History
Official foundation
Love and Serve Without Boundaries was founded on the 20th October 2015 by Rosemary Odhiambo, famously referred to as Maria by people acquitted to her. However, LSWB story started being written long before that day. Before the organisation was up and running Maria used to cook in her house and share whatever she had with the homeless people on her way to work.
How everything started
Maria arrived in Athens in 2010 in search of a better job and livelihood for herself and her family. Soon after arriving though, many things in her personal life became complicated and she was faced with many personal hardships. However, everyday on her way to work as a babysitter, she would see huddled people outside the subway terminal that were cold and hungry and she realised she could not turn her back on them. Therefore, despite her own personal difficulties, Maria started to carry her food and clothes through the streets sharing everything she had to those less fortunate. Caring for everyone's safety, she started to offer her own roof as a shelter for people on the streets and in very short time her home was literally filled with people.
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Looking for an answer
During this time, Maria had a hard time understanding and reconciling with herself the cause of all this suffering, so she decided to start a degree in theology at the Sunset university: she felt the need to search for an answer. At that time, both Maria and her son were studying and helping the helpless, plus, Maria was also still working. It was not that easy to study at home as there were people everywhere: sleeping on the floor, coming and going, and talking to each other. Despite this, Maria pushed on as she realised she had started to created a small community amongst these people. She encouraged this further by organising other “Kenya Moms” to make soup, tea and bread for those less fortunate in Athens.
Official headquarters
On the day of her graduation the Sunset Institute gave Maria a gift: they helped her rent a place from where she could cook and offer more services and help to a greater number of people. With an official headquarters, now called "the center", and through the help of social media, Love and Serve Without Boundaries started to become well acquainted with people across Athens.
Thousands of people helped
As the days passed by, more and more people started to help either through volunteering or various forms of donations. Maria started to organise a wider range of services to take place in the center, such as teaching language classes, offering beautician courses as well as distributing an increased amount of clothing, food and general aid. Every week, with the help of the Moms, fellow students and volunteers, Maria coordinates the distribution of warm meals for nearly 1,000 homeless and hurting people in Athens.