Update With Lauren Albert on the Orphans at Huruma

Here at Notable we’re are big on delivering the latest on young Canadian professionals, which is why we were thrilled with the arrival of an email from our colleague Lauren Albert.

Name sound familiar?

Back in July 2010, Notable, along with the help of a generous group of sponsors including Gotstyle, Grey Goose and the Yorkville Club, came together for the second annual Mpenzi, Afya, Elimu — Love, Health, Education in Swahili —, a benefit organized by Albert for the Huruma Orphanage for Boys and Girls, a refuge for children living in Tanzania.

Thanks to the $12,000 raised at the event, Albert reports that all 19 of the children currently calling Huruma home were able to be enrolled in a private school located within walking distance of the orphanage.

“We have provided them with their books, shoes and school uniforms required for them to attend private school,” she writes of the raised money. “All of the children of Huruma now have the privilege to spend everyday growing and learning.”

This is only the latest in a long list of improvements provided through the hard work of Albert along with Fondation le Solstice, the private foundation of Switzerland’s Collège Alpin Beau Soleil. In the last two years, the boys and girls of Huruma have benefitted from the creation of a new sustainable fruit and vegetable garden, water well and orphanage building — complete with kitchen and dining room.

A former model, Albert was first introduced to the orphanage while completing a social services internship in 2009. While the accomplishments to date have been a great start, she says they are in fact only the beginning.

“Our work here is not over yet,” she says. “We will continue to raise funds in order to pay for their annual school fees, maintaining a path for all that leads to sustainability and success.”

Check out this video of some of the work being done by Solstice — including a peak of our girl, Lauren, at 1:45.