We are trying hard to improve the lives of many orphans and some of the poorest families (usually a grandparent looking after their orphaned grandchildren) in Kisii, Kenya.
We are ready to start several projects:
- Growing our own food
- Clean, safe drinking water
- Alternative, clean cooking fuel
- Home-grown fertiliser
- Malaria control
But we need funds.
If every person who follows u on Twitter donated £6, we would be able to get started.
We only need about £500 to get started, so how about it? There is a PayPal donation button in the column on the right.
Make a difference to the life of a child in Kenya. Donate a few pounds today!
4 comments:
I could give you a donation, but I'm opposed to this kind of aid, because it encourages dependency and entreches the aid industry. Poor people don't exist in Africa so Westerners can get an opportunity to "help" them and feel good about themselves.
Thank you for your comment. I am sure that my Kenyan co-directors in Kisii will be disappointed.
I can see what you are saying, although I have to say that I am not a Westerner looking to feel good about myself.
Nuff said.
500 pounds is about Ksh60,000. It seems like a pittance in Kisii, which is a land of plenty. The problem lies not in a lack of resources, but in a certain kind of cultural fatalism--some might even say cultural inertia. It took me years to persuade my parents to start boiling water, for example. As for malaria, that's largely a lost cause. My father never uses his net every night, although he understands malaria is transmitted by mosquitos, which were rare in Kisii when I was growing up. So buying him a nets didn't solve the malaria problems i the household. Women in my village still lose babies in childbirth, although there's a modestly equipped hospital with beds and a maternity ward about a mile away! What we need is a complete mental shift in the way people view health and personal responsibility.
I would agree about the problem of fatalism, and it is not restricted to Kisii. For this reason, we will be targeting children in schools, teaching thema about malaria control.
Further, we are starting in Kisii because that is where most of us live. However, once the systems have been built, tweaked and proven, we will be expanding our operation. Other communities in Nyanza, Bungoma, Machakos and Coast as well as Cameroon, Malawi and Sierra Leone have shown an interest in what we are doing.
And yes, £500 is not a lot of money. But then, we don't have major overheads, no directors to pay, we use public transport. Personally, I pay my own air fares and living costs when I am in Kenya. And as we state everywhere, our systems are designed to be made from scrap and discarded materials, which are free or very cheap.
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