Upendo Orphans ProJect
Latest
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February 20, 2008
Dear all
At last a newsletter from Upendo! It has been a very long time since the last one. 2007 was a hugely busy year for all of us. I hope you haven’t given up waiting.
As you know, in December 2006, we completed the new building which houses two classrooms, kitchen (well, two of these actually....), an administration office, a toilet and shower bloc, a dining room/play room and a large verandah. As anybody who has seen it in action will know, the building is very well usedand enjoyed. The gardens have also matured very quickly so that the border fence is covered in bougainvillea, the gardens beds are fully of flowering shrubs, the trees that visitors have planted are growing quickly and the lawn of buffalo grass is well established, even surviving the dry season and constant playing of football on it. We have swings, a slide and a sandpit which are very popular – the smaller children never seem to tire of these.
Over the last year we have increased the number of children supported from 24 to 31. We employ 2 cooks, 3 nursery teachers and 2 helpers. Grace Mzungu, the chairwoman, who is employed by the church, takes care of most of the daily matters in addition to doing her social work job for the church. She spends most of her spare time on Upendo. As we have grown so rapidly over the last 18 months, her workload has become enormous, and so from 2008, the project will employ her as a full-time Administrator.
Another consequence of this rapid expansion has been that the Upendo ladies have taken more of a back seat when it comes to taking care of the children. In order to increase the involvement of the ladies,we have assigned each child to a Upendo lady and they are responsible for chasing up on health matters,school attendance, and the general welfare of the child. Many of the guardians of the children do not take these responsibilities, and we were finding that some of the children were in desperate need of attention, both physical and emotional. This scheme also helps expand the childrens’ social territories thus increasing their sense of security.
The children themselves are pure delight. Most of them spend their after-school and weekend hours at Upendo playing and socialising. They are getting good nutritious food three times a day and some of them get washed and a change of clothes at Upendo on a daily basis. We have a store-room full of toys, puzzles, balls, etc which are very well used. We do have a constant stream of jiggers, boils, sores, and fevers but these are seen to at the hospital. And put a flower behind their ear or put on some music, and they dance and sing as if their world was an easy, friendly place. Our crippled boy has been having treatment on his legs and is having another operation next week with the hope that he will be able to walk properly again soon.
The highlight of the children’s year was the volunteers that came to help out. Brigid and Katherine
Howell from Australia, Janna Cressman from Canada and Dani Kulenkampff from South Africa all came and spent many months at Upendo playing and helping teach and take care of the children. Everyone had a whale of a time, and now the kids and girls miss each other enormously. Each of the volunteers was assigned to one of the Upendo ladies who have offered to host such visitors in the future.We also had many visitors from church groups and individuals from the UK, the US, Australia, Germany, and elsewhere. We absolutely loved showing them the project, and they were very generous with their gifts.
We received sizeable donations from the Karibuni Trust and Heswall United Reform Church. Our
local church also held an Orphans Sunday and generated considerable support for the project. With the help of a donation from the UK, the ladies started a tree nursery for growing seedlings for sale to supplement our income. This has been a great success.
Well, the above is just a few highlights of some of the things that have been happening over the past year. Of course there are many more – a couple of these are described in the separate boxes below. But perhaps I can best summarise how the project is going by telling you how I found the place last Saturday upon returning to Kenya after being away for 6 weeks. The first classroom was occupied by a meeting between church leaders and the bishop, the second classroom was being used for interviews for school-fee paying scholarships from Rotary by a group we work closely with, the children were happily playing while waiting for their lunch and lined up to show off their sores, bumps and scratches, and then a minibus load of loudly singing ladies arrived into the compound arriving back from a visit to a family who Upendo now takes care of as part of their outreach programme (see below for their story). So we are in full-swing, doing what you support us to do.
Best wishes
Margaret Mackinnon (Fundraiser) and Grace Mzungu (Chairperson).
The Karisa
.
Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2008 01:31:32 +0300
From: mmackinnon@kilifi.kemri-wellcome.org
To: joanneclague@hotmail.com; admin@upendo.co.uk; ganzazi@yahoo.com
CC: jofp@doctors.org.uk
Subject: Re: Thinking and Praying
Thanks Joanne
I am in Australia now and have not heard from Grace though have heard
from colleagues about the general situation. I hear it is stabilising
and things are gradually getting going again, though today there is an
important meeting between the two parties to discuss power-sharing or a
new vote, I believe.
I understand that Kilifi is relatively quiet though understandably,
people are worried.
Thanks for your concern.
Best wishes
Margaret
Dr. Margaret Mackinnon
KEMRI-Wellcome Collaborative Programme, Coast
PO Box 230
Kilifi
Kenya
mmackinnon@kilifi.kemri-wellcome.org
+ 254 41 522535 Ext 228
+ 254 41 522390
> >>> Joanne Louise Clague <joanneclague@hotmail.com> 01/10/08 4:19 PM >>>
Dear Grace and Margaret,
we just wanted to let you know that all of us here at Heswall URC are
thinking of you and praying for you at this difficult time. A number of
people have asked me if we have heard anything from you and are keen to
know if you are all safe and well?
Love and God Bless
Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:24:07 -0800
From: ganzazi@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: Thinking and Praying
To: joanneclague@hotmail.com
Dear Jo,
Tks for your email which i have just read. We are all fine and safe. However we are leaving with worries as we dont know what might happen the next minute as the country is still tense. The project is doing well and we really thank you for your prayers. Tks for your concern and pass our warm new year greetings to all at HURC, love Grace
Joanne Louise Clague <joanneclague@hotmail.com> wrote: .ExternalClass .EC_hmmessage P {padding:0px;} .ExternalClass EC_body.hmmessage {font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma;} Dear Grace and Margaret,
we just wanted to let you know that all of us here at Heswall URC are thinking of you and praying for you at this difficult time. A number of people have asked me if we have heard anything from you and are keen to know if you are all safe and well?
Love and God Bless
Jo
Dear All,
I thought you might be interested to see the messages below from Grace at Upendo. I'm sure Gywnfor will be particularly pleased to hear about the Bishop's talk and the fact that he (Gwynfor) was a 'special blessing'.
Love and God Bless
Jo
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 02:54:11 -0700
From: ganzazi@yahoo.com
Subject: RE: Fwd: Fw: Heswall United Reformed Church visit to Kenya
To: joanneclague@hotmail.com
Dear Joanne, Love and greetings from the upendo family. All is well and hope same to you. The children can still remember all what your group did on your visit. Sometimes they do it in a form of a drama. lovely. I have always wanted to pass my church greetings to your pastor - Evans but unfortunately i dont have his email address. On 5th of August the sunday after your visit, our bishop gave a talk about your visit to our congregation and they really requested me to write to you and the pastor in appreciation for your visit which i have done to you and left the pastor.
Let me have it so that i can do the needful. The pastor's visit is a special blessing. Regards to your church congregation. Grace _____________________________________________________________________________________ Dear Jo, Thanks for your email of recently. On behalf of the women's group and the orphans let me say that we are the ones who should really appreciate you for all the effort you put to come and see what we are doing. Your fiancial contribution to this project has been great and we thank God for you. During times of darkness and despair HURC has been there to lift us. Let me assure you that the women and the general community were surprised by your commitment to the project that apart from giving financial support you went a further milestone to give us psychological support by visiting and interacting with us. It was a great day for us and more so an encouragement for us to continue making the lives of the ophans better. The women's group is meeting this sunday after church service and will decide the project they will do with your cash donation of Kshs 131,500. I am sure something great will be done for the benefit of the children. May God give you all the wisdom to give a report about your visit to upendo which will inspire everybody in the church. You are always welcome to visit us as individuals or groups. God bless you all for your kind support. Regards to all at HURC. Grace
Joanne Louise Clague <joanneclague@hotmail.com> wrote: Dear Margaret and Grace,
please could I take this opportunity to thank you both for all the hard work
you put into arranging our visit to Upendo. We all had an amazing day and
have come home with many happy and long-lasting memories. We were
overwhelmed at the warmth of the welcome from the ladies and children of
Upendo and were delighted to see the joy in your hearts.
We really enjoyed the singing and dancing, the time spent with the children
and the wonderful food prepared for us. It was also a real privilege to
meet your Pastor and Bishop.
We have dedicated our church service this Sunday to telling the congregation
about our experiences in Kenya. I will be taking some time to tell the
congregation about the fantastic work you are doing at Upendo and explaining
how some of the money and gifts we have donated are being put to excellent
use. Most of all I will be trying to get across the message that we learnt
so much during our short trip that we can apply to our lives back here in
England. The gift of a warm welcome, of sharing and serving others, of
giving thanks to God in all situations, the gift of joy and the gift of a
grateful heart.
I hope that we can keep in touch and I hope to be able to visit you again
some day. As a church we will continue to support and encourage you in
whatever way possible.
Love and God Bless
Joanne
http://www.arochaheswall.com/
Email from Joann Jenkin re upendo project
Dear Jo,
We are fine here hoping same to you.
May i take this opportunity to sincerely thank Heswall URC for their donation to upendo project. We received a credit of Kshs 78,852 in our account. This will go towards the building project.
When are you visiting us. Last year you had indicated September this year. Is it still on. The ladies are quite eager to know.
From the email toyou from Brian it is probably your church might visit Kenya next year and I kindly request that the group considers a visit to upendo project so that they can see the great things their donations have done,Pass our love to your family, the church members and any friends you might have informed them about our project.
We wish you all the best in your day to day activities.
Grace Mzungu
Chairperson
P.O. Box 898, Kilifi, Kenya
Ph: +254 (0)722 903180
Dear all
It has been a while since I last updated you on the Upendo orphans project in Kilifi, Kenya, so here goes…..
Sponsorship and funding
Seventeen of the 20 orphans are now sponsored by regular donations from individuals throughout the world. This ongoing support is critical to ensure that each child obtains their basic nursery and primary school education.
In addition to regular sponsorship income, we have had several substantial donations from the Karibuni Trust of the UK, the Methodist Church of Kenya, and Heswall United Reformed Church, UK.This money supports the feeding programme, the salary of one of the nursery teachers, and other on going costs of running the project.
The Mercury Phoenix Trust donated money to run two workshops for the women in the group and the guardians of the children on AIDS awareness, orphan and social issues, counselling, and other related topics.
Many other donations of money from quiz nights, second-hand bazaars, and other charitable activities around the world (e.g., a fun-run by Will Chadwick, card-making and baking by Geelong Grammar School), as well as donations of toys and clothes, have turned up this year. We are definitely in the minds of many well-wishers around Kilifi and elsewhere.
Main achievements of the year
Increased the provision of food from 1 meal on weekdays to 2 meals per day and on Saturday.
Set up the tin shed as a teaching area by providing a concrete floor, table and chairs, and teaching materials. We now have three nursery classes, and have overflowed back into the church……
Provided a salary for one nursery school teacher to assist the two retired ladies who teach voluntarily.
Constructed a cooking shed next to the church.
Conducted an outreach programme to identify more orphans in need. These are now on our
waiting list.
Run an educational workshop on AIDS for the project members and the children’s guardians.
Acquired 2 blocks of land next to the church, and architect’s plans, for our building project.
Visitors
We have had many visitors to the project, including the Revd Maureen Jones, Felicity Harwood of Mozambique, Alison Hunter of Australia, Anne-Marie Deans (Edinburgh), Ahmed Raza (Edinburgh), Katie Goodwin (USA),Mary and Barry Elford of Oxford, Mohammed Shafi and his Kilifi football lads, the Rotary Club of Kilifi, the Lions Club of Kilifi, Kate and Bert Nokes, a delegation from Barclays Bank, Karibuni Trustees, Tuinane Women’s Group and many more…
Jane Platten visits the nursery every week with her toy library and reads books to the children.
You are all welcome to visit the project at any time. Just be ready to kick a football around……
Goals for the coming year
Build a new classroom area, rest area for afternoon sleeps, kitchen, office space, counselling rooms and toilet facilities. It is difficult to obtain the money for this from just one source. Thus we are relying on a series of donations from well- wishers and charitable organisations to which we will apply. If you are able to make a donation to the building fund, however small, it would be enormously appreciated. As the building is being underwritten by a supportive individual, we will not need to wait to raise the money before we start construction.
Expand the programme to take on 10 more orphans and secure sponsorship for them.
Secure other forms of financial support for the next 5 years.
Thanks so much for your support.
Margaret Mackinnon (Fundraiser) and Grace Mzungu (Chairwoman)
Money can be transferred directly into a UK or Kenyan account.
Contact Grace Mzungu on +254 722 903180 Email ganzazi@yahoo.com
or Margaret Mackinnon on +44 778 3197040 Email admin@upendo.co.uk
More photoscan be found by clicking link www.upendo.co.uk/Album