Two summers ago, Kate Fletcher decided to move from Mt. Lebanon to Africa to start a boarding school and residence for girls orphaned by AIDS and other scourges.

Mrs. Fletcher, 69, a widow, started her home, called Hekima Place, outside Nairobi, Kenya, with 10 girls. She now houses 43 girls ranging in age from 1 1/2 to 19 and she's hoping to include more.

In recent weeks, she returned to the Pittsburgh area for her annual round of solicitations for her school. Local churches and residents once again were generous, she said, but some individuals have given more than money.

They have been so moved by the story of Hekima Place, she said, that they have visited to offer their time and energy to the girls there.

Here are their stories:

Fox Chapel family

Lulu Orr and her husband, Prentiss, of Fox Chapel, had done volunteer work in Africa 19 years earlier and had wanted to return.

When Mrs. Orr's sister e-mailed her a copy of a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article about Mrs. Fletcher and her work, the Orrs knew they had found their project. Mrs. Orr contacted Kathy English, of Upper St. Clair, who serves as Mrs. Fletcher's treasurer.

The Orrs and their children -- daughters Lee, 18, and Terry, 15, and son Charlie, 11 -- met Mrs. Fletcher when she returned to the area on a trip to raise funds. About a week before they left for Africa in June 2006, Mrs. Fletcher mentioned that the girls at Hekima Place did not have any recreation facilities.

So the Orr family spent their 12-day visit building a wooden swing set and soccer goal posts.

Mrs. Orr, who is the director of the Good Grief Center for Bereavement Support in Munhall, said it took her husband and a custodian at Hekima Place a full day, from sunrise to nightfall, to find and buy enough wood for the projects.

"The girls waited patiently while the swing set was finished. They listened to my husband say, 'This is for you and we hope you have fun on it.' Then their reaction was really quite wonderful with lots of screaming and smiling. They had a lot of fun with the goal posts as well," she said.

Mrs. Orr said her children were impressed with how hard the girls at Hekima Place worked at their studies and how they did two hours of homework each night without complaint.

"They don't have to be told to do their homework. They are just so happy to have the opportunity to be in school. They work their tails off. They are using pencils smaller than my pinky and sharing one eraser between eight girls," she said

"The books they have are very outdated, but they are just soaking up the information and working together in a way that we don't find in American schools."

Upper St. Clair contingent

Upper St. Clair sisters, Janet Hauge and Mary Julius, and a former resident, Lauren Frank, spent five weeks at Hekima Place in March and April. The women planned the trip after Mrs. Hauge and Mrs. Julius heard Mrs. Fletcher speak at St. Thomas More Church last summer.

Before they left for Kenya, they raised money and were able to take about $12,000 to Hekima Place.

Upon their arrival, they immediately were taken in by the girls at Hekima Place.

"It doesn't take even a day to fall in love with these girls," Mrs. Hauge said. "They have this glowing smile on their faces as if they are so happy that you are there, that there is another person in the world who cares about them."

The girls were on a holiday from school during the women's visit, so the three held daily classes and lessons to keep the girls sharp in their school skills. At the end of their visit, they held a competition, an academic Olympics of sorts, for the girls.

"They were so excited about it," said Miss Frank, 26, who now lives in Florida. "When they would succeed, we'd give them a pencil as a prize and they would be so grateful."

In a guest house at the school, the women hosted the 20 older girls, ages 12 to 15, for a night of games and conversation. Some of the topics the girls wanted to talk about were "mind-blowing," Miss Frank said.

"They would ask, 'What do you do when you go home over a holiday and one of your family members is trying to sell you?' Another one said, 'God says you are not supposed to lie, but if someone is going to rape you, can you tell them you are HIV positive or not?' " Miss Frank said.

Mrs. Hauge bought an electric sewing machine for Hekima Place and taught some of the girls how to sew. Before, they had a sewing machine that was operated by a foot pedal. Sometimes they would have to stop in the middle of a sewing lesson with the new machine because the electricity was used up for the day or was needed for other uses.

"Electricity is such an issue over there. When you have it, you have 20 other things that have to be done," Mrs. Hauge said.

Mrs. Hauge made skirts and vests for a group of girls who were traveling to Rome with Mrs. Fletcher, and the girls made matching purses from the leftover fabric.

The women also taught the girls and the women hired to help care for them how to bake using a propane oven that had just arrived. Mrs. Hauge said it was a challenge because the heat wasn't regulated in the oven and they needed to use a thermometer to determine the temperature, which changed frequently.

The women were at Hekima Place for Easter, so they taught the girls how to color eggs and held an Easter egg hunt. "They had never done that before and they had no idea why we were coloring eggs, but they loved it," Miss Frank said.

Mt. Lebanon visitor

Erin Hohlfelder, 20, of Mt. Lebanon, an international affairs major at George Washington University, went to Hekima Place in the spring to do an independent study on orphanages in Kenya, where she had spent a semester.

Her mission at Hekima Place switched quickly from professional to personal. She lived in one of the houses with the girls instead of the guest house. She tutored the girls when they were on holiday and helped with homework when they returned to classes.

She left with enough academic information to write a 40-page paper comparing the care at Hekima Place with other places in Kenya.

"It was a tremendous difference. The most crucial thing was the element of education. Everything the girls do [at Hekima Place] is geared toward making sure they can go to school," she said. "Education first and foremost sets them apart."

The school-age girls at Hekima Place attend a nearby private school at which Mrs. Fletcher pays $1 a day for each in tuition. In the fall, some will attend a public school for free.

Other Kenyan orphanages, Ms. Hohlfelder said, were able to do little more than provide basic food and shelter for the children.

Another factor that set Hekima Place apart is the message of female empowerment.

"A lot of girls in Kenya are taught to do chores and take care of the family. But they are never told you can achieve things, be a professional. Kate really encourages and inspires them in this way," Ms. Hohlfelder said.

She also produced a computerized presentation on Hekima Place, AIDS orphans in Africa and the plight of young girls in the country. Mrs. Fletcher uses it as a fund-raising tool.

More information on Hekima Place can be found at www.hekimaplace.org.