THE MAJI SAFI SCHOOLS PROJECTS - KENYA UPDATE

March 2003

Linda Greenland & Mike Radford
102 Whitecross Avenue
Whitchurch BRISTOL BS14 9JE
Tel: 01275 834883

STOP PRESS!!

Because of recent Foreign Office announcement that Kenya is a "NO GO" area for UK tourists, we really are unsure what will happen with our visit in July/Aug. We booked with Kenya Airways and they are still flying, but NO ONE will insure us, so we cant take the risk. We are just waiting to see what is said at the end June. Any sponsors who wants to send letters etc can still send them to me, if need be I will post them off in bulk if we dont go, money is not a problem as we transfer it direct from Barclays here to Barclays there and Miriam, Bekker & Fidy can always buy what sponsors want for the children. We are really depressed at the state of things at the moment and cant imagine not being with them.

FIRE! FIRE ! FIRE ! WHAT A RESPONSE!!

In February there was a terrible fire in the village. 11 am on a Sunday, luckily most people were in church or visiting friends & No-one was hurt. 4 houses burned down; 11 families homeless, stood only in the clothes they were wearing. I put out an appeal in the Bristol Observer and also to sponsors who have email. The response was great and we have been able to help these people get the essentials. Clothes, beds, bedding, cooking equipment etc in the long term we are trying to provide them with dry, safe housing with aluminium roofs so they will not have the fear of this type of fire. I am sorry I did not inform sponsors who were not on email, I just did not have time. But, it is NEVER TOO LATE to help and it will take a long time to get them all sorted. So, if anyone still wishes to make a donation, it will be gratefully received and put to good use.

At Easter we went to visit the victims and saw the house that we had rebuilt to rehouse some of the families. They were "over the moon" with the help they had from us, and all send BIG THANKS to everyone who donated to help them. We have also bought another piece of land nearby, and when we have money will start building more "village rooms"

TEENWATCH DRUGS CENTRE

This project is set up near Diani on the South Coast by "COSMOS" a rehabilitated drugs user in his late twenties. He told us the horrendous story of how he was "weaned off" drugs like Heroin and Cocaine. A retired English couple, Robbie & Marion have lived there since Robbie was in the Army in Kenya 40 years ao!! They feed the children at the centre every day. It was so upsetting to see these children, their eyes seemed "dead" although they enjoyed the afternoon listening to the music, we knew they had an awful "life" to go back to. Mike inspected the building and found many jobs that needed finishing, leaking roof, mud floor etc. So, we bought materials needed; donated our builders for work at the beginning of May. We have heard from our friends thanking us for completing the roof, laying a new floor, painting the walls so the one large room can now be used by the children. We would like to help more in the future and will find out what they need.

EASTER VISIT!!

Heather, Kirsty and Alison came to Kenya with us and Kirsty and Alison played their violin and cello at Maji Safi and Shika Adabu schools, as well as the Teenwatch Drugs project and a couple of village performances. Like last year, everyone enjoyed the music and the children did the "Okey Cokey" and many others!! GREAT FUN FOR ALL!!

Heather and Eric Picture shows HEATHER & ERIC - one of the children whose mother lost everything in the fire

MAJI SAFI SCHOOL

School was closed for Easter holidays, but some children came along to listen to the music, we managed to take some photos but other children need to be photographed. It is becoming harder now, as the school closes at the same time as our holidays here. We need to get a better camera for Miriam, our digital camera is much better. The Womens Group who started the nursery project in the old wooden hut, (which we replaced with a standalone stone classroom) are still giving problems with the running of the school. We went to many meetings and are still waiting to hear if the government will take the school on. The Women Group originally just had the nursery as "their project" but now are saying the whole school is theirs!! but they are not capable of running it. We hope this will be sorted soon, the parents committee along with Miriam and Bekker are talking with many government people for the benefit of the children.

Closure of the only local hotel; the "NO GO" ban on tourists, and big unemployment problems in the area; many families have left the village; gone back "up country" as many have travelled to the coast looking for hotel work. We have lost around 30 children that were sponsored. Please do not be too disappointed if your child is one of those that have left; whether they have enjoyed 1,2,3 or 4 years of schooling at Maji Safi, they have had an opportunity from you that they would not have otherwise had. We hope you will be happy to sponsor another deserving child, we will try to make sure they are from a local tribe that will be unlikely to move away!

It has been a very frustrating time with all these problems, and more frustrating being here and not being "HANDS ON" to sort it out, lets hope we can get there in July!!

MIRIAM - our school project co-ordinator

Miriam has been very ill, after we left in January she was diagnosed with having a peptic ulcer and there were fears at first that it had perforated. She has responded well to all her treatment. We paid for her to go to Nairobi to visit her brother who is a doctor; she had more tests and came back with a list of things she had to do to help this problem.

It made us realise that it doesnt matter if we have a £1,000,000 here or 1,000,000 sponsors without someone like her in Kenya all this would not be possible!!! There is NO ONE else in the village that could take on even one tenth of what she does for us. SO we have to look after her!! She is under strict instructions by us to take things easy. We didnt spend much time with Miriam as she had gone up country for the burial of her brother. She has had a very traumatic year, she sends a big thanks to everyone who has sent her best wishes and she is sorry that she had not managed to get all the thank you letters for the sponsors.

SHIKA ADABU SCHOOL!!

SHIKA ADABU SCHOOL The 2 classrooms are now finished - we even have them painted outside with the alphabet and pictures, it is WONDERFUL!! During our visit at Easter we met the new 52 nursery children that are enjoying their first time at school!! We took filled pencil cases for all of them and they were so happy. They enjoyed the music played by Kirsty and Alison and joined in with the musical play. The 2 teachers, Mwanajoma and Mr Josephat are doing a wonderful job. They have put up lots of posters and with a donation to buy lots of crafts materials, they have started lots of interesting work with the children. In the afternoon we have just started the "informal" classes, this is for children aged 7 upwards who have never been to school, we want to get them to a standard where they could start Primary education. We have had donations to give the children drinking porridge at breaktime, as many go to school without anything to eat.

"CHICKENS, CHICKENS & MORE "GOATS !!"

What a wonderful idea one of our sponsors had (sorry Bobby and Ken I have to mention your fantastic efforts!!) I had a excited phone call from Bobby in March saying that she got family & friends involved raising funds to buy chickens for families to help them become self-sufficient. Bobby worked out to the "egg" how many eggs chickens would produce etc etc but one problem, there had been some form of "chicken flu" that were killing many chickens, so we decided that we would buy some chickens, but also buy goats for these families. Many families now have 2 goats and 5 or 6 chickens, they are so happy for this chance to help themselves. 3 years ago we bought 2 goats for one family and they now have 10 goats, a much better investment than the Stock Market!!

"HEATHERS HOUSE" & MIKES BIRTHDAY PARTY!!

With the 8 rooms now finished, we promised the families in the house that we would have a party when Heather came back at Easter, it was the first time she had seen it finished. It happened to be Mikes birthday so we made it a really big event. The ladies in the house cooked all day and made a wonderful lunch for all of us, Kirsty and Alison played music, the children sang for us, and a good time was had by all!! Mike was given a wonderful cockerel for a gift, though they wanted to kill it for us to eat, we refused and "Joseph" (the cockerel) is now enjoying his life on a friends small farm. With lots of hens to keep him company!!

ONCE AGAIN - - A GREAT BIG "THANK YOU" to ALL the childrens sponsors!!!! Thanks for the uniforms, shoes etc etc that you have donated and thanks to those who have increased their fees.

SPECIAL THANKS to everyone that donated to help the fire victims. I dont like asking for extra money, but this was a very big disaster to the village and you proved how much you care for the people you are supporting. We are always grateful for anyone who can do some fundraising, all our time is taken up with paperwork!! Does anyone know of any group that may like us to go along and talk to them about the project?

OUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

We STILL need your support, fundraising and donations to achieve the above!! THANKS!!!! A HUGE THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR EVERYTHING!! YOU ARE WONDERFUL !! All donations BIG & SMALL make such a difference PLEASE KEEP IT UP!!