The Mombasa Relief Initiative was conceived based on the collective vision of seven Americans and two Kenyans who wanted to find a uniform way to provide help and assistance to the children of Mombasa Kenya.

Since 1993, members of this group had been visiting Kenya on vacation and to collect African art for resale in the United States. However, the more trips they made, the more they began to fall in love with the people and culture. Finally, in March 2001, the group while in Mombasa decided to act. The initial spark was having the opportunity to feed over 200 children at the Bombululu Village. Bombululu is a handicapped workshop in Mombasa. Although we felt good about the initial act, we knew that much more was needed.

Once back in the United States, our group met and laid the groundwork for the Mombasa Relief Initiative. The original founding members were: Mark Abston, Kelvin Bledsoe, Amos Ellis, Donald Harris, Dorothy James, Michael Pattrick, Anna Seboru, Dr. Sefrin Seboru, and Tywayne Wilson.

Other than James, and the Seboru’s all the other members attended Northern Illinois University together some 15 – 20 prior. Of that number five are members of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc

History
At the meeting in Chicago, we decided to name the project the Mombasa Relief Initiative based on the area we planned to serve and the fact that we realized that relief was needed. We decided that we needed to come up with a date time line on getting a non-for profit organization founded.

We determined that the first thing we needed was money. So each Member pledged $200. We knew that the filing fee to the government was $500 plus we assumed that there would be a number of other cost. We excluded the Seboru’s from any financial pledges. We divided the responsibilities amongst our group and gave ourselves timelines to meet.

We then selected officers for the organization. (See Articles and Bylaws)

In June 2001, we created and submitted the Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws to the U.S. Government. At the same time we applied for Non-Governmental Status in the Country of Kenya. In December 2001, we got official word that both statuses had been approved. The Mombasa Relief Initiative was officially a non-for-profit organization.