Overview

Grace to All

Caris – χαρις (khar'-ece) is the Greek word for grace. The Caris Foundation seeks to demonstrate grace to people of poverty in various areas of the world and to empower them through holistic and sustainable solutions that fit in their particular cultural contexts.

Caris Kenya is the piece of Caris Foundation's work of empowering vulnerable women in the area around Malindi. In 2008, Caris teamed up with Jim and Laura Reppart as they sought to establish a presence to facilitate transformation among needy people in East Africa. Jim and Laura, who had previously planted churches and worked with street children in Nairobi, connected with church leadership and other local leaders in Malindi and saw opportunities for Caris to make a significant impact on people in poverty.

As in most cultures, women in Malindi, Kenya were found to be marginalized but desiring and deserving of a better future. Through the Caris Foundation and the various training programs of Caris Kenya, opportunities for change are now available to participants.

Caris Kenya's Mission: to demonstrate GRACE to our participants by empowering them to fulfill their God-given potential to:

‍Become physically, emotionally, and spiritually healthy
Become economically self-reliant and independent, providing basic needs for themselves and their children
‍Become responsible stewards of their own resources
‍Create transformation in their communities by empowering them to be change agents

Who We Are

The Foundation

Caris Foundation™ is a Texas Non-Profit Private Foundation established in Irving, Texas, in 2002 to aid and empower impoverished people in different parts of the globe. In doing so, the foundation seeks to establish a local presence within communities in order to understand the people’s basic needs and implement solutions that are culturally relevant and sustainable.

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The Foundation is solely funded by Kathryn and David D. Halbert, Kristen and Jeff Barstad, Shannon and Patrick Halbert, and Caroline and Michael Halbert.

Kathy Halbert serves as president of the foundation, and Christopher Harmon is the vice-president.

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Caris Kenya

The Kenya program began in 2008 with 60 single mothers who had lost their own childhood to motherhood and, in many cases, had been ostracized by their communities. Today other women who need empowerment have been added to the program. Including those who have graduated, 2,700 participants have experienced learning and growth. Currently, 2,000 more women are newly enrolled in the empowerment program. Caris has recognized that women are the entry point to empowering the entire family.

A new focus to extend the influence of transformation has recently been launched in a youth program for children of their participants. Currently Caris is working with over 10,000 young people. The purpose of this program is to train youth in better relationships and life choices.

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Our Guiding Principles

Doreen Dama, one of Caris Kenya's staff members, helps facilitate a form of community savings and loans in a village outside Malindi.

Faith
Faith is belief that moves one from fatalism to action that opens up the future to positive change.

Hope
Hope delivers from despair of daily survival and transforms to a sustainable lifestyle which adequately provides for the mothers and their children.

Love
Love produces acceptance, forgiveness and reconciliation which are necessary to become a healthy person that contributes to the community as she heals from rejection and marginalization.

Caris Surgical Camp

What We Do

We empower our participants through

SELF-SUSTAINABLE economic welfare
PHYSICAL, EMOTIONAL, and SPIRITUAL wellness
‍STEWARDSHIP skills
SERVICE to their communities

We promote economic sustainability through

EQUIPING in small business
FACILITATING small group savings and loans
‍PROVIDING trades training
PROMOTING food security by agricultural training
ENCOURAGING income generating projects
PROMOTING health care practices

We facilitate transformation of both the individual and community

BELIEF in a holistic approach
BUILD trust, honesty and respect for one another
PROVIDE literacy and knowledge programs
IMPART faith in God
TRAIN leaders to become change agents in their communities

Annual Surgical Camps

Caris also shows grace to all in the health realm by hosting world-class Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) visits by medical teams from Vanderbilt University. Dr. Jim Netterville leads these annual surgical camps of service and teaching to Malindi. Kenyan patients are treated and ENT surgeons from various parts of East Africa participate in providing services as they also receive training in partnership with Netterville's team and the hosting facility, Tawfiq Hospital in Malindi.

Grace in the form of medical procedures is shown to all that time will allow. Lives are changed thanks to these procedures, and the capacity of the East African surgeons is increased, enabling the positive outcomes of the two-week endeavor to stretch far into the future.

ENT surgeons partnering with Caris work alongside East African surgeons at Tawfiq Hospital in Malindi for a two-week surgical camp each year.

I couldn’t imagine these young girls and how they have had so much taken away at ages like eleven or twelve. They need to experience a different life

– Jim Reppart

Who We Are

The Foundation

Caris Foundation™ is a Texas Non-Profit Private Foundation established in Irving, Texas, in 2002 to aid and empower impoverished people. In doing so, the foundation seeks to establish a local presence within communities in order to understand the people’s basic needs and implement solutions that are culturally relevant and sustainable.

Caris: Greek for Grace

Caris – χαρις (khar'-ece): a: a favor done without expectation in return; b: the absolutely free expression of the loving kindness of God to men finding its only motive in the bounty and benevolence of the Giver; c: unearned and unmerited favor.

The Foundation is solely funded by Kathryn and David D. Halbert, Kristen and Jeff Barstad, Shannon and Patrick Halbert, and Caroline and Michael Halbert.

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