Sunday, June 21, 2009

Day of the African Child

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Edwin Angote, the Lahash Representative for East Africa, has written a terrific article about the big event last week called "Day of the African Child". Below is a picture of the kids from Tenderfeet that attended. Please click here to read Edwin's article.




Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Fundraisers Making a Difference

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This is an article about two fundraisers for Tenderfeet that really have made a difference for the kids.

The first one was the Christmas fundraiser for school uniforms. As mentioned in other posts, school uniforms are not optional in Kenya. They are required of all schools.

Since Tenderfeet kids are very needy, the uniform requirement has been relaxed, but at the risk that the Education Ministry would shut down the school. In addition, Tenderfeet kids were often embarrassed because they had to wear tattered and ill-fitting uniforms, or no uniforms at all.

Thanks to the generosity of Christmas donors, as well as a fundraiser by fifth graders at Cornerstone Church in Houston, enough money was raised to purchase uniforms for every Tenderfeet child. In addition, shoes were donated by a kindhearted visitor named Nish.

It took several months to get all the uniforms hand-made, which involved purchasing material all the way back in January (during my visit). Mama Margaret chose the most economical approach to every step, while ensuring that good-quality uniforms were the result. The first slide show captures the steps involved.



The second fundraiser was by the youth group Corby's Castle, who held a flag-football fundraiser to enable the school to have new desks. The old desks were falling apart, and some children had no desks at all, which meant using their laps instead. The following slide show illustrates the huge improvement the new desks provide.