Newsletter Autumn 2024
News from Nairobi
The last time we brought you news from Nairobi, the country was in the grip of terrible flooding, and the slums were particularly hard hit. It was a natural disaster which affected everyone, and many lost their lives, homes and livelihoods.
All our Nairobi schools were affected, and unfortunately, one was washed away, and another (Fountain School) was damaged and demolished by the council. The school had no warning, and lessons were being given in the damaged building when the bulldozers moved in. The children and teachers had to escape the building before they were buried under rubble. Carolyn, the school director who owned the land and the school, lost everything. Since then, she has been renting space in a small church and trying to continue teaching despite the church being too small and in a very unclean state with open drains containing human waste outside the door.
Some of our other schools lost furniture and were damaged. The Soul Mercy Orphanage School was underwater and couldn’t cook for two weeks because all the charcoal was saturated. Thanks to donations from Stichting Contribute, our friends and families and some generous donations from well-wishers which came in after an appeal in the Amersfoort newspaper, we managed to provide clothing for the children, cooking utensils to replace what was swept away, a cooker and refillable gas bottle and food which kept them going for a few weeks. Your help made a huge difference.
Right now, all the schools have reopened, and teaching continues even though conditions are far from ideal. All our programmes have been resumed. Our teachers’ amazing resilience and determination show what is possible when the community pulls together after a catastrophe.
Shoes for children in Busia County
While we visited Kenya last year, we saw how many children were attending school barefoot. Poverty means that parents can’t afford to buy shoes, and in the Busia schools, many children go to school barefoot.
Children must walk long distances to get to school, and walking barefoot is uncomfortable.
Wounds get infected easily as people walk around in dirt and mud, and treatment is costly. Families cannot access healthcare facilities, and infections can get out of hand if not treated.
Another risk is something called ‘Jiggers’. This is when sand flies lay their eggs on the skin, especially between the toes. The eggs hatch, and the grubs burrow into the skin and eat the flesh. These grubs can grow to 2 or 3 centimetres and cause horrible infections and swelling of the feet and legs.
Children in rural areas are much more at risk. This condition is excruciating and costly to treat medically.
Even though buying shoes is not part of our Empowerment program, I couldn’t ignore the problem. As the average pair of shoes (or Crocs) only costs 5 euros, we raised some extra funds (thanks to Vathorst College and our friends) to buy shoes for the children in Busia.
New shoes and a pack of reusable sanitary towels for the girls in Busia County
Vathorst College Fundraising
During the last week of school before the summer holidays, a group of Vathorst College students helped us to raise some extra funds for the project. Some of them went around to local shops to get prizes donated for our lottery, they organised a mini market and sold some original Kenyan crafts and some of the girls managed to raise 370 euros by baking and selling delicious biscuits. The total was about 500 euros which was a fantastic result.
Students also hand in their empty drink cans and plastic bottles which we return to the supermarket and the money returned is donated. The students are being encouraged to recycle and this is really making a difference to the environment around the school.
Our thanks to all the students and teachers who have supported us.
Empowerment lessons for our mentees
Support from Stichting Contribute
We are delighted and fortunate that Contribute Foundation https://www.contribute.nl/ has accepted our plan for 2024/25 and will be providing funds for our project to continue for another year. We are all so very grateful for their generosity and their support. Their acceptance gave us some advice on how to aim for a more sustainable future and to find funds from other sources besides Stichting Contribute. We realise how much we depend on their support. This is good advice, and we are looking into finding extra funding and sponsors to keep doing what we are doing right now into the near future and beyond.
We would be delighted to hear any of your ideas, tips, or suggestions to help in our search for sponsors.
Funds from Stichting Contribute will ensure that our Empowerment program continues with lessons from our curriculum, menstruation workshops, provision of sanitary towels and underwear in all 24 schools and breakfasts for all 4000 children in the Nairobi schools.
We will hold a two-day training session for our Outreach mentors and new mentors, who will travel to Nairobi for their training. This will ensure the quality of our educational program remains consistent, and all our mentors are fully trained.
We started our sewing program in Nairobi last year thanks to Stichting Contribute’s support. We have our sewing machines, and our mentors have all learned how to sew reusable, washable sanitary towels. Eventually, all girls enrolled in our empowerment program will learn how to sew them for themselves. We will also extend this sewing program to all 15 Outreach schools, where the girls will learn to sew sanitary towels by hand.
By learning to sew these products, the girls will not only have their own washable, reusable sanitary towels but also a valuable new skill that will open possibilities for a more sustainable and secure economic future.
Campaign for safe cooking
Our schools in Nairobi are cooking breakfasts in challenging circumstances. They use charcoal or wood to make fires to cook the porridge. The smoke from Burning charcoal in a small space is very unhealthy, and cooking this way in flimsy buildings made only from wood and corrugated metal is also dangerous.
During the flooding, we found that charcoal was too wet to cook with or that damp charcoal produced lots of smoke, which filled the space and caused breathing problems.
We’d like to provide each of our nine schools with a cooker and gas bottle. This will reduce the risk of fire and toxic fumes and be a more reliable source of cooking than charcoal or wood.
A 15 kg gas bottle costs about 100 euros
A cooker costs around 150 euros.
Refilling these nine ( 9) gas bottles will cost about 2000 euros per year.
To get some idea of the conditions for cooking in the slum schools, watch the film below.
Spring View Feeding Program.mp4
If you would like to help us provide a cooker and gas bottle for our schools you can donate either through our website, through the bank Stichting Mathare Girl Power – NL97 RABO 0313 0268 15
Cooking outside at Soul Mercy Orphanage school