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Santa Clarita Unsung Hero: Nurturing 50 Children And A Non-Profit

Santa Clarita resident Rocky Turner, a mother to many, is KHTS’s Unsung Hero for December.


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She grew up in the San Fernando Valley, married her husband and has 50 children — 44 of which live halfway around the world in Kenya.

Turner owns and operates a successful orphanage in Kenya, she travels back and forth doing their day to day procedures and also giving the children the love they desire.

Turner’s entire non-profit, Mother’s Fighting For Others, and her adventure started when she searched “volunteer Africa” on Google in 2006. 

“You basically fall in love with kids,” said Turner. “It’s just that simple.”

She and her sister-in-law traveled to different orphanages during their visit.

“The hardest hit orphanage we went to was two very dark rooms, with no windows whatsoever,” said Turner. “There were about 40 kids in a very small room, they were lucky to have one meal a day, possibly not going to school because they don’t have the money to send the children.”

These girls started out with no access to clean water, and now they had their first college graduate, said Turner.

She recently visited Kenya for the very special occasion. 

One of the orphans, Mary, graduated from the University of Nairobi on Dec. 5, and Rocky, or as the girls call her “Mum,” was there to cheer her on.MFFO Unsung Hero

“The trip was really great, always a bit stressful, balancing work and play,” said Turner. “When I just volunteered, I would spend my days talking to the girls, singing and dancing and playing with them a lot more. Now that there are so many responsibilities, I find myself in meetings about budgets, school fees and the obvious problems that come up when you have over 50 girls living in a small space.”

Turner can always see the silver lining when it comes to her kids. 

MFFO Unsung Hero“But it is all worth it when you see the accomplishments that have been made. Mary’s graduation is a huge testament to what and why we do the things we do. She had worked really hard in high school to get into Nairobi University,” Turner said. “She has continued to stay focused over the past four years, and all her hard work has paid off into a Degree in International Relations. All the accolades go to Mary, Saint Monica Children’s Home and MFFO have just given her the space to do it.”

Rocky’s non-profit, Mother’s Fighting For Other’s, is always in need of donations, but she hopes that’s not always the case.

“The goal is to be self sustaining, so that they don’t need help financially in the future,” said Turner.

The money goes to the girls education and their housing upkeep, said Turner.

The orphanage needs to move to a permanent location, so Rocky and her Kenyan partner, Perpetua Gatome, are building a new two story home on a 20 acre plot of land.

The land will house the girls and even offer land for farming their own food, says Turner.

“The organization is 100% volunteer, so 100% of the money goes straight to the girls, and their needs,” said Turner.

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About Rocky Turner and Mothers Fighting for Others

Rocky frequently travels back and forth between her two families, one in Santa Clarita, and the other at Saint Monica Children’s Home, an all-girls home near Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. 

Saint Monica is supported by Turner’s non-profit organization Mothers Fighting for Others, which provides the funds for the girls’ basic necessities, as well as school tuition.

“I always said I wanted to me a mom,” she said. “That’s what I ended up doing. That’s what I do now; I just have 50 children.”

It all started in 2006 with a simple Google search: “volunteer Africa.” 

By October 2007, Turner was traveling to Kenya with the Global Volunteer Network.

She volunteered at Saint Monica and was approached by the orphanage director, who said that some of the girls needed money to attend high school.

So, Turner returned to the United States and raised $4,000. But after she sent the money she discovered that the orphanage director had not been honest about how much supplies and tuition cost. 

That’s when she decided to take matters into her own hands.

Turner started traveling to Kenya three times a year to pay the school fees and buy school supplies herself.

By 2008, she had turned her efforts into the non-profit, Mothers Fighting For Others, and in 2010 they raised enough money to move the Saint Monica girls into a new building, away from the dishonest orphanage director.

The money needed for the move, $45,000, was raised within three months.

Saint Monica just celebrated their fourth anniversary in the new location, and come December they will be celebrating their first university graduate.

 It’s a long way to come, Turner said, for girls who were barely going to school before MFFO stepped in.

Now they focus on making sure that the needs of each girl (as well as three boys) are met every day, while trying to find a more permanent home for Saint Monica, which is currently on rented property.

And while it might be overwhelming for Turner to divide her time between Santa Clarita and Nairobi, she said she wouldn’t trade it for anything.

“I would rather be overwhelmed and fulfilled and satisfied and love what I do, than not overwhelmed and trying to figure out what to do with my life…” she said. 

Turner has no immediate plans to expand MFFO, but she hopes in the future to raise more money and fund the education of other underprivileged girls, beyond those at Saint Monica.

“Being able to educate hundreds of more girls, that would be it for me…” she said. “There are 66 million girls in the world that aren’t educated… That’s just too many.”

To learn more about Mothers Fighting for Others and how to get involved, click here.

 To learn more watch the video below:

KHTS AM 1220 - Santa Clarita Radio

Santa Clarita Unsung Hero: Nurturing 50 Children And A Non-Profit

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About Kimberly Beers

Kimberly Beers is a Santa Clarita native. She received her Bachelor's Degree in Journalism from California State University, Northridge in 2013. While attending the university, she focused her attention on news writing and worked as a primary news writer for the campus' award winning radio station and televised news program. She began writing news stories for KHTS in 2014 and hopes to have a lifetime career dedicated to writing and sharing the news