Why I am passionate about ACT

“Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.”

H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Meet Marva – A life-long supporter of ACT

Marva Kepple is a child sponsor, donor, regular supporter and life-long friend of ACT. Her enthusiasm for ACT breams over when you talk to her. She started supporting the charity shortly after it was formed in 1998. ACT will celebrate its 25^th anniversary next year in 2023.

Marva was born in Jamaica, and moved to South Yorkshire, UK, when she was only six years old. She is a dynamic woman, who has raised three children while working full-time as a Legal Secretary. She is also a regular church goer and prayer minister at Holy Trinity Church of England, Surrey, England.

New extension for the Mawazo family house

For Marva, giving is deeply rooted in her faith. She has a long history of donating to different charities. According to her, this was inspired by her missionary work with the church from an early age. Marva’s eldest son has also worked with various charities through his business, and she has enjoyed contributing to some of those. Marva donates predominantly to children’s causes in the Middle East and Africa, explaining that ‘I seem to have a heart for those less fortunate than myself’.

Marva first heard about ACT when its director, Dr Kunle Onabolu, spoke at her church about the work of the charity. She was taken in by his passion for disadvantaged children and widows in Africa. Since then, she has become a regular child sponsor with ACT, starting with a child in Zambia and several others since then in Burkina Faso and Tanzania. She has also donated to the widows’ projects helping the women to generate sustainable income to support their families and other ACT projects. She once paid the travel costs of one of our local volunteers in Burkina Faso to attend the ACT Partner Convention in Zambia in 2019; funded bicycles for two secondary school children in Malawi to journey the 5 kilometres to school from their village; and contributed to the university fees of Marvellous, an ACT child who graduated with a degree in law and is now practising in Lusaka, Zambia.

‘I donate to ACT because I know that ACT is doing world-changing work by supporting children and widows in need in Africa. God has made possible what may have seemed impossible through this Charity.

Jenipha, with her mother (r) and younger sister

I know this from reading the monthly ACT bulletins, from speaking to Kunle, ACT Director from time to time, and attending the ACT anniversary event which takes place every 2 years. Most of all from my experience of visiting my sponsored child in Zambia in 2005’

One of Marva’s recent generosities was to pay for a two-room extension to the Mawazo family home in Kagera, Tanzania. Marva was already sponsoring Jenipha, one of the three children of the widow. Reading an update report, she had received about her sponsored child, she was moved by the squalor in the depilated one-room hut in which the family lived. Marva paid for an extension with two additional rooms to be built.

‘Obviously there was a genuine need and I felt it was only right for me to do something about it. To think that this family, who were so poor, are now able to have more room and for life to be less of a struggle is absolutely worthwhile and it warms my heart. I can’t help all of Africa, but if I have helped one family, then at least that is one family who lives less in poverty.’

Marva’s generosity has transformed the lives of the Mawazo family. By sponsoring a child, you too can be part of a child’s journey and enable them to reach their full potential in life. Click here to sponsor a child today.