the surrounding community.

Follow Eric Walters on Twitter (@EricWalters, @walkinghome2012) as he tweets and blogs about his trek across Kenya with four orphans – Keli, Baraka, Mutuku and Mulwa. They will start in the Internal Displacement Camp and walk 200 km through the Rift Valley, into Nairobi, and then continue up into the mountains of Kikima where the Children’s Residence – the Rolling Hills Residence – is located. Along the way they will stop at other orphanages (including one where children go when their mothers are imprisoned), walk through lion country, travel through the largest slum in all of Africa, visit the elephant orphanage and giraffe feeding station (where they will be met by 60 orphans who are coming down to Nairobi for the day – none of these children have ever seen an elephant or a lion), and in the end celebrate with a birthday party for 140 orphans, a food distribution day for 400 orphans, a ceremony at the school when they receive their yearly school supplies, and the official opening of the new Rolling Hills Residence.

The entire journey will be filmed and put into a documentary directed by Canadian film maker Matt Blais and Eric Walters will be writing a book based on the adventure.

This experience will be eye opening for everybody involved but most importantly, give the orphans, many who have lost absolutely everything, a chance for their stories and their voices to be heard around the world. It’s their chance to be leaders!

For more information, please visit www.walkinghome2012.com.