Amosi! (Hi)
I cant quite believe I have been in Kenya for just over 2 months, the time has gone so fast! I have been volunteering with the charity Team Kenya. Team Kenya work with the community of Ndhiwa in Western Kenya. The charity aims to empower the community with a particular emphasis on empowering women and girls as they are the most vulnerable in this community.
I have also been joined by 3 other volunteers, Josh and Jess from New Zealand and Rob from England. It has been really nice getting to know them and sharing this experience with them. We have already had many laughs together and are just about getting used to Ugali the staple food here! Adongo, our resident donkey has also taken to early morning conversations with the neighboring donkey meaning we are all up nice and early!
I have been involved with many of the projects since I arrived but my main focus has been the sponsored students program. In Kenya you have to pay to go join secondary school, so many young people do not make it as their families cannot afford to pay school fees. Team Kenya supports some of the neediest and brightest students in the community by paying their fees and providing them with the support they need. I have been in charge of monitoring and evaluating the students progress, in order to this I have made visits to the students at school and at home to see if they need any extra support. I have really enjoyed getting to know the students and have been overwhelmed by the warm reception I have received from their families who have welcomed me into their homes.
I have also been helping with the girls support group activities on the weekends. The girls meet for football practice and health talks. They really enjoy football and it is a great way for them to work as a team and it really boosts their confidence. I also keep them entertained with my terrible football skills! Alongside football practice the girls also have health talks with Emily our social worker. We also allocate time for extra tuition to help improve their performance at school. The girls have also started playing friendly football matches against the local orphanage. It has been absolutely brilliant to see the relationship grow between the two groups during the past months, and we can only hope that it continues to grow in the future as we can learn a lot form the way they generate income for themselves at the orphanage.
The schools are currently closed for the holidays so the sponsored students have been here on a daily basis for homework club. I have been helping to teach the students English and also working on revision techniques for their exam preparation. The students need extra help with Maths and Science and unfortunately Im not great at these subjects so I have drafted in Calvince, one of our formerly sponsored students who happens to be a genius in both Maths and Science! Calvince finished school last year with a grade A and will join university in September. The girls group also come in the afternoon for extra tuition.
Myself and the other volunteers have also been training the students, youth group and members of the womens group on basic computer skills. This is particularly important for the sponsored students so they can keep in regular contact with their sponsors as the postal service is slow and costly.
Many of them have never used a computer before but they are doing very well and really enjoy it.
The development of income generating projects at Karibuni are also underway led by our brand new youth group. The youth group have many exciting ideas to generate profit, whilst being great for the publicity of Karibuni at the same time. It will be great to watch the youth projects grow over the next few months. The youths have already started charcoal and maize selling projects. The vegetable patch for onions, skuma wiki and carrots is up and running along the bottom of the complex. The crops gained from this will go to the kitchen (to help minimize food costs) and to be sold for a profit at the local markets. Our next task is to start up a poultry project so we will be putting our DIY skills to the test when making the chicken coup!
I look forward to what the next few months will have in store and will report back soon. Thanks again to Hazels Footprints Trust for helping to make this trip possible
Oriti (goodbye)
Vicki
