Day of the African Child

--
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.

Fundraisers Making a Difference

--
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.

Slum Survivors Documentary

--
The United Nations has a news agency called IRIN focusing on humanitarian issues. IRIN has produced a remarkably insightful documentary on Kibera. The video reveals the good, bad, and ugly about Kibera by profiling various residents of the slum.

I hope that if you are interested in Tenderfeet, you will watch the whole 40-minute video, it really is an absolute must in fully understanding the challenges of the school.

In the film, you will hear references to the Kenyan currency of shillings. Note that 100 shillings is about $1.30.

You will see a mother named Carol who washes clothes for a living. In fact, just like Carol, most of the Tenderfeet guardians also wash clothes to earn what little they have. Almost all the guardians are widows or their husbands have abandoned the family.

The going rate for washing clothes in Kibera is 200 shillings -- it is hard work that can take hours. One is considered lucky if one can find 2 or 3 jobs washing clothes in a week and substantial time is spent going door to door asking for work. Doing the math, this shows that the typical earnings are around $30 per month.

Salaried permanent jobs are almost unheard of for slum residents. They are highly sought after, but finding these kind of jobs is virtually impossible.

Keep in mind that the average rent in Kibera is $10 to $15 per month, and school fees can be $5 or more per child per month. This leaves very little for food, clothing, or medical care. Tenderfeet fills the gap for these families, providing free education, a feeding program, and allowing mothers to search for work without leaving children at home unattended.

The issues dealt with in the documentary are handled in an honest and unflinching way. Please be warned that many of the topics are difficult to cope with and may be hard to watch.

IRIN - Slum Survivors

If there are any problems watching the dailymotion version embedded above, you can watch it in five parts through Youtube:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
--

Cheryl's Visit To Kibera, Part 3

--
Here is the third and final write-up from a kind and generous visitor, retired nurse Cheryl Fyfe. Cheryl tells us about her visit to the new land for the school. To see the first part of her account, please click here. Part two is here.

The land for the school was purchased through the wonderful support of the Collette Foundation. We are hoping to have a school building constructed and school bus purchased by the fall of this year.

Cheryl donated funds to purchase and transport trees and bushes for the land. Please see photo right. Here is what she wrote:


A wonderful ray of sunlight, a beautiful project going on, Tenderfeet. Right now the school is in the middle of Kibera under horrendous conditions but wonderful news for these beautiful children, a new school is in process.

Land has been bought and paid for on the outskirts of Nairobi. It is in a relatively rural area and has about 1 acre. The area is lovely, fresh air, birds singing flowers growing and this will all be novel for these slum children. There will be a school built and hopefully funds to buy a bus to bring these children out to the school. It will be a huge difference for these kids.

Edwin picked me up by taxi and we met a pickup truck, that was filled up with trees and hedge growth. We started out I swear no springs, as I felt every bump. The further out of the city I went my spirits rose and rose (I guess I am really a country girl at heart). But in each breath of fresh air I rejoiced for the children. There are open fields to look at, trees on one side of the property. It has a wire fence erected already for the safety of children. It is a place of beauty and peacefulness.

We unloaded the truck in an assembly line. It took us nearly 1/2 hr to unload everything. We started planting the hedge. An old man, Margaret's brother, was also helping. Old? It turns out he is 42!! They had a great time trying to guess my age and would not believe me when I told them I was nearly 62. sad comment was in Kenya if you live past age of 35 you are considered lucky!

We had great fun planting the trees I had bought. We had to wait for Margaret to see where she wanted the fruit trees planted. I was wearing my sandals and since it had rained last night the mud was tremendous - my sandals weighed at least 5 lbs. each they were that caked with mud.

Tenderfeet holds a very special place in my heart and yet I think Uganda holds my heart. I planted my own tree an Umbrella tree so I can sit under the shade when I come back and watch the children eat the fruit from the trees we planted, what a glorious thought.

After the tree planting morning we went back to Margaret's house, she shares with her children, her brother and his two children and has taken in orphans besides. It is a modest house but is filled with love and hope. A palace could not have been better. Margaret cooked a most marvelous Kenyan meal with Motoke, chicken spinach and so many other vegetables it was a feast fit for a king, and to think that those who have so little but share so much with such graciousness it was heart touching.

The best of all she had a little cat, missing my cats so much it was a pleasure petting a cat again. We had a wonderful afternoon with Edwin and his lovely wife Christine and Margaret and the children. Going back to guest house I felt a renewed sense of hope and will go back with renewed energy to raise funds for this wonderful project.
--