ABOUT US
About Cura
Our Story
Cura Orphanage, near Nairobi, Kenya, was founded in the early 2000s, as a result of Mrs. Evelyn Mungai’s desire to improve the lives of people in her home village.
To that end, she inspired the Nairobi Rotary, for which she was serving as President, to initiate a needs analysis which revealed that the community had been devastated by the AIDS epidemic. The Rotary Club, in consultation with Cura’s local leaders, implemented a plan to fund and build a Home for vulnerable children orphaned by the disease, and simultaneously funded and built a Clinic that would provide care not only for the Home’s children, but also for the local community.
As of 2006, Cura was struggling to support 50 orphans. Mike Eldon, Evelyn’s husband, reached out to Creative Visions Foundation, inspired by the life of his son Dan Eldon, an artist and photojournalist who had been killed in Somalia in 1993. Dan’s sister Amy, co-founder of CV, launched a fundraising campaign, and encouraged the organization to commit to helping support the Home financially. Over the years, CV has provided much-needed funds to ensure the sustainability of the Home, and Creative Visions’ volunteers have visited Cura regularly, contributing to its successes in many ways.
In order to give even more to the community, CV expanded its impact to include not only funding the operating expenses of the Home and Clinic, but also to supplement the primary school curriculum and resources, which meant adding a computer lab and library for community use.
By 2010, it became clear that the community would need to have its own secondary school (high school) if it was going to provide ongoing education for all of its children. The Creative Visions team, led by Amy Eldon Turteltaub and Hayden Bixby, sprang into action to raise funds and develop partnerships that led to the construction, finalized in 2012, of Cura Secondary School, which graduated its first class of seniors in November of 2016.
While the schools in Cura are attended by local children as well as some of Cura’s children, we also send our students to boarding and day-schools in the region, provided they are offered acceptance based on their Class 8 test scores. We are committed to providing for the best education each of our students can pursue and to supporting their transition to independent young-adult life for at least one year after graduation. We are proud to send our students to universities and training programs in many disciplines, and to partner with John Kaheni Residence
as a transitional home for some of Cura’s graduates.
Cura Orphanage is part of the living legacy of Dan Eldon and the Creative Visions Foundation
About The Kenya Leadership Team
About The KenyaLeadership Team
Our local Cura Board of Governors oversees the daily work of our projects. These leaders are respected members of the broader Cura community, with roles in the schools, local development projects, and a network of churches and children's homes in the region. Their expertise is an essential part of our success!
US Board of Directors
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Hayden M. Bixby International Program Director
Hayden’s move from suburban California to Nairobi, Kenya in 1988 set in motion her relationship with the Eldon family and, eventually, with Creative Visions and Cura Orphanage. In 2006, when the orphanage project was in its early stages, Hayden a launched and managed a sponsorship program to support the children who had only just arrived. Since then, her International Program Director role has significantly expanded, such that she travels several times a year to oversee projects on the ground and work with the local Cura Board and the children under our collective care.
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Amy EldonAdvisory Committee
Amy Eldon grew up in Kenya and London and graduated from Boston University with a degree in Communications. At the age of 22 she moved to Los Angeles where she conceived of and presented the Emmy-nominated TBS documentary, Dying to Tell the Story, which wove the story of her brother, photographer Dan Eldon, killed while working as a photojournalist with Reuters News Agency in Somalia in 1993 together with those of six front-line journalists, including Christiane Amanpour.
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Grace BreuerCFO - Creative Visions
Grace originated the accounting position in Creative Visions Foundation and created operating systems that have supported it to become an organization making meaningful impact on social good. Grace is a CPA with an accounting practice in California. Her credits include Sr. Manager in the business management group at Ernst & Young. She has been a board member for the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce, co-created and chaired their Business, Entertainment and Technology committee, and was active in their Finance committee.