Just about a year ago, former Mt. Lebanon resident Kate Fletcher set a goal to raise $500,000 to build a permanent home for the orphaned girls she has cared for and educated in Kenya for the past five years.

As with each goal Mrs. Fletcher has set since she founded Hekima Place outside of Nairobi, she hit the mark. As a result, a dedication was held Sept. 11 at the new complex, which is now under construction.

"What a wonderful day we had," Mrs. Fletcher wrote in a recent e-mail to supporters.

Mrs. Fletcher, 72, wanted the new complex constructed so the girls would know they had a permanent home for the future. The original complex is operated on leased land and in leased buildings.

The new complex will hold six residential buildings where the girls, the staff and Mrs. Fletcher will live and have offices. In addition, there will be a large dining hall where dinner will be served daily and meetings and celebrations held.

It was in the partially built dining hall, on the new property overlooking the Rift Valley, that the dedication was held with a schedule full of performances by the girls and staff and blessings by local clergy.

The programs included raising the flags of the five countries that have provided support to Hekima Place: France, Italy, Canada, England and the United States. Then the Kenyan flag was raised to the country's national anthem.

There was a reading and reflection ceremony by a local pastor and a blessing ceremony of the buildings and staff.

"We had about 200 guests and enough food for the children of the area who wandered into the open gates to see what was happening," Mrs. Fletcher wrote in her e-mail.

All of the girls performed song and dance routines, divided into groups by age. The oldest girls read the poem "Invictus," which is said to have sustained Nelson Mandela during his years of imprisonment.

Also joining in the performances was a group of men who are part of the construction team on the complex. They are members of the local Maasai population in Kenya and they wore colorful outfits and jewelry and danced for the crowd.

The celebration ended with the girls singing Celine Dion's "Because You Loved Me" to the staff of women, known as the "house mums," who care for them daily.

"It was unbelievable," said Jim DiPiero of Mt. Lebanon, who is chairman of the Hekima Place board and was among about a dozen U.S. supporters who attended the dedication ceremony.

Mr. DiPiero said all of Mrs. Fletcher's supporters are amazed at how she has expanded the orphanage and boarding school over the past five years.

She started in 2005 with about $50,000 she raised from local churches and 10 girls who lived in a rented cottage. At the time, Mrs. Fletcher was paying her employees with the proceeds from her Social Security check.

Currently, she is housing 63 girls and one boy, Johnny, 2, who will be adopted soon by a Canadian couple. The oldest of the young women from Hekima Place is attending a university this year.

Mrs. Fletcher's goal is for all of the girls to attend either a university or trade school upon graduation.

"The whole point of Hekima Place is to do well in school so you can do well in life," she said. She's hoping to have the girls moved into the completed new complex in December.

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