How Whisper began

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a simple step. In 2009, Whisper's founders Veronika Cejpkova and Antonio Genco travelled through eight African countries, staying with local communities, meeting families, children and elderly people, witnessing how they lived. To understand what these people were going through, they immersed themselves in their world, often travelling on the same basic transport. They stayed in remote villages without access to water, electricity, kitchen or bathroom facilities. They tried to see the world in their eyes, they still could not know how it felt falling asleep on the cold dirty ground full of parasites, hungry, thirsty and praying to God to receive love.

Unfortunately, for many people in the poorest parts of Africa, these situations are all too common, but what was even more alarming and unbearable to witness were the innocent children who for no reason of their own were dumped onto their extended families or simply on the street with barely any hope of making it to their next birthday. Other children are accommodated in orphanages that do no more than provide a place to sleep; many orphanages cannot feed the children every day and if they do, they are likely to eat just potatoes or rice alone. Further investigation showed that they were lacking in simple needs such as extreme lack in education regarding proper hygiene, balanced diet, and medical attention. All too often a visit to the hospital would serve as a reminder of how life is indeed 'cheap' in Africa with the news of another death of a child due to the lack of basic needs.

Their travel inspired them go further and in 2010 they set up Whisper to show how little is needed to change these children's lives. They raised funds via small fundraising events in their local dance community, collecting unwanted items for car boot sales. Veronika knitted socks and baked cookies. They raised enough to start up their first project, Whisper children’s home, followed in 2011 by Whisper's school in Kagoma Gate.

Veronika found that there was a pressing need for affordable, good quality healthcare. In the existing healthcare systems, funding is often erratic, medical resources don't always reach the patients and government healthcare is only theoretically free. Larger aid agencies tend to favour prevention programmes rather than funding treatment, to the point where treatment can be more cost-effective. In December 2015, Veronika decided to open a hospital. Ritah, a Medical Officer, was immensely helpful with setting up the new hospital. In March 2016, barely 100 days after the project began, Whisper's Magical Children's Hospital opened, initially with just 10 inpatient beds.

In 2018 the hospital moved to its current 47-bed premises and opened a maternity ward. In the video below, you can see how the hospital was fitted out.

Please join us in our journey, helping vulnerable children who given the opportunity are just as able as anyone else to fulfil their dreams and ambitions. Sign up to our newsletter or follow us on Facebook using the links at the bottom of this page.