Courtesy, Craig Hacche 
Courtesy, Craig Hacche
In 2015, Rockwell Automation employee Craig Hacche decided to honor his late wife, Makena Marangu, by building a maternity center in Africa near her childhood home.
The two Angelinos had started healthcare charity Answer Africa in 2006 to help eradicate malaria before Marangu, a physician, died from breast cancer.
“The passion came from my wife,” said Hacche, an original equipment manufacturer account manager for Rockwell. “Her life experiences and wisdom made me a better person.”
Construction continues today at the Makena Marangu Memorial Maternity Center, with recently added laundry and kitchen spaces and donations of medical equipment. The facility is being built as part of the Hearts Afire Mountain Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya.
In the past year, the couple’s previous venture, Answer Africa, supported COVID-19 relief funds to boost Kenya’s tourism industry.
The nonprofit also launched a 12-cow dairy, which provides milk to the 300 orphan girls living at the Marimba Children’s Home.
“A focus on others with less than I have has brought me more satisfaction and financial success than I could have ever imagined. There is so much truth to the saying ‘you can never lose that which you give away’,” Hacche said.
Learn more about how Hacche and other Rockwell Automation employees are making a difference in the communities where they live and work by visiting the company’s sustainability report content hub.
Published April 29, 2021