Kenyan Community Support Initiative

Update

2010-12-18T20:22:00.001Z

As you will have read in the previous post, on 7 July 2010, David and Vincent were involved in a serious road traffic accident. Vincent suffered serious injuries to both legs and David sustained injuries to both wrists and shoulders.
To date, Vincent's legs are healing but he still has to attend hospital.
David returned to the UK, where he is undergoing treatment for a broken wrist, involving a bone graft and a screw. The injury to the shoulder has yet to be dealt with. treatment is due in early January 2011.
Until at least one of them is fit, any new activity with K-CSI is suspended.
This does not mean that donations will not be collected for any of the ongoing or future projects.

Merry Christmas to all.

Krismasi Njema

Registration of KCSI

2010-08-14T08:28:00.001+01:00

Vincent and David were involved in a serious road accident on 7th July. This means that all work at KCSI, including the registration as an NGO, has been suspended for the time being, until Vincent is fit enough to work again.

Name Change

2010-06-30T14:03:00.000+01:00

During the process of registering KCIS as a Kenyan NGO, we were "asked" to change our name to Kenyan Community Support Initiative [KCSI], which we have done although the logos and other image banners etc. will have to wait a while.

So are we now the Kenyan CSI?

Twiga Rules Cricket

2010-06-24T19:08:00.001+01:00

A cricket set was delivered to Twiga last weekend and the boys fell on it like a swarm of locusts, despite the fact that they had never seen the game before.

The basic rules were explained ... and ignored to a large extent and a new set of rules were made up as the "game" progressed.

Firstly, there are as many bowlers as there are balls (in this case, three). The bowler who gets the batsman out becomes the batsman.
There are only two ways to get out, bowling or catching. If the batsman is caught out, the catcher becomes the batsman.
Although there me be three bowlers, rarely are all three balls bowled at the same time, although this sometimes happens.
The game ends when all three balls are lost down the pit latrine (which is out of bounds to all children) or a heavy downpour stops play.

That just about covers it. More rules will be added as necessary and when new balls have been acquired.

Surprisingly (or perhaps not) one of the best batsmen is Simon, our deaf child. His hand-eye coordination is very good and he can hit a ball as good as any of the older boys.

When the boys gave up and retreated to a game of Connect Four, the girls had a go and they weren't bad either.

So it was not exactly what you would expect to see at Lords, or even on the village green, but the kids had a lot of fun, which is all that matters.

More Donations

2010-06-07T23:54:00.000+01:00

I have today collected a load of clothes to fit a 12-13 year-old boy and also a bag of young teenage girls clothes. On top of this we have received a bag full of Bratz dolls and accessories.

Thanks a lot Linda. They will be very much appreciated.

Update on: 3 year-old seriously ill

2010-06-07T23:50:00.000+01:00

The youngest child at Twiga, who is HIV+ was diagnosed with malaria. This combination could have been fatal but we managed to find the hospital fees and she is now now responding to treatment.

Meet Simon ...

2010-06-05T19:29:00.002+01:00

Twiga Kids Relax ...

2010-06-01T21:13:00.001+01:00

A Day in the Life ...

2010-06-01T13:13:00.000+01:00

of some Twiga Children

3 year-old seriously ill

2010-05-28T11:24:00.000+01:00

Twiga Children's Centre

We have a 3 year-old, HIV+ child on our register. We have just received a report from Kenya that the child is seriously ill and needs medical attention.

This is a preliminary report and we are awaiting further details.

No treatment can be administered until we have the money to pay for it. Presently, we do not have any funds available.

If there is some kind person out there who would like to help this child by helping to pay for her treatment, please contact us.

More details will be posted as soon as we have them.

Brothers Donate Board Games

2010-05-10T10:17:00.000+01:00

In Wash Common, near Newbury, two brothers, 9 & 13, have cleared out their rooms and donated several board games and educational games to KCIS, to be forwarded to the Twiga Children's Centre.

Thank you, boys. I know that your games will give more pleasure than you can imagine.

Esther - a further update.

2010-04-02T11:51:00.000+01:00

Esther, the girl who was "rescued" (see previous posts) from an orphanage miles away from her homeland is now in Kisii.

She has settled in and is attending school, where she is doing well.

It is so nice to have a success story to report on.

Update on Esther

2010-03-12T09:13:00.002Z

It looks as if the young Gusii girl lodged at an orphanage in Kajiado will be moving back to her homeland.

We have had an offer of sponsorship from a family in the USA which will cover her daily needs and schooling.

This is indeed good news and we are very happy of the outcome. The authorities at Kajiado have been informed, so we are hoping that Esther will be repatriated very soon.

Update on the Update: Esther will be taking the bus on Monday morning to be returned to her homeland of Kisii. By all accounts, she is very excited!

Update 15/3/2010: Esther has arrived in Kisii and is settling in well.

Let's Make It Clear ...

2010-03-10T10:18:00.000Z

In our last post, we made an appeal for a girl, Esther, who is stuck miles from her homeland after being abused by her employer.

Now, there seems to be some confusion about the meaning of the word abused.

Let me make it clear. I am English and I write in GB English. The word abuse means "maltreatment: cruel or inhumane treatment". This could mean sexual abuse but not exclusively so. There are many types of abuse, sexual, physical, mental ...

I used the word abuse to mean mistreatment. The girl in question had been beaten by her employer and no mention has been made about her having been sexually abused. If she had and I wanted to publish the fact, I would have said that "she had been sexually abused by her employer". Obviously, if she had been sexually abused, I would not have published her name and photograph, any more than I would if the child were HIV positive.

Apparently, abuse has a different meaning in Kenya. This is not surprising. Lots of "English" words take on a new meaning in other English-speaking countries. We often say that the UK and USA are two countries divided by a common language.

So, repeat after me: when reading a blog, or news article, one should remember that it may not have been written in your country, in your version of the language. And you should not jump to conclusions.

Abused Kisii Girl Needs Urgent Sponsorship

2010-03-09T10:51:00.002Z

We have today been informed that if Esther (13), a Gusii girl who is lodged at an orphanage in Kajiado is not taken in by Twiga Children's Centre very soon, she will be taken back to her parents.

This is not good news. Esther's parents sent her out to work as a house girl, where she suffered beatings and other cruelty in the hands of her employer. This will happen again if we do not offer Esther accommodation.

We need a sponsor who can help this girl to lead a normal life, attend school and regain the right to be a child.

3,000 Kenyan shillings (about UK£26.00 or US$40.00) a month will ensure that Esther is placed with a caring family, is fed, clothed and attends school.

Please, is there someone who will help us to rescue this girl from a life of abuse by donating 3,000/- a month?

You can donate through PayPal, or you can contact Vincent at the Twiga Centre in Kisii.

Previous Post:

Twiga Children's Centre has been contacted by an orphanage in Kajiado, asking if we can take one of their children, a girl called Esther.

Esther (13) was transferred to the Kajiado Children's Home from another orphanage, but she is of the Gusii tribe and there is no one in Kajiado who speaks the Abagusii language, and she does not speak the Maasai language. Naturally, Esther is very unhappy and wants to return to her traditional homeland of Kisii.

We would be happy to help and to make this child happy, but we really are stretched financially.

If anyone reading this can help by sponsoring Esther so that she can return to her people, please do not hesitate to contact us at Twiga Children's Centre through our website.

The Hut has a New Stoop

2010-03-09T09:54:00.000Z

As well as acquiring a new well, the hut has been given a new stoop. It is too small to be called a patio. It is just the area under the roof overhang that has been concreted and painted. But it makes a big difference.

This area is much used when the kids get too hot, or when a shower passes over, this is where they take refuge.

The goats quite like it as well!

Water!

2010-03-09T09:45:00.000Z

When I was last at the Twiga Centre in Kisii, Vincent proudly showed me a big hole in the ground that he proudly announced would be our borehole.

Well, apart from it looking like a well rather than a borehole, it was very deep - and very dry!

But I was informed this week that it now has water in it - and that it has cost KCIS KSh 6,000.

Ah! I didn't know we were paying for it and I haven't budgeted for it.

And there will be added expense in sealing off the top to prevent the water from being contaminated by things (leaves, small animals, children) falling into it. Then there is the expense of installing a pump, either manual or motorised. Presently, there is a bucket on a length of rope.

So, the Twiga Centre has its own water supply, or it will have when someone gives us the funds to pay the well-digger.

A Gusii in Maasailand

2010-02-28T11:08:00.002Z

Twiga Children's Centre has been contacted by an orphanage in Kajiado, asking if we can take one of their children, a girl called Esther.

Esther (13) was transferred to the Kajiado Children's Home from another orphanage, but she is of the Gusii tribe and there is no one in Kajiado who speaks the Abagusii language, and she does not speak the Maasai language. Naturally, Esther is very unhappy and wants to return to her traditional homeland of Kisii.

We would be happy to help and to make this child happy, but we really are stretched financially.

If anyone reading this can help by sponsoring Esther so that she can return to her people, please do not hesitate to contact us at Twiga Children's Centre through our website.

Twiga Children's Centre Asks For Advice

2010-02-13T10:54:00.002Z

Please read this

Stand tall and help a child today

2010-02-11T13:14:00.007Z

No man stands so tall as when he stoops to help a child. -Abraham Lincoln

All these children have lost one or both parents, or have been abandoned.
All these children need the support of Twiga Children's Centre for something - food, clothing, school fees, uniform or books

Aloys & Nyachuba - living alone

Edwin & Dennis - living alone

Eric, Nelson & Henry - living with sick mother

Risper, Brian and Elvin - living with mother

Befone, Cliff and Samwel - living with grandparents

Morfat, Boniface and Shaida - living with sick mother

Lilian and Vincent - living with grandparents

Dominic, Mary, Osando, Getembe and Kemuma - living with grandparents

Nyang'au and Edwin - living with mother

Josephat - living at Twiga CC

Benta - living at Twiga CC

Divina - living with mother

Brian - living with mother

Dorothy - living with mother

Davis & Vanessa - living with mother

Target for 2010

2010-01-20T11:19:00.002Z

Amongst our children, there are a few who live alone with no adult supervision. They muddle along, with help from us, but they are not leading the lives of children.

They have to cook, clean, grow food, wash clothes, collect water as well as go to school and do their homework. It isn't the life a child should lead. Children need to play. They need to be children.

So, for these few, we have planned to build a residential home on our Twiga Children's Centre site. We already have one hut, which will serve as the dining/study area, kitchen/office and matron's room (we intend to have someone on site 24 hours).

So we need to build two more small huts, each containing 4 sets of bunks. We will use traditional materials to keep the cost down, so we need to buy cement for the floor, poles for the support walls, sheet steel for the roof and windows and doors.

We are in the process of getting quantity and cost estimates and when they are set, we will be launching an appeal.

These kids need a home where they feel secure, where they feel looked after, where they can get on with being a child, rather than a small adult.

So, look out for the appeal. We have set up a PayPal account and will soon have Mpesa to make life easier for our benefactors.

If a lot of people give just a few bob, it will soon mount up and you will know that you are helping to look after up to 16 orphans and homeless children.

That is worth a few shillings to you, isn't it?

A Change for the New Year

2010-01-12T13:35:00.003Z

I thought it was about time to change the template for the New Year.

I hope it pleases and does not put off our regular followers.

Heri Za Mwaka Mpya

2009-12-31T11:53:00.000Z

Everyone at

Kenyan Community Initiative Support

wish all who support us, and all who we support

A Happy New Year

Dare We Hope?

2009-12-22T13:30:00.001Z

We have just received an enquiry regarding our plans to build a small residential unit at the Twiga Children's Centre, something that has always been on the "To-Do" list, but which has never had the funding.

As we had a change of direction regarding residential care of our children, we now need a lot fewer places than originally envisaged. We are going to offer support to family units where there is a capable adult, rather than just take the children into care automatically. But we still have six children who are either total orphans or totally abandoned by parents. These need residential care that, at present, we cannot offer.

So, last night, I was re-drawing building plans, and sending out requests for costings of materials. I have never constructed a building in my life, not even a garden shed, so I am bound to have forgotten stuff - like window frames and doors, pretty fundamental really!

Luckily, Vincent, the other director has build things in Kenya and is well used to traditional building methods, so I passed my initial workings-out to him.

We are planning on two "huts", each with 4 sets of bunks. The existing hut is split into three rooms, which will become the kitchen, matron's quarters and dining/study area. I have designed in a shower block, but we will need to build toilets. We have already started a deep-pit latrine, so we are wll on the way.

Using traditional building materials should cut costs considerably, but we want concrete floors and corrugated sheet roofing.

Of course, we will need to buy the bunks, a unit for each child to keep clothes and personal belongings, as well as furniture for the matron's quarters.

Then there are the running costs, food, wages for the adult supervisor (or matron), electricity (dare we?), clothing, books, etc.

But I will worry about these costs once the huts have been built. Let's cross one bridge at the time!

The Kids Cook a Meal

2009-12-15T23:33:00.002Z

It was Sunday. About 15 children were at the Twiga centre, where they were letting off steam and remembering what it was like to be a child for a while.

But they were hungry. They had been given sugar cane, as much to help clean their teeth as to give them the energy from the sugar itself, but they were still hungry.

We were about to find a couple of volunteers to cook a meal when Aloys (13) said that he wanted to cook, as long as someone provided the ingredients. He was despatched to the local shop clutching a Ksh 200 note and soon came back with kale, tomatoes, onions and a bit of meat - probably goat. We already had maize flour in stock and he set about getting a fire going.

Looking for firewood was just the excuse that two of the younger lads to shin up the tall trees on the plot. These trees don't have branches below about 20 feet. They literally shinned up!

Firewood collected, stones placed to make a fireplace, Dennis, kneeling down to blow the flames into life and Aloys started to prepare the Ugali. Meanwhile, some of the girls were in the hut preparing the vegetables. But what was going on outside was far more entertaining!

Aloys had not placed the stones well and as he stirred the ugali, and it thickened, he could not keep the pot still. Dennis, on his knees, cheek on the ground was still blowing on the fire, but had to jump up to grab the pot to steady it, using leaves and bits of card to protect his fingers.

As soon as the ugali was ready, the girls turfed Aloys out of the cooking area. He was not going to get all the credit for the meal.

Soon, sukuma wiki was on the go and not long afterwards, the girls were serving up.

Baba Mzungu is not keen on sukuma wiki and ugali, so was not served. However, as soon as Aloys finished his meal, he shot back outside, fanned the fire and made himself busy. Soon, he presented Baba Mzungu with two hard-boiled eggs and salt.

The boy is very thoughtful. Having asked Vincent if Baba Mzungu took ugali and being told that he didn't, he had made a meal for one. OK, two boiled eggs is not a lot, but with a budget of Ksh 200 and 15 mouths to feed, it was a nice thought.

But then, that's is what we would expect from Aloys.

Newbury Freegle - Thank You from Twiga

2009-12-13T10:06:00.000Z

I was not disappointed when I arrived at Twiga with toys and games for the children! I will be thanking people personally when I can get the details back (my laptop died in Kenya), but in the meantime, the children have asked me to say a big thank you to everyone who donated toys, games and clothes.

In particular, we were given a giant snakes and ladders and a junior twister game, both of which were big hits with the whole age-range (3 to 16).

Several of the boys also asked to be taught chess. Many are already accomplished draughts players but as we had been given a set with both games, they wanted to try the game they knew nothing about.

I have to confess that, other than the movement of the pieces, I do not know a lot more than they do. I had to explain that it was a game of strategy, then left them to it. It kept them occupied for hours, with potential players staring over the shoulders of those actually involved in a match.

Toy cars and Barbies were distributed to the younger children. One little girl braided and re-braided the hair on a Barbie, each time running around showing everyone the "new" hairstyle - another hit!

So, all in all, Christmas came early at Twiga. Clothes were given to those most in need and money donated went towards the swing and food.

Oh, and we were also given some vegetable seed. The children were introduced to seed sowing on my last visit, so they attacked the chore with enthusiasm. Before I left, there were peas and bean plants up to 2" tall growing on the Twiga plot.

We also handed out seed to the children who had a plot at their home. I visited them just before I left and saw the loving care these children have put into sowing their seed.

So, this trip was another success. I left a lot of very happy children, which, if you saw the living conditions of some of them, you would wonder just how they survive!

Of course, they survive due to the untiring work of the Twiga volunteers, and Vincent and his wife, Abigael.

Swing Low, Swing High

2009-12-05T06:15:00.001Z

I had thought it a good idea to put up some sort of swing - after all the Twiga Centre is surrounded by trees. A simple rope with a tyre on the end would be simple enough ...

But we don't do simple at Twiga. Vincent's dad, although a farmer, is also an accomplished woodworker, and what he can do with a piece of wood and a panga (machete) is a wonder to see.

He had cleaned of a tree trunk for an upright, another for the crossbar, and shaped the joints using just his panga. He also made the seat from a plank of wood he just happened to have lying around.

All we needed to buy was the rope!

And the kids? We can't keep them off it, although I am happy to say that there have been no arguements as to whose turn it is. They are too good-natured.

So we say a big thank you to Vincent's father, who is always there to help when needed.

When Little Faces Light Up

2009-11-09T17:24:00.000Z

Without wanting to wish my life away, I am really looking forward to Saturday, when I will be at the Twiga Centre with a majority, if not all the kids on the register.

On my first visit, I took toothbrushes and pencils (with a rubber on the end) for the children, and their were smiles from all of them, so what will the reaction be, especially of the younger ones, when they see cars, dolls and games for them to play with.

There will also be a selection of clothes for the most needy.

But it is the little ones I want to see when they see the toys. Many will not even know what a toy is - they have never had anything other than sticks to play with.

While I am there, and if I can find a suitable tree, we will be putting up a tyre on a rope to swing on, and I think we can also make a see-saw, if the plank I saw last time is still on the plot.

Yes, it may be a bit early for Christmas, but I won't be hearing any complaints, I am certain of that!

Generous People Will Make It Christmas At Twiga

2009-10-29T14:31:00.002Z

Since the beginning of 2008, I have been collecting old cell phones for sale in Kenya. Last year, this effort raised enough to buy all our kids a new pair of leather schools shoes!

I have continued to collect cell phones, but they are becoming rarer. So I put out a plea for toys and games, as we approach Christmas - and my departure for Kenya.

Orphaned kids in Kenya don't do Christmas. They go to church, but other than that, Christmas Day is just another day to survive.

Anyway, I just want to say a big thank you to Sophie, 10 years old, who lives in Newbury. She has given up her complete collection of Barbie dolls, 15 of them! Her little brothers gave 4 or 5 cars and a few other bits and bobs.

Anne, also from Newbury, gave us a load of cuddly toys, and some games, such as chess, draughts and card games and a junior Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.

Mia, a South African, also from Newbury gave us some games and some seed for our vegetable plot.

Our kids at Twiga are going to have one very good Christmas, even if it will be a little early - I will be back in the UK for the day.

But we still need money to feed them (and to build the much needed children's home), so if anyone is feeling generous, or wants to do some fund-raising, please feel free. Donations can be made with the PayPal button in the right margin.

Also posted on Baba Mzungu's blog

On the BBC - again

2009-10-29T11:38:00.000Z

I have been asked to "appear" as a guest on Sarah Walker's afternoon programme on BBC Radio Berkshire to talk about Kenya and what I am trying to do there.

Sarah has a slot which her version of Desert Island Disks. But on the dates she proposed, I will actually be in Kenya. So we have fixed the date as the first weekday after my return to the UK - 14th December.

At least everything will be fresh in my mind, although, judging from previous returns from Kenya, everything will still be a jumble in my head - no change there then!

Oh well, at least I will be able to promote KCIS and the Twiga Children's Centre, and all publicity is good publicity, as they say, although I have my reservations about that.

Next Trip To Kenya - Official

2009-10-18T09:40:00.001+01:00

After a near heart-attack when I checked air fares from Heathrow to Nairobi [again], only to find that KQ had put their prices up by £101 in a week, I scrabbled around the Internet to check prices at the other carriers who make a direct flight.

Bless you, Virgin Atlantic. Your prices were the same as last week, and as I was making my booking on-line, was very happy to see that the return trip was at a reasonable hour. On my last trip, the plane left at 9:15am, which meant being at JKIA at 7.00am, so, to avoid traffic, I spent the night there - not recommended.

I didn't even bother to check BA as they are nearly always more expensive.

So, I will be leaving here on 11 November and arriving at JKIA at 9:05am on 12th - give or take a few minutes.

Taxi to wherever I have to pick up the shuttle to Kisii, where I hope to arrive between 16:00 and 17:00.

So, now it is a question of careful packing, as I have a lot of children's clothes and toys to take out, as well as video and still photography equipment. I rather hope I might get the chance to see some animals, other than chickens, goats and lizards this time!

Next Visit to Kenya

2009-10-13T15:45:00.000+01:00

Here we go again

The weather may be the best we have had in England for a few months, but I am forsaking it for the sun (and rain?) of the Kisii Highlands ... again.

I have found in the past that in order to get to Kenya, I have to set a date and then raise the money. If I just wait until I have the money, I would never get there. It is rather like starting a family. If you wait until you can afford to have children, you will never have them!

So, I have set my leaving date, 10th November, so I will be in Kisii by the afternoon of 11th - whoopee!

There is a lot to do when I get there. First, we have the KCIS projects to start of continue, then I have to resurrect my business there. It is not dead, but rather comatose and needs and injection of enthusiasm - at least enthusiasm doesn't cost anything.

I would have liked to have the money to hire a vehicle while I am out there. A lot of people have asked me to visit their projects, in Kisumu, Kericho, Nakuru, but I suppose I will have to put up with matatu trips, unless someone coughs up a few quid before I leave. I also wanted to take some of the Twiga kids to see Lake Victoria.

Oh well, when in Rome ...

Trees, Charcoal and Rain

2009-09-29T22:05:00.001+01:00

Once again I read that Africa is suffering because people are cutting trees for fuel and to produce charcoal. Generally, the charcoal production is illegal, but this can be sorted out with a back-hander - no change there then.
From what I have seen and heard on my trips to Kenya, the solar cooker, which can be made for pennies, are very efficient, but do not fit in with the East African psyche, they take too long to cook a meal. From my observations, it seems that Kenyans like to prepare and eat with little or no gap in between. So they need an instant heat source to cook on, wood, charcoal, kerosene or, if they are modern (and can afford it) butane gas.
So, trees will continue to be decimated until an alternative instant fuel is found, that is acceptable to those who have to use it.
You can read an article on the BBC website here

I have been working on methane collector design for a while now and have come up with a version that is easy and cheap to construct, and easy to use.
My contention is that if butane is acceptable, then so is methane. The difference is that methane occurs naturally, and to collect it is a simple matter. It is FREE!
Looking at its use ecologically, burning methane forms water and CO2, which is a good thing. Why? Because methane is 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2, so it is far more acceptable to have CO2 floating around rather than methane, isn't it?
But most people living in rural East Africa are not interested in that, they are too busy surviving.
So, what about the charcoal makers? They will not be happy seeing their livlihood disappearing as people convert to methane for cooking.
So, show them how to make methane collectors, install them and maintain them. Yes, they need maintaining. A 45 gallon methane collector will produce gas for about six months before it needs refurbishing. But, the by-product is fertiliser, just what is needed on a shamba.
So, to recap:

Methane is free
Using methane saves trees
A methane collector produces fertiliser
Using methane helps to eliminate a potent greenhouse gas that would normally escape to atmosphere.
Methane is a clean fuel, so there are no particulates to irritate and inflame eyes and lungs.
Charcoal producers can be easily trained to make, install and maintain methane collectors, so they will not lose their income. In fact, with a little persuasion, maybe they will even promote the use of methane.

Methane can also be used as an alternative to petrol, so it will run a generator or water pump.

What is the next step?
KCIS has produced a working model. We can produce free methane. We are willing to spread the word.
We have contacted various charities and NGOs who are supposed to be interested in saving trees and protecting the water catchment areas. What is their response?
NOTHING!
If you are interested in saving trees in Kenya, contact us. We will work with anyone who is serious about making people's lives better in Kenya, or even East Africa.
Also published at Baba Mzungu’s blog

BBC Feature

2009-08-30T10:53:00.004+01:00

I am happy to report that although the broadcast was some time ago, by broadcasting standards, KCIS is still featured on the BBC Radio Berkshire website under the 'Faith' section.

There is still the audio slide show, narrated by Nejra Cehic, as well as the two features that were broadcast on 9th and 16th of August, featuring the voices of some of our children, notably Aloys, Edwin, Esther and Dennis, and of course, our local director, Vincent.

In the broadcasts, Nejra visits the home of Aloys and Nyachuba to see just how primitive their living conditions are. She also visits the site of the Twiga Centre where she sees the children's efforts to grow their own vegetables. The children can be heard playing and singing in the background.

These broadcasts give a very good audio idea of life for orphans and needy children in rural Kenya.

It is really worth a listen.

KCIS on the BBC, Part 2

2009-08-21T08:53:00.001+01:00

Last Sunday saw the second and last feature by BBC Radio Berkshire on KCIS and theTwiga Children's Centre in Kisii on the Clare Catford show. It can be heard on iPlayer here, rolling it forward to about 2:37:00

It featured the voices of some of the children, Aloys, Dennis, Edwin and Esther, as well as a group of the children singing.

The BBC Radio Berkshire website also features an audio slideshow and a short writeup about KCIS.

KCIS on the BBC - Part 1

2009-08-09T22:01:00.006+01:00

It didn't last long, about 4½ minutes, but it was very good - the first broadcast about our organisation.

The recordings were made, edited and put together by Nejra Cehic, a BBC researcher, and I think she has done a first class job. The only let-down was me, reading from a script - well judge for yourselves. Click on the link below and foward the player to 2:44:00 or thereabouts.

Clare Catford

The next episode will be next Sunday (16th August) at about 8:40, although this could change. Watch this space for an update.!

A Plug on the BBC

2009-08-08T21:11:00.005+01:00

We at KCIS have had a bit of luck (and let's face it, we need some!)

A researcher at our local BBC radio station travels to different parts of Africa with a charitable organisation during her main holiday, and this year, she was sent to ... Kisii.

A colleague of hers at the radio station had been following the blog or Twitter and pointed this out to the researcher, who then contacted David and a meeting was set up before she left.

Once there, she met up with Vincent and Abigael as well as many of the Twiga kids. She recorded, interviewed and observed. The kids sang and Aloys recited a poem in Swahili. or the rest, we will have to wait until the transmission.

The feature will be broadcast in two parts on the Theological programme, this Sunday (10th August) and next. The first will be cut and edited sound bites, and the following week David will be speaking about the ongoing and future KCIS projects including, of course, the Twiga Children's Centre - if he doesn't dry up. What do they call it? Corpsing?

Of course, the other possible problem is David's potential for verbosity. Maybe corpsing would be a better option.

Oh well we will see - or hear - next week.

They Don't Just Work Hard ...

2009-07-03T21:26:00.002+01:00

They play hard too.

I have just posted a slide show of the Twiga kids having a couple of hours play time. Just look at how they are enjoying themselves!

Video on YouTube

2009-06-29T10:00:00.004+01:00

One of our many projects in Kenya was to make a vegetable plot for the Twiga kids (orphaned and abandoned children). This we have now done, or rather, the kids did it under our supervision, and to find more enthusiasm would be difficult!

Many photos and some video were taken and have been compiled into a video, posted on YouTube.

Take a look here

Catch-up

2009-06-21T10:15:00.002+01:00

I have just spent a few weeks at Kisii, with a few visits to the site that will, one day, be the site of our orphanage.

At the moment, it is just a plot on the wooded side of a hill, very pleasant, with a little hut on the site. This will serve as the start of our project to build a home for about 40 to 50 children in need. We presently have 37 children on the register, but not all need residential help.

But, as ever with children, our first priority is food. So we have prepared an area of our land for growing vegetables. I say we, the kids did most of the hard work, and I have never seen so much enthusiasm, bearing in mind that some of these children have to cultivate their own little plots to grow their food just to survive.

Over the space of one weekend, a couple of hours each day, the plot was cleared of weed, tilled, and sifted by hand. Then seeds for nine different vegetables were sowed.

The following weekend, we visited the site, hoping that the seed had sprouted and we were not disappointed. We also sowed the seed from a butternut squash on this second weekend and I have been told that they have also taken.

The kids then built a fence around the seed beds to protect their seedlings from marauding chickens, goats, etc.

Since I have returned to the UK, I have been told that the butternut squash has sprouted and the other seedlings are being transplanted to grow.

So, phase 1 of our children's home project is off the ground, or rather, in the ground.

Now we need to rasie the money to build the residential block.

Twiga Children's Centre

2009-06-14T14:54:00.009+01:00

On my recent trip to Kisii, I visited the houses where some of our kids live.

Aloys (13) and Nyachuba (10)

These brave kids lost their mother a while ago. Their father remarried and moved out of the area, leaving them to fend for themselves.

They live in a two-room hut, living room and bedrom. Thre is a smaller hut which serves as the kitchen.

Aloys, the boy in this pair, milks his cow and sells the milk to buy food for the two of them. He cooks over an open grate in the kitchen. There are few utensils and some of those he has, he made himslf.

Both children attend school, and despite their desparately hard life, they both attain good marks.

Aloys, at 13 years old, has to act as father and mother to Nyachuba, administering medication if she needs it, etc.

I was astounded, when he was at the centre, preparing the soil for the vegetable patch. He was the hardest worker there. He stripped off his shirt and his hard life can be seen in his thin, sinewy body. He has muscles that many twice his age could only dream of.

But why should a kid have to work so hard that he has the body of a fully developed athlete?

Both kids are very cheerful, always helpful and rarely without a smile. In the case of Aloys, he also has a very cheeky disposition.

Their dream? To help build the Twiga centre so that they can move in and enjoy a little comfort.

Edwin (14) and Dennis (12)

Cousins to Aloys and Nyachuba, these brothers had a similar fate when their mother died. Luckily, they have an older sister who took them in, despite the fact that she is a teeneage single mother of two very small children.

Edwin is open, cheerful, helpful, and ready for hard work. Dennis is more withdrawn, but once he comes out of his shell, his rare smile lights up his usually serious face.

Edwin and Dennis put in more than their fair share of work to prepare the vegetable plot, working very hard to clear the weeds, prepare the soil and build the animal-proof fence.

They also want to help to build the Twiga centre so that they can move in and benefit.

Normal Service will be resumed ...

2009-05-27T10:01:00.003+01:00

I am in Kenya at the moment (until 19 June) and my Internet connection is such that I will only be updating Baba Mzungu until I get back to the UK.

http://dadmzungu.blogspot.com/ is being updated daily (more or less) with everything that is going on here in Kisii.

Hip, Hip Hooray - I'm On My Way!

2009-04-27T12:05:00.004+01:00

After several aborted attempts to arrange my next trip to Kenya, it looks as if I have finally nailed a date to the calendar.

It has been difficult. I have to consider my aged mother, who I look after when I am in the UK. Then, although this is a working trip, I want to be able to see my girlfriend, who is presently abroad in Tanzania on business. Then, of course, I have to make sure I have enough money to do what I want to do when I get to Kenya.

So, Mum is sorted, my girlfriend will have returned home by mid-May and I have an, albeit small, pot of money, which should get me through a month in Kenya as long as I am very careful and don't spoil the kids at the orphanage. But there won't be enough to hire even a small car, so it will be matatu from Nairobi to Kisii, coach from Kisii to Malindi and another coach from Malindi to Nairobi - a nice round trip!

It is a shame, because taking interesting photos en route when using public transport is not easy. they will not stop the bus just so that I can take a picture of a giraffe or something - never mind, this is a working trip.

I hope to spend a few days in Nairobi so that I can visit a client, Rhino Ark, to discuss the way forward for their website, but this is their silly season, with the Rhino Charge taking place at the end of May. Maybe I could get to see that? No, probably not.

I have made many contacts in Kenya on various social networking sites and if I accept all invitations, I will also be visiting Homa Bay, Kisumu, Kericho, Machakos, Mombasa, ... etc.

That should be a lot of fun without a car! Oh well, maybe fate will smile upon me and provide me with one when I get there - somehow.

So, the 2nd weekend of May should find me at JKIA, loaded down with bags of toys, laptops, cameras, oh, and a few clothes, I suppose.

Fighting Malaria

2009-03-24T21:16:00.003Z

Having carried out as much desk-bound research as is possible on MMS (see previous post), I have now found that the wormwood tree can also be used to treat malaria.

Apparently - and I have not tried it - an infusion made with the leaves of the wormwood can cure malaria, and that propriety drugs are only synthetic versions of this natural remedy.

If anyone has documented proof (not anecdotes, please) that wormwood is effective against malaria, please contact me at david@kcisupport.plus.com

Thank you.

MMS - What is it?

2009-03-15T10:40:00.005Z

Now, I may be a bit cynical, or I maybe I am very cynical. That is not for me to say, but when I see a product with the word "Miracle" in its title, my suspicions are raised.

And when a product with "miracle" in its name comes out of the USA, I just think, "Yeah! Another wind-up!".

But MMS has got me thinking. MMS is Miracle Mineral Supplement, which doesn't really explain anything. It was discovered by an American, Jim Humble, a few years ago while he was traipsing through the South American jungle, prospecting for gold or oil or something. Two of his colleagues went down with malaria and they had no medication.

So Mr. Humble made up a solution using his water purification tablets, thinking that if they could kill pathogens in the water, maybe they could kill pathogens in the body - and it worked. It worked surprisingly quickly, so, when he got back home, he started on his long path of research into the effects of the purification tablets (sodium chlorite) on pathogens in the body.

The long and short of it is that Jim found that mixing sodium chlorite with citric acid makes chlorine dioxide, a disinfectant used in swimming pools, abattoirs, meat cleaning, etc. However, this compound is, to say the least, unstable and has to be made up at the time it is needed.

He has carried out extensive trials in East Africa and South America, in areas where malaria is rife and has found that ClO2, or MMS is very efficient. As an aside, he also found that it would attack other pathogens and viruses in the body, whilst leaving "friendly" bacteria alone.

I had to try this for myself, not because I have any known dangerous pathogens in my own body, but i needed to know if it did any harm.

I can say with authority that the compound tastes awful - no, it is worse than that. Imagine drinking bleach. Yes, that's what it tastes like. But it is not chlorine and does not harm the body in the way that chlorine would.

But apart from that, it did me no harm. And I found that instead of using water to dilute the compound, using apple juice, as recommended by Mr. Humble, takes some of the awful taste away.

Now, as I said, I didn't have any particular illness I wanted to cure. However, I did suffer with chronic back pain, caused by two damaged disks just above the pelvis. I got sciatica on a regular basis and I was in constant pain.

This next bit is stupid, ridiculous, but true. After a week of a low dosage course of MMS, the back pain eased and then disappeared altogether. I cannot explain it, but after15 years of constant pain, I was pain-free.

That was at the end of last year (2008). I stopped taking MMS just before Christmas and now, in March 2009, the pain is just beginning to return, so I will put myself on the same low dose course and will report what happens in this blog.

Now, about Jim Humble. Jim has not made any real money out of MMS. He has written a couple of books which he sells for profit, but he will give anyone who wants it instruction on how to make and use MMS - for free. He wants MMS to be used to eradicate malaria. Why?

He says that thousands of work days are lost through malaria. If MMS can get workers back to work within a couple of days instead of a week, people will lose less of their earnings and African countries will benefit.

This is a bit simplistic, but in essence, true.

So where do we go from here? There are a couple of organisations that I know of in Kenya that promote MMS, under different names, and from what I can gather, the results are good. But these are very small organisations working in small communities. If this stuff works, and I believe it does, it needs to be produced locally and distributed as far and as wide as possible.

That's a Rash Idea

2009-03-12T12:33:00.000Z

My imagination has been running away with me - again!

OK, so the idea is this - I don't remember suffering a fever at the time ...

On our plot in Kisii, Kenya, there is a two-room hut, not a cottage, not a bungalow, a hut, made of sticks, stones and mud. At least the roof is corrugated steel. There are proper windows and doors, with security grilles.

There is a corridor running front to back between the two rooms with doors to the outside at both ends.

As the hut is built on the side of a hill, the back faces a small cliff and there is an open passageway running between the hut and this cliff. There is also a small appendage which could be used as a "kitchen".

So, my idea is ... to live there for a while ~ no electricity, no running water.

But, while I am there, I want to carry out some minor improvements.

First off, I will install water, with a tank on the cliff behind the hut, to give a head. This will supply an outside shower and maybe running water to the kitchen.

Second, a home-made portaloo. I want to use the waste to collect the methane, which will eventually power a generator and a water pump (there is a river at the bottom of the plot).

Then there is the land itself. On top of the cliff, the land is a lot flatter than in front of the hut. It is very fertile and I reckon, from memory, there is enough to grow crops to feed all the kids on the orphanage register, with some left over to sell.

A by-product of the methane production is fertiliser. This together with composting will keep the soil rich, which will be necessary as I want two or three crops a year - it rains all year round in Kisii.

Linking into these improvements, I will be experimenting with using the sun to warm water for washing, and water filtration and purification. I also seem to remember building a food cooler when I was at school - but that was in 19 - yes well, it was a long time ago.

To finish off the place, I will make a BBQ out of ½ an oil barrel, so that the kids can sample the delights of a burger or hot dog (you know the type, burnt on the outside, raw in the middle).

What I had forgotten when dreaming up all this is that I am approaching 60, I am not the fittest person in the world, and I am mildly disabled. Further, Kisii is at 5,700 feet and oxygen is a bit thin.

Still, it will be an experience and it will allow me to tinker with the project designs and get them to work to their best effect.

Wish me luck!

Also posted on BabaMzungu blog.

Water, water everywhere ...

2009-03-08T09:40:00.004Z

... well, maybe not in Kenya. But it strikes me that a lot is wasted.

I have been reading a paper produced by the Peace Corps, where people have been describing how they use water every day, and one phrase struck me:

"... only the rich can afford to collect and store rainwater for personal use."

This was written by an American living and working in Maasailand, Kenya. And it got me thinking.

Where I stay in Kisii, water is brought up from a source and delivered in 25 litre drums, which are emptied into our 100 litre storage drum. It needs to be boiled for drinking.

But, when it rains in Kisii, the heavens open. The rain hits the corrugated iron roof and the noise is deafening. My host, Vincent dashes outside and strategically places bowls and buckets under the water gushing off the roof, but most is lost.

When I am in Nairobi, I stay with a family in a suburb of 3 and 4 bedroomed houses with running water and electricity (when either is working). The rains fall here just as violently and pours off the roof into the compound. Nothing is done to collect this free water.

I thought of all the houses I have visited in Kenya. Most are under corrugated roofs, which are perfect water collection and channelling devices. But none have guttering to collect the water.

Reading other Peace Corps reports, it appears that there are communities that collect rainwater during the rainy season(s) to supplement their water supply, but imagine if simple, and most importantly, cheap guttering could be provided. Households that enjoy any rain at all could have more water at their disposal, especially those living in the highlands to the East and West of the Rift Valley, who enjoy all-year-round rain.

So, fitting guttering to a "tin" roof is easy enough, but what about thatch? Can a thatched roof have a gutter?

The answer is yes, although it is suggested that it be larger so as not to become blocked by any stray straw that may wash down.

Of course, fixing guttering to a round hut will need a bit of thought, but where there's a will, there's a way.

Where do I get cheap guttering in Kenya? Here in the UK, plastic guttering is (relatively) cheap, and comes in all shapes and colours - unnecessary really in Kenya. But I have yet to see this sort of guttering in Kenya, although I am sure it is available.

A simpler solution is to make "V" guttering from two planks, nailed together. This should not cost a lot per house, but the down pipe could be a problem. Still, I have a few ideas about that and will try them out once I am on site.

Of course, the collection container must be covered so as to prevent mosquitoes breeding. The last thing we want to encourage is these little blood-suckers to breed right next to a house!

It is all a question of trial and error, adaptation to individual needs, and education!

Keeping the kids amused ...

2009-03-02T17:06:00.006Z

We told the kids to gather at the plot on Saturday for a 'Fun Day'. And it wasn't until after they were told that I put my mind to finding things to amuse them.

Boys are easy, well most are. Give them a ball and they are away, football, volleyball, whatever, they are running, shouting, playing in a team - they are happy.

But what about the girls? I got a couple of hula hoops (that's all they had in the shop), and some skipping ropes. But it didn't look like enough for about a dozen girls ranging from 3 to 16 years.

Then I had a brainwave (or was it a brain storm?)

I bought some macaroni, paints and a ball of string. Before the big day, I showed six-year-old Benta how to make a necklace. She was thrilled - a good sign - and spent a whole day, carefully painting the tubes of pasta and threading them onto enough string to make a necklace that touched the ground when she was standing up! But she was happy with her efforts.

On the big day, she was so important, because she was showing all the other girls what to do to make their own necklaces.

It was a big success, except that Aloys, one of the cheekier boys, complained.

"You are wasting good food," he announced, barely concealing his grin.

But I was ready for him for once.

"No, we're not. The paint is non-toxic, so you can eat it, and you can eat the painted pasta, so, the girls have a necklace and a meal at the same time."

It is not often I can get one over this bunch of street-wise survivalists that we call our orphans.

I am convinced that I could learn a lot from any one of them.

Next time, I will take paper and glue as well as a variety of shapes for the younger kids to make pictures. I wonder if I can find non-toxic, edible glue?

Kenya Media Watch

2009-02-24T08:01:00.003Z

The author of the above blog, who is based in the Kisii area, posted a blog relating to the work we are doing in Kenya, as well as posting a comment on our blog (see below).

I don't have aproblem with that, but when I wanted to post a comment on his blog, I found I couldn't. So I am posting my comment here.

Time to Start Questioning Some Forms of Charity

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 them 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.

Can you spare a few pennies?

2009-02-21T14:38:00.003Z

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

These are not just ideas. These are real, worked out and costed projects.

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!

I am overwhelmed

2009-02-15T09:20:00.004Z

Since pushing to raise the profile of our organisation KCIS, I am overwhelmed by the amount of support I have received from people - people I know, people I don't know, people on Social Network sites, all sorts. We received pledges, not enormous amounts, but all together , they would get us started.

I became very positive, something I find difficult in February, in the UK, in a grey and chilly climate. But positive I am.

But, we have not received a bean. I checked our PayPal account. Not a single pledge has been received ~ what am I doing wrong?

But at least I won the Lotto last night, not the big prize, but £25. That will go straight into the pot. Maybe this is a start?

C'mon people and tweeple. Let's give some people in Kenya clean, pure drinking water, clean cooking fuel, "home-grown" fertiliser ...

Kenyan Community Initiative Support
Helping People to Help Themselves

Scrapheap Challenge

2009-02-03T15:41:00.004Z

Our project, Scrapheap Challenge has been put together to cover all the ideas and prototypes that have been designed to make low-technology equipment largely from scrap or discarded materials.

So far, we have:

Water filter and purifier
Methane collector (with fertiliser by-product as a bonus)
Rainwater collection
Cheap bio-diesel
Hydrogen cell

All these systems will be built and tested at out River Cottage Kenya plot in Kisii - as soon as we have funds to carry out this work.

When we have proved that they work, with tweeking as needed, their concepts will be passed on to other NGOs and communities throughout Kenya and further on, depending upon how successful we are in promoting them (and us!).

You can help by spreading the word and/or making a donation using the PayPal button on the right.

Please, please help us.

River Cottage, Kenya

2009-02-02T12:09:00.004Z

The River Cottage project at KCIS has a plot in Kisii, on which we are going to grow food for the Twiga Children's Home. Presently, we have bananas, pineapples and avocados, and we will be looking at alternatives to the usual crops grown in the area. We will be trying out keyhole gardening and other high yield ideas.

I am also hoping that we can form a pool, fed by the river, to raise Tilapia fish, which are fast-breeding and very good to eat.

Any surplus food will be sold to put some money into the KCIS fund.

The older children at Twiga are raring to get started although clearing the plot and preparing the land for crop growing is going to be quite a task.

We will be using fertiliser produced by our methane generator (see Scrapheap Challenge)

Can You Help?

2009-01-29T13:47:00.003Z

Our Wish List

As you will have seen in our previous post, we are ready to get started with our various projects - and a few that haven't been mentioned - which will help improve the lives of the kids at Twiga, the community around Kisii and hopefully, if successful, we will be able to work with other NGOs and charities to introduce the best to a wider world.

But we need stuff. We need gardening tools, spades, forks, hoes, rakes. We could do with a vehicle. Although this is a big wish, if we could borrow something that can carry equipment and tools to the site, it would be great.

But most of all, we need money! But, not a lot.

I reckon that, if we were lent a vehicle, we could get things started on £500. If, on the other hand we have to hire a vehicle, we would need nearer £1,000.

If you can help us raise some funds, or advertise our cause and website please contact us.

Thank you.

Ready to Roll ...

2009-01-28T13:45:00.003Z

We are ready to put some of our design concepts into practice - at last!

We have a small plot in Kisii with a hut on it and a river on the border, perfect for an experimental shamba.

Apart from actually growing food for the kids at the Twiga Home, we will be harvesting methane to be used for cooking and running a small generator. We will also be purifying water straight from the river, producing pure clean drinking water using a system designed to be built from scrap and cheap materials.

If we can get the raw materials, we will also be producing bio-diesel and a hydrogen production system for petrol cars (it doesn't replace petrol, but cuts consumption by up to 50%).

We are in the fund-searching phase of the operation. Anyone with ideas as to who we could approach, please let us know.

An Alternative to Wood and Charcoal?

2009-01-27T12:27:00.003Z

(... or even kerosene)

Methane. It is a gas found everywhere, especially in the vicinity of cattle and other herbivores. Noting special there, then.

But it can be "manufactured" and harnessed at no cost (other than setting up), and can be used for cooking. It does not produce smoke like wood, charcoal or kerosene, so will not irritate the eyes and lungs of people using it.

Trees do not need to be cut down to produce it, so the local environment is not decimated. Trees help to keep topsoil intact. Get rid of the trees and you eventually lose topsoil.

Methane can also be used to run a petrol motor, such as a power generator. Other than the cost of the generator (6,500 shillings), this could give free electricity - not a lot, admittedly, but enough for electric lights - no more candles, hurricane lamps or batteries.

Or, maybe it could run a petrol-powered water pump at a borehole, or to pump water from a river to a community.

But what is needed to make methane?

Waste. Animal waste (droppings) and vegetable waste (husks, outer leaves of vegetables), in fact most anything that rots down. If placed in an oxygen-free container, methane will be produced.

It is easy enough to produce. It is clean to use, and it does not rely on the sun, although the collector needs reasonable warmth to work. Most places in Kenya are warm enough.

Cooking on methane is similar to cooking over wood or charcoal. It is a lot easier to make the change to methane than it is to start using other alternatives such as a solar cooker.

KCIS has now designed a methane collector that is made, for the most part, out of scrap or other used materials (naturally), so it is cheap.

We are just waiting to prove it and then pass on the technology to all.

Cheap, Clean Drinking Water

2009-01-22T17:46:00.003Z

A precious commodity in Kenya, in town as well in rural areas. Drinking water has to be boiled, even if it comes out of the tap, and in the area of Nairobi where I stay, it tastes earthy.

That got the Tool-using Think-maker in me to look at a way to filter and purify water so that it was not only safe to drink, but also palatable.

Of course, according to my philosophy, anything I design has to be made from scrap or discarded materials, or at the least, readily available cheap materials, and I have finally finished!

The purification side of things uses the Sun. This is well-known, but little used technology. When water left in the sun for 6 hours, all pathogens are killed. The filtration bit is just as easy to use, and is effective in removing any foreign body larger than 100 microns, so that's eggs, grit, larvae, etc.

The final build depends upon available material, but can be easily modified to account for local local materials.

Just need a bit of funding to get this project out into the big wide World - well, Kenya, anyway.

Exchange Rate

2009-01-21T22:23:00.003Z

With the UK pound in free-fall against most currencies, it is getting increasingly expensive to send money from the UK to Kenya.

I read that the Kenyan shilling is taking a bettering, but I see that it is more or less holding its own against the US$, although it is losing against the Euro.

I also see in the daily Nation that I can get a much better rate in kenya than I can in the UK. I really don't understand currency exchange.

All I want to do is pay the rent on my house, without it going up £3 every month through no fault of my own.

Our Goals for 2009

2009-01-16T13:21:00.002Z

From Baba Mzungu

As regular readers of this blog already know, we have several projects just waiting to be started up, but with the food crisis gathering pace in Kenya, I have had to juggle the priorities about a bit.

We have our plot just outside Kisii, a particularly fertile corner of Kenya, which is doing nothing worthwhile at the moment. We are going to start our River Cottage project here.

Our priority at the moment must be to produce food. With luck, we will be able to produce a surplus which can be sold.

We have a band of kids who are more than willing to work, but as most are 9 to 12 years old, and the soil is never really dry as it rains all year round in Kisii, I can just imagine the state they will be in after a short while, digging and preparing the soil for planting - filthy!

So, we need a means of letting them clean off afterwards. Needless to say, there is no tap water at the plot and the river at the edge of the plot is down a 1:5 path, so carrying up enough water to wash of half a dozen muddy kids would be a big effort.

So, we need water collection off the roof of the existing hut and anywhere else we can find. Then, behind the hut we can build a simple shower with bamboo screens.

All this can be done at a minimal cost, and falls in quite nicely with another project title, Scrapheap Challenge.

There is a UK charity in Kisii who gives out gardening tools to "worthy causes". I just hope that an orphanage trying to grow its own food will be considered a worthy cause!

Food Crisis in Kenya Pt. II

2009-01-12T08:54:00.001Z

Courtesy of Daily Nation 12/1/09

Kenya to declare food emergency

2009-01-11T20:21:00.005Z

Here we go again!!

The BBC reports that the Kenyan Government is to declare a national emergency due to drought.

President Mwai Kibaki's government warned that nearly 10 million people - more than a quarter of the population - were at risk from food shortages.

But even where food is in reasonable supply, prices have already shot through the roof during the past couple of months and we are struggling to feed our kids, despite the fact that Kisii is situated in one of the most fertile areas of Kenya, supply and demand, I suppose.

Food shortages are believed to be caused also by suppliers hoarding, forcing the prices up - some people are willing to make a quick buck out of other people's suffering - not just in Kenya, but the world over.

We need help to buy food and also to get the River Cottage Kenya farm up and running. I am sure that we could be self-sufficient by this time next year with a little help.

Can you help us? Do you know someone who can?

Shifting target? Or just expanding?

2009-01-10T12:01:00.001Z

This was originally posted on my other blog, but as it relates to KCIS work, I have copied it here:

I have been approached by a businessman in Cameroon to shift the malaria-control project to Cameroon. He reckons that he could find financial backing for the project, and that is tempting.

But I can't do that. My loyalty is with Kenya. Kenya is my love, my mistress. Kenya is my second home. So, when the project gets off the ground, it has to be in Kenya.

But, that is not to say that when it is established and I have proven to myself that we are on the right track, I will not expand to Cameroon [or Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Rwanda, Burundi ...]

I am a bi-lingual English/French speaker, so communication will not a problem in Cameroon, and I am not against helping Cameroonians (is that right?) or any other people, wherever they are, but they have to accept that Kenya takes priority.

Or am I looking at the problem with blinkers?

Volunteers

2009-01-08T09:47:00.005Z

After the resounding success of Amy's visit last year to Twiga Children's Home, Kisii, we are happy to see that we are receiving enquiries for this Summer - two, so far.
It is so good for the children to meet people from other countries and cultures, to help them to speak English, and just generally see new faces.

Frustration

2009-01-08T09:08:00.003Z

I may have decided that 2009 is going to be THE year for KCIS, but it hasn't started well.

My plan was to visit Kenya at the beginning of this year, and had set the departure date at 6th January.

It is now the 8th, and I am still in a cold, wet, foggy UK, and the prospects of travelling to Kenya are not good in the short term.

This has been brought about by the economic downturn/the UK Government totally trashing the UK economy [delete, one, depending upon your point of view], which caused my son (he with 5 dependent children) to lose his job, just before Christmas.

So, I have had to bail him out with money that had been put aside for my trip.

On top of this, work has been a bit slow for me too, so cash flow is almost stagnant.

Not a good start to the year, but I am still feeling positive. After all, it is only the 8th January. We still have 357 days for things to go right!

This Is Our Year

2009-01-03T10:01:00.002Z

2009 is going to be the year that KCIS makes a difference.

No, we haven't received a large legacy, nor have we been offered financial support from a deep-pocketed benefactor (not that we need a lot of money to make a difference).

But I have decided that 2009 is going to be our year. I have been working on the theory of our projects for nearly a year now, so it is about time I out them into practice.

So, what is it that we are trying t achieve?

We are not trying to change the world, but, we do want to help to reduce the incidence of malaria, we do want to find ways of increasing crop yield, we do want to show that water can be purified without expensive equipment or chemicals.

And I am pretty sure we can do it - in such a way that rural communities can benefit without costing the earth.

[NB - a farm worker earns about $1 a day. We want to offer the above at a cost that these people can afford.]

To make all this happen, we need funding. We are not begging for money, although if someone out there wants to bankroll us, we will not refuse. We have set up a business based in Kenya, that, if successful, will fund our projects, or at least, get them moving. Once we can show that our projects work, then maybe people will take us seriously.

Heri Za Mwaka Mpya

2008-12-31T20:58:00.001Z

All of us involved with KCIS would like to wish a

Happy New Year

to all in Kenya and the UK who follow and support us in our work.

Krismasi Njema

2008-12-24T17:10:00.000Z

On this festive occasion, we would like to wish our readers a

Very Merry Christmas

Next trip to Kenya

2008-12-13T09:28:00.002Z

It rather looks like I will be returning to Kenya at the beginning of January - and about time too!

As soon as I have got Christmas over and done with, I will be on my way, or at least, that's the plan - probably leaving here on 6th January.

Of course, funding comes into play - I think I have just about enough to get me there and back, and survive whilst I am there as long as I am careful.

I will be going straight to Kisii where I will start setting up the River Cottage and Scrapheap Challenge projects, as well as looking at the possibility of farming Tilapia, a type of fresh-water fish that thrives in Kenya.

Then there is the push to combat malaria. There are many ways to fight malaria and we willb e looking at many of them.

Somehow, I have got to find the time and money to travel across Kenya to the coast to see my significant other and children - it's a tough life but someone has to do it.

Malaria Kills 3,000 Children Every Day

2008-11-19T11:04:00.004Z

Shocking isn't it? And most of these deaths are in sub-Saharan Africa, including Kenya.

And what is just as distressing is that these deaths are unnecessary. Malaria can be controlled. Drugs are available to cure people who have contracted the disease.

Unfortunately, many people cannot afford them, or live too far in the bush to be able to get to a clinic or dispensary.

KCIS is planning a major drive in the New Year to combat the malaria problem, with drugs for those who have malaria, and an education and training program to help control where mosquitoes can breed. If we can control mosquito breeding, we can reduce the instances of malaria.

Our education program, aimed primarily at schools, will make people aware of unnecessary standing water where mosquitoes breed, and eradicate them.

BUT WE NEED FUNDING!

We need funding to buy the drugs, funding to set up dispensaries where they are not available, funding to employ people to work in the dispensaries, etc.

Please, if you can help, visit our KCIS website where there is a PayPal account where you help save the lives of children.

Even if you can only give a few Dollars/Pounds/Euros. If enough people give just a little, it will amount to a lot. If we can get this project started, we ... you ... will be saving lives!

A Friendly name ...

2008-11-19T10:57:00.004Z

Our newly acquired children's home ... the official name is fine, but it is cold and distant.

This is the last thing we want for a children's home. I mentioned this to Vincent yesterday. I wanted an animal in the "friendly" name. We went through the best-known animals to be seen in Kenya (although I doubt that most of the kids had ever seen them), and eventually settled on the giraffe

Why a giraffe? Because the Swahili for giraffe is Twiga, and I like the word ~ Twiga Children's Home.

So that's it. The KCIS Child Support Centre will be known as the Twiga Children's Home.

New Name for the Children's Home

2008-10-17T13:02:00.004+01:00

After a lot of discussion, mainly by email and Skype, we have decided to call the children's home "KCIS Child Support Centre".

As we grow as an organisation, we hope to be able to offer support to children who are not necessarily orphans, for example, those who used as child labour, those whose parents cannot afford a school uniform and therefore cannot attend "free" school, etc.

There are many aspect of child care that are not tackled by orphanages, and we hope to fill that gap.

Of course, none of this will come to pass unless we have benefactors, people who are willing to donate a little money. We are not asking for someone to donate thousands of dollars/pounds (although that would be nice), but if ten people each donated $10 (or £5), that's $100 (or £50) which we can put to good use.

Think about it. Talk to your friends. If between you, you can raise $100, you are helping 38 kids in Kisii and 17 orphans in Watamu (on the Coast).

Or, you can "adopt" a particular child. Take a look at our website to see who is there.

http://www.kcisupport.plus.com/ and click on Child Welfare.

[We have PayPal in the site]

Where your donations could go if you are not careful!

2008-10-17T10:08:00.004+01:00

Recently, KCIS was contacted by a church charity mission in the USA, Precious Daughters, who explained that they received a donation to be sent to their branch in Kisii district, Kenya.

Precious Daughters asked us that, as we had an office in Kisii, could we visit their representative there and check out their credentials.

We, of course are always ready to help like-minded organisations, and my friend, Vincent went to visit Precious Daughters, in Kisii district.

It took a lot of finding. Vincent visited churches and other organisations to try and find Precisous Daughters.

Eventually, he found them, a man and wife who said that they were looking after a bunch of orphans. But when asked to produce said orphans, they could not. In fact there was not evidence of children living in their house or anywhere else.

When the schools turned out, the man rounded up a load of kids and tried to pass them off as the orphans that he was looking after.However, the kids themselves denied that they had anything to do with this couple!

Conclusion? These people had tried to dupe an organisation that was set up to help the genuinely poor. They will not be receiving any money from Precious Daughters.

But, it is people like this who make it difficult for us, who are genuine, to raise money to do what is needed.

Merging and Changing

2008-10-06T17:57:00.005+01:00

Having set up as a separate entity to African Community Initiative Support, the new KCIS is incorporating the children's home (Mercy Gate Champion Children's Home), which will for the time being, be known as the KCIS Children's Home, although it will have a "proper" name in the future.

This decision has been made for the following reasons:

Only one person within ACIS was doing anything for the children's home

Mercy Gate, from whom the home took its name, did little or nothing for the home.

The new organisation, based in Kisii, is led by Vincent from the home and David from ACIS, and will be seeking NGO status in Kenya and charitable status in the UK, in due course.

ACIS, in its various forms within Kenya will still continue its activities, as far as we know.

As has been seen in previous posts, David and Vincent are also in business together as Kenanda-Steggall Exports, a soapstone exporting firm, which will be supporting KCIS financially, thereby lessening the reliance on donations - we hope.

As to the name of the children's home, we will be asking the children for ideas as well as the volunteers and trustees.

So, watch this space ...

The Chinese Deal (Pt. III)

2008-09-24T11:10:00.003+01:00

So, we have negotiated the prices, the delivery times, the quantities, the means of payment ... etc. etc.

Now, they are asking for samples!

Surely, that should have been done right at the beginning!

And they don't know the logistics of sending a parcel from a small town in provincial Africa!

First, I have to send money out there

Then my partner, using the money has to buy the samples

Then he has to package them up and post them.

This is in hand (I hope) but I don't know how long it will take 1kg of soapstone to get to the middle of China.

Still, if they finally honour their initial order, it will have been worth it.

OK, I give up!

2008-09-15T20:28:00.002+01:00

I really thought that trying to earn our own funds rather than going around cap in hands was a good way forward in financing our future projects.

Maybe it is, but after two attempts to get a business off the ground, I have fallen flat on my face and lost a fair amount of my own money in the process.

[I had to use my own money because anything that comes into the organisation goes towards feeding and housing the kids - and that is paramount.]

I am not really going to give up. After all, I have developed websites and sunk money into these projects, so they have to carry on.

But, in the meantime, we are back to going around, cap in hand looking for hand-outs.

Take a look at some of our projects

The Chinese Deal (Pt. II)

2008-09-10T10:28:00.003+01:00

I have concluded that the Chinese deal (See Scam ... ? below) is not a scam - until they prove otherwise, so I am going along with them.

But as we are not in a position to pay for notarisation - or anything else - I have sent them a new contract, based on theirs, but making sure that we are not liable for any expense outside of Kenya.

As a sweetener, we have decreased the advance payment (that they offered in the first place), set out a new payment package that favours the Chinese, and sent the contract off for their perusal. That was on 5th September, which of course was a Friday.

I received an email stating that the new, or revised, contract had been received and would be presented to the Board of Directors.

We are now waiting for a reply, five days later. I try to keep the attitude that no news is good news, but expenses are mounting up in Kenya and with the impending failure of the cyber café, I need this deal to go through, just to cover my commitments.

A worrying time. Still, we now have a structured business to sell the product globally, complete with website, and a vision of a way forward.

All we need is a few clients that want to buy our products at wholesale quantities.

Our website - take a look!

Feed the Orphans

2008-09-03T08:44:00.003+01:00

It is about time to start an appeal again. The last one asked people to donate their old mobile phones, digital cameras and any other old, high tech gadgets that are lying around in the back of a drawer.

I took all this "rubbish" to Kenya and we sold it on the local market. Every child at the Mercy Gate orphanage, that is 38 kids, got a new pair of black leather school shoes - success!

So I think I will do it again. Maybe the village has now off-loaded their old phones to us already, but I bet there are still a lot out there, gathering dust. So it is worth a try.

This time, I hope that I will be able to raise enough to start a health fund, a pot of money set aside to treat kids when they are ill. Malaria, chiggers and intestinal parasites seem to be the main ailments. They are all treatable, as long as the money is available.

It would be such a relief to be able to take a child to the hospital without wondering who is going to go without what to pay for the treatment.

-oOo-

On another tack, I was reading somewhere that there is a World Blog Day, where people get together to do their bit to help others - or something like that.

This got me thinking. All those in Kenya who write blogs, and all those Kenyans overseas who also write blogs (and all us non-Kenyans who have an interest in Kenya), if we all got together and donated a bit of time [or money] to a central blog-pot, I wonder how much of a change we could make?

Scam ... ?

2008-08-30T09:13:00.007+01:00

A couple of months ago, we were approached by the representative of a Chinese company that wanted to buy Kisii soapstone carvings. We sent a price list and a few photos as examples of the work and they promptly put in an order for 16,500 items.

So far, so good. The order was quickly followed by a contract, written in poor English, but which was just about understandable. I made a few minor adjustments as as to make sure there was no loopholes caused purely by the misuse of English. I have to emphasise that this contract was drawn up by the Chinese with no intervention on our part. In it, they state that they will pay 15% of the total as an advance payment - before we do anything!

We signed it ans sent it back, expecting to receive a signed copy from the Chinese.

This is where things started to go a bit pear-shaped.

Them: "The contract has to be signed by your legal representative".

Us: " OK, this is not a problem. We know a lawyer in Kisii."

Them: "No, the contract has to be notarised by our legal representative in China". WHAT?

Us: "Fine, get the form signed then."

Them: "You have to pay the fee."

Us [smelling a rat]: "How much?"

Ch: "$1780.00"

Us: "We can't. We don't have the money."

CH: "Come to China and discuss it, face to face."

So it goes on. I explain that we do not have the money to pay for the notarisation, nor a trip to China.

We are no closer to a resolution after several weeks of to-ing and fro-ing of emails and letters. I have contacted the Dept. of Commerce near to these potential clients, but i can make little sense of what they said.

If we win this contract (if indeed, it is not a scam), this will set up River Cottage Kenya, the orphanage and other community projects, as well as paying a fair price for the carvings. It would be a win-win situation for a little corner of Kenya.

If we win the contract ...

Can the bubble be repaired?

2008-08-27T21:07:00.004+01:00

OK, so the cyber café is going rapidly downhill due to the recent lack of pedestrian traffic in our part of town.

So, what do I do with a well qualified IT guy and six fairly modern PCs?

Then I read a blog (don't we all?) tagged as "A Resource Center for Kenya Entrepreneurs. Get the information, step-by-step guides and essential tools that you need to start and build a successful small business in Kenya."

Hey! That's Us!

In a previous life, I taught IT to adults here in the UK. OK, I'm not a trained teacher, but apparently I was quite good. I ran three courses, basic, intermediate and advanced, and the students kept coming back. The college didn't like me much because I was, er, unconventional, off the wall, a loose cannon. But people kept on paying the tuition fees, learned how to use a computer and they were happy. So I must have been doing something right. And I didn't get fired. I left.

So, why don't we do that again? we have the promises, we have the computers and we have the knowledge.

Oh yes. I am stuck in the UK. I knew there was a drawback. Still, with my IT guy there and me here in the end of an Internet connection, it could work.

It just needs good marketing. Keep it cheap. Bums on seats. And somewhere in all that, mention a mzungu, that usually draws them in.

The Bubble has a leak ...

2008-08-23T09:52:00.003+01:00

The best laid plans ... and all that. In my last blog, I was over the Moon about how clever we were in funding our community work by opening a business. A good idea in theory, as long as the tide of luck is running your way.

Ours isn't. We are located in a part of town that the council has decided to "clean up". That must be a good thing, you say. And I agree, as long as it doesn't drive the pedestrian traffic away from your front door, which this clean-up has.

I can't blame the council. I have always found Kisii a fascinating place, chaotic, dusty, shambolic even, but it has its charm. A big, new bus terminal was built, but no one ever used it, until now. The council has decreed that all buses, coaches and matatus must go to the station to disgorge their passengers.

So, at our end of town, which was a traditional if unofficial matatu stand is now virtually deserted, and so is our café.

I am not sure where we go from here.

Funding our work II

2008-07-17T18:13:00.002+01:00

This was a wild dream a few months ago, a pipe-dream, a silly idea, total rot!

Not so now though. Things are afoot to actually make a reasonable income that will totally fund at least one project, and once that is started, if it is successful, that will help fund another, and so on.

We could be setting a trend. Whereas, many British charities have shops in the UK to raise money for work overseas, we are opening a business in the country where we are doing the charity work and creating employment at the same time.

I like this idea. I like it a lot. Let's hope it works, and that we can expand it!

Funding our work

2008-06-30T15:06:00.012+01:00

We are not very good at getting people to donate funds to us. Yes, OK, when we have a specific need, like buying shoes for all the kids at the Mercy Gate Home, we managed it by collecting old mobile phones in the UK and selling them in Kenya. It was very successful and surpassed our best expectations.

But, raising funds to build River Cottage Kenya is a different matter. So, assuming that we are not going to get external funding, I have sunk some capital into starting up a business in Kenya, an Internet café to be precise. Vincent, Mercy Gate's director will manage it and draw a weekly or monthly salary. The rest (assuming there is any) will be put in the bank, and I will use it to start the River Cottage project when I next go over, probably in September. The income will also support two of the kids at Mercy Gate, Jojo and Benta, as I have already said that I will pay for their upkeep.

The actual shamba project itself doesn't need a lot of funding. What I really need is a vehicle to cart the materials to the plot, as well as so get between our three main sites, Kisii, Nairobi and Malindi.

We did have a little Toyota which wasn't best suited to our needs, but it was better than nothing. Unfortunately, someone turned it into a bonfire in January and we haven't been able to replace it.

So, the café has got to work, so that I can get our projects off the ground.

I don't know what an old 4x4 would cost, but it is more than I have.

More Mercy Gate Kids

2008-06-30T09:36:00.010+01:00

On the last day of my stay in Kisii, I was introduced to a family of five orphans who were temporarily being housed by Pastor Liston.

As we were going to the plot for a party, the four eldest came along too.

The oldest of the five is Dominic, a very serious-looking boy.

He is about 14 and appears to look out for his younger siblings.

Once at the plot, I made him team captain for one of the volleyball teams, which drew him out.

Next in line is Mary.

She seemed to have no problem in mixing with the girls both younger and older.

Osando and Getembe are the next two.

Osando stuck close to Dominic for a lot of the time, until he felt more comfortable and Getembe was honoured - he was the only child that was allowed to touch Jojo's ball!

Last but not least is baby Kemuma, who did not come to the plot as the weather was a little chilly (by Kenyan standards), so she stayed with Pastor Liston.

Oil on Still Waters

2008-06-28T17:52:00.000+01:00

I have seen and read about pouring or spraying mineral oil onto standing water to prevent mosquitoes from breeding, or more precisely, suffocating the larvae.

However, treating water holes with mineral oil sounds less than healthy for the cattle and goats that need to drink from these sources.

Has anyone tried using old cooking oil rather than mineral oil? I would think that animals would find it more palatable and less harmful.

River Cottage, Kenya

2008-06-23T09:54:00.002+01:00

In the UK, we are plagued by "celebrity chefs", on the TV in particular.

For those of you who do not receive UK TV, the programmes started many years ago with Fanny Craddock, with her husband Johnny, knocking up braised pheasant with truffles and the like.

These days, the programmes are far more diverse, with a couple of chefs advocating healthy food, "back to basics", fair trade, etc. I have no problem with this. In fact, I passively support the ideals, if only they didn't cost so much more than factory-produced plastic food.

One celebrity in particular, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, started living at his weekend cottage, growing his own fruit and veg, and with the addition of animals, soon became self-sufficient.

He expanded and now has a farm in Devon, River Cottage HQ, as well as a city farm in Bristol.

So where is this blog going? Well, I reckon that what I want to do on my (as yet theoretical) model shamba is pretty much what HF-W is doing in England. So I am pinching the name River Cottage and calling my shamba "River Cottage, Kenya". There is a cottage on the plot, there is a river running past it and it is in Kenya, so why not?

Before HF-W became a celebrity chef, he worked in conservation in Africa, although I cannot find out more details. Maybe he will hear about River Cottage, Kenya. Then he can either ignore it, sue me, or help out. I would prefer the last - but any publicity is good publicity - so they say.

Model Shamba

2008-05-10T19:55:00.000+01:00

Part of my remit within ACIS is to find new ways to do traditional tasks that will be less harmful to the environment, but no more complicated.

As an example, finding alternative, readily available fuels to cook on. This will reduce the need to cut wood, damaging trees, thereby helping to prevent soil erosion.

We are presently looking at water purification, methane collection, solar cooking and finding crops that will grow in Kenya that repel mosquitoes.

We are not claiming that all the ideas are ours. What we want to do is to introduce them to rural Kenya together with an education programme, explaining how everyone would benefit from using this technology.

To this end, at our last meeting in Nairobi, it was decided that the best way to raise funds for this work would be to create a model shamba, on the lines of a show home on a new housing estate. When everything is up and running, we will invite the Kenyan press and TV to take a look.

But for this, we need land.

It occurred to me that we have a plot in Kisii, the plot that has been set aside to build the orphanage, but as this will take more funds than we are likely to raise in the near future, we might as well put the land to good use. And the kids could get involved. I am sure that the older ones would find it fascinating - I hope.

Some of Our Kids

2008-05-01T10:30:00.003+01:00

Let me introduce a few of the 36 kids who are on the Mercy Gate register.

I will start with the two who I help to support. They are living with Abigael and Vincent, the directors of Mercy Gate.

Josephat (4 years)

Jojo was abandoned at birth by his schoolgirl mother and was left in the care of his grandmother. She was unable to cope with the rather sickly baby and he arrived at Mercy Gate at the age of about 6 months. He is very small for his age, probably due to an intestinal parasite, for which he has now been treated.

He is a lively, active little boy, very confident and with a big smile.

He is attending baby class in a local school, where he is doing well.

He has an enormous appetite and I hope that now he has been treated, he will put on a growth spurt.

Benta (5 years)

Benta is a happy little girl. She is quiet (most of the time) and studious.

She likes to do crafts, and she is a dab hand at housework! I was shocked at first, but then realised that she does what every little girls does, copying her "mother", the difference being that here (UK/USA), a little girl will have a toy vacuum cleaner.

Benta doesn't have one and Abigael doesn't have a real one!

So Benta sweeps the floor, just like Mamma. She also likes to look after Abigael's baby daughter. And she helps with the clothes washing and cooking, just like Mamma.

A perfectly normal little girl, except that she is in the care of the orphanage.

Edwin & Dennis

These boys are brothers, Edwin (left) being the older.

Their mother died and their father eventually re-married. He moved away from the area and the boys now live with their adult sister, who is a single mother.

They are a couple of good kids, but Dennis in particular is mischievous, especially when he is in the company of Henry.

Both boys are doing well enough at school.

Dennis has a problem with chiggers, a small flesh-eating insect, which has infected his feet, the treatment for which is expensive.

The food crisis in Kenya is taking every penny from our funds, just to feed the kids. Medical treatment has become a luxury.

Henry

This 11 year old is as cheeky as they come. He has mischief written all over his face! But he is also active, good-natured and popular.

He is often seen in the company of a younger lad, Davis and also Dennis (above), and when the three of them are together, watch out! Nothing naughty or malicious, but, pranks and jokes are never far away.

This kid can turn any melodrama into a comedy.

Henry was born in 1997. His father died after suffering chest pains. He has a mother and two brothers, Nelson and Eric, who are both older.

Davis

This kid is a walking smile. I have never seen him without one on his face.

Davis has an older sister, Vanessa, also on our register. Their father died in a road accident in 1999 the same year that Davis was born. His mother is unable to look after Davis and Vanessa as she has no income.

Davis works well at school and is developing well.

Vanessa

Vanessa (on the right) is the older sister of Davis. She is about 12 years old. She is also very, very shy.

When the kids get together, she is often seen with her friend Divina. And that is when I have seen her come out of her shell. The two of them like skipping, and they were skipping together in almost perfect synchronisation.

How about that for a new sport? synchronised skipping!

NGOs - What are they for?

2008-04-22T12:59:00.000+01:00

In September 2007, I went to the Children's Home in Kisii to meet the people responsible for distributing insecticide treated mosquito nets (ITNs) to children. The home had not received any nets and we wanted to know why.

The meeting with the NGO, Merlin, was very successful and we were promised that the nets would be delivered as soon as possible.

When I returned to Kisii in March 2008, the ITNs still has no been delivered.

What are these people doing?

During the political crisis after the elections in December 2007, Kisii received 3,000 refugees. I was receiving daily reports from Vincent in Kisii and I was told that no aid was being sent to the town.

I contacted all the major charities and aid agencies, but no one even had the courtesy to reply, apart from Oxfam, who sent an email telling me that my email as being forwarded to the appropriate office.

The refugees have now gone, but while they were there, not one crumb of food aid was delivered to them. They relied upon the good will of the people of Kisii.

I know that ACIS is a small agency, but we do have people on the ground, people who can see what is going on. I passed this information on to the people who were supposed to be carrying out the aid programme, but it fell on deaf ears.

Who do these people think they are?

Back in Nairobi

2008-04-22T12:38:00.000+01:00

I didn't want to leave Watamu so soon, but I had meetings in Nairobi on the Thursday before Easter. I couldn't afford to return to Watamu after the meetings, so was stranded in Nairobi over Easter.

As a smoker, staying with friend who did not smoke, I took to sitting on the step outside their front yard to pump up my nicotine level. Their road is gated and is therefore safe for kids to play and wander around. Needless to say, sitting there on the step, I soon became the centre of attention. After all, I was the only mzungu in town!

At first, kids would stand on the other side of the road and stare, but some of them soon plucked up the courage to approach and talk to me. And when they saw my camera, they all wanted to be photographed and then see themselves on the viewing screen.

There were three boys who always came over when I was there, Timothy (11), Winston (9) and Ben (5). Timothy is Winston's uncle. Ben is not related to them.

It soon became apparent to me that Timo was no ordinary kid. He was bright, confident, open and intelligent. He spoke near-perfect English and could hold an intelligent conversation. He also has ambition.

It was not long before he was telling me all about his life. He lost his father in 2004, had to move from private school to the local state school and move from a nice house to a little one just big enough for his mother and him.

Timo proved to be very artistic, too. He could compose a good photo and I was soon encouraging him to use my camera - not that he needed any encouragement.

After Easter, I was lucky enough to meet a couple of people who are willing to help ACIS to advance - it is who you know, not what you know, that counts in Kenya.

All too soon, it was time to return to the UK. We set off for the airport in torrential rain - and got stuck in a traffic jam for five hours. Needless to say, I missed the flight and we returned home, tired, frustrated and not a little worried. I had budgeted carefully and now my money was gone.

The following day, I had some money wired to me and I sorted out a new ticket, but I could not leave for another six days!

Timo was overjoyed when he came home from school and saw me sitting on my step.

And I had a few more days to "network" with the people of Nairobi.

My second attempt at leaving the country was successful and I returned to cold, snow, rain and strong winds.

... and on to Watamu

2008-04-22T12:20:00.000+01:00

March 2008

As well as the Mercy Gate Home in Kisii, ACIS also supports a school in Watamu, Coast. This is a private, fee-paying school run by Janet and Allan, but it is also home to 17 orphans and vulnerable children.

My visit to Watamu had two goals, to see how the school was getting on, but also to see my girlfriend and her children. We were able to use the visitor apartment at the school during my stay, which meant that our kids only had to cross the school yard to get home, which amused them. It also meant that they could invite all their friends "home", so the apartment seemed to be full of kids after school.

During my stay, I took several photos of the kids living there, candid shots showing them carrying out their chores, playing, etc.. These will be added to the school's website here and our own.

One little boy, Brian, is six and has been at the school for about a month. Due to his family circumstances, he had never attended school before, and spoke no English.

He came up to the apartment after school and I talked to him in English, asking questions that had to be answered in English. The kid was like a sponge. His face showed that he really wanted to learn.

But unfortunately, the time to leave arrived too quickly, and I had to take the bus back to Nairobi.

My Visit to Kisii

2008-04-22T09:00:00.001+01:00

It was a bit of a rush to book my ticket, a bit of a squeeze to get everything packed, but eventually I was at Heathrow and on my way. The plane was only a third full and I had three seats to myself, so I spent most of the flight in a horizontal position - brilliant.

Once through the passport and customs, it occurred to be that I was relying on being met by someone I had known for only one day, but I need not have worried. The smiling face of Vincent was at the barrier.

We took a taxi into the city and dropped my baggage off at the office, meeting up with my co-director at the same time. I had to shoot over to see a client while I was in Nairobi.

That done, Vincent and I took a shuttle to Kisii. It stopped once in Narok for lunch then were were on the way. We arrived at Vincent's at about 7pm.

Josephat, "my" 4-year-old orphan, threw himself at me when I walked through the door, yelling, "Bab' Mzungu! My Bab' Mzungu!"

There was a stream of Swahili which was later translated for me. "My white daddy has come. I said he would come." He remained attached to me for the next ten days, or so it seemed. Benta, the little girl I help to support was less demonstrative, thankfully as she is a lot heavier than Jojo.

The following day, Jojo insisted that he was not going to school, but was going to spend the day with his Baba Mzungu. This is fine as he attends Baby Class, which is not obligatory.

Abigael told me that one of our little girls, Evelyn had died. She was three and HIV positive.

We made arrangements to have a party for the kids on Saturday. We bought lots of fruit and biscuits, juice and a load of toys and games, skipping ropes, hula hoops, footballs, table tennis, badminton, chess, etc.

When we arrived on Saturday, many of the kids had already arrived and were sitting quietly in the hut. There were a lot of smiles when I walked in and I recognised several of them immediately - Davis and Vanessa, Henry, Morfat, Boniface, the two Divinas and Rister ...

While Vincent and Abigael sorted out the food, I got the toys and games out, much to the obvious delight of the kids. The rest of the day was spent playing, eating and drinking. We also measured the kids' feet so that we could get them their new school shoes, which was the main object of my visit.

On Monday, Evelyn was buried. Her coffin was so small.

During the week, VIncent busied himself with selling the mobile phones and by the following weekend, had enough money to get the shoes. The sack that they arrived in was enormous!

We took Jojo to the hospital for a check-up. He is very small for his age, but looks and acts like a very active little boy. He was diagnosed with an intestinal parasite and we got the medication for him. He was also tested for HIV - he is negative.

On Saturday, we had another party. This time, we prepared a warm meal for the children with goodies sent by a well-wisher in the USA. The parcel contained lentils, black-eye peas and all sorts of other pulses, and raisins. Surprisingly, none of the kids had ever seen raisins before.

Again, the children had a fun time playing with their new games, and the day was ended with them being presented with their new shoes. They all looked so proud, wearing their shiny black shoes. I felt humbled.

The following day, I left Kisii for the Coast. Jojo was not happy, but he knows that I will return. After all, I did before, didn't I?

Update

2008-02-22T20:37:00.000Z

I have just received an email from people who run a nursery school here in the UK, offering a bagful of toys for the orphanage, which I have accepted gratefully.

If things carry on like this, I will need my own aeroplane to get everything to Kenya!

Doctor Benta

2008-02-18T18:26:00.000Z

After Vincent had told me about Benta's ambition to become a doctor, a nursery school here in the UK has offered me some toys, including a "doctor kit" for the kids in Kisii - coincidence, or have they been reading this blog?

I can imagine Benta's face if I were to give her a doctor's kit. And I can already hear the babble of delight. Sorry, to me it is babble, she speaks Swahili and I don't. But it would be delightful babble. I am quite used to African kids getting over-excited and talking in joined-up scribble.

My only concern is that I am collecting rather a lot to take with me. I get the impression that things like my clothes will be at a low priority. Still, who needs a lot of clothes in Kenya?

Weekly News from Kisii

2008-02-17T21:05:00.000Z

As usual, I had my weekly long "chat", via Skype with Vincent, who runs the children's home.

He was amused earlier this week when he was watching two of the youngest children, Benta (5) and Josephat (4) playing.

Josephat has a small scratch on his hand and Benta was cleaning it up for him

"I am going to be a doctor when I grow up," she announced.

Not wanting to be outdone, Josephat announced that he was going to be an airplane pilot and that he was getting a plane after school. Then he would take all the kids at the home for a ride.

He then ran round the compound, arms outstretched, flying his plane.

Davis has been very constructive. He has built a truck from an old plastic container. Many African kids do this. But Davis's truck was a tipper truck, and it worked. By working a lever, the back of the truck tips up and empties its load. Neat!

Generally, there is no change in Kisii. It is quiet, as always, the refugees are still there, and food is still hard to come by - no change there then!

Pleading to Aid Agencies

2008-02-17T09:25:00.000Z

I spend all my spare time ploughing through the plethora of aid agencies working in Kenya and email them stating the plight of the refugees in Kisii. So far I have contacted all the big boys, Red Cross, UNHCR, etc. but had forgotten Oxfam.

I fired off an email on Friday, whilst holding a conversation with my man in Kisii, Vincent, on Skype.

An hour later, I checked my emails and Lo! A reply from Oxfam. It didn't say much, only thanking me for my mail and signalling the problem to them. They would be sending my email immediately to their centre in Nairobi, and they would reply.

As I said, it is not much of a reply, but it is a reply, the first acknowledgement that anyone has read an email from us. Cause for a minor celebration, I think. I celebrated with a cup of tea.

No, not really, I would have had the cup of tea anyway.

I also fired off a press release to our local newspaper, praising the people of this area for their efforts in raising emergency funds to feed the kids at the home and also donating their old cell phones, which will provide much needed shoes for them.

Because food prices shot up as transport problems hit Kenya, the "Christmas" fund at the home, usually used to buy shoes, had to be raided to pay for food. So the kids received nothing last Christmas. ever mind, when I arrive, we will sell the phones and every child will have a new pair of shoes.

And there should be enough to get some clothes for those who need them most.

Aid in Kisii

2008-02-15T11:57:00.000Z

Since the troubles started in Kenya, there have been about 300+ refugees camping in Kisii, mainly women and children.

No aid has been sent to the town and the refugees are being supported by the local community, putting a strain on their resources.

I have contacted every major aid agency in Kenya, bit to date, have not a received a reply from any of them.

Is it that these big international organisations, including the UNHCR, are just too self-important to take any notice of the people on the ground who have first-hand knowledge of the situation and the local people?

Or is it that a mere 300 women and children are just not important enough to worry about. After all, Kisii is off the beaten track to Kisumu and Eldoret, and not quite so easy to get to, although I managed it is a small sedan, so I am sure a 7-tonne truck can do it.

I have even offered to drive a load from Nairobi to Kisii myself! My people there can help with distribution. We are, after all, an NGO. This is what we do, just not on the same scale as the big boys.

Daily Dose

2008-02-13T17:46:00.001Z

I got my almost daily dose of news from Kisii as usual, by Skype. This is my friend and colleague, Vincent, who, amongst other things, runs the Mercy Gate Children's Home.

As always, little Josephat asked Vincent if Dad Mzungu was coming today, and as always, he was disappointed. Never mind, I will be there soon.

When I met Josephat, a 4 year old orphan, he was recovering from a bout of malaria and to me, resembled an anorexic stick insect. But he is lively, friendly, even to the Mzungu who gave him such a shock, and has a ready smile.

Vincent and I are planning on starting up a business in Kisii, the idea being that I will have a modest income, it will supplement Vincent's income and the rest can supplement the home's food bill, which is now over £600 a month.

I am hoping to find a suitable house to rent. I don't need a palace, but electricity and running water would be nice. Vincent assures me that I can rent a four-bedroom house in a secure compound for about £150 a month. That seems reasonable!

Why four bedrooms? Well, for starters, I would like my girlfriend and her children to move to Kisii (although there is some resistance at the moment), and then there is the influx of OVCs - that is, orphans and vulnerable children. Vincent thinks I could house 3 or 4 if my house were big enough!

So many elderly grandmothers are now finding that they have outlived their children and are the only family remaining to look after their grandchildren. They have no income to speak of, so the whole family live in terrible conditions in dilapidated mud huts.

The family shown here are typical of families all over Kenya - all over Africa even - with the HID/AIDS pandemic taking so many working age adults.

Kids cannot go to school. Although schooling is free, children cannot attend unless they are wearing something approaching school uniform. Most families cannot afford this, especially when there are several kids to equip.

News From Nairobi

2008-02-11T10:03:00.000Z

I got an email from my guy in Nairobi yesterday. It is rare to get an email from him on a Sunday as he doesn't have Internet access at home, so he was either in the office or a cyber cafe. AS this was unusual, I was worried. Was it bad news?

No. Not really. It was him just being over-cautious and advising me not to go out to Kenya just yet. I sometime wonder if there is a hidden agenda in keeping me out of Kenya. By all accounts, it would be safe enough for me to go, although geting to Kisii, where the orphanage is situated may be more difficult.

In any case, any violence is inter-tribal and it is distinctly obvious from my complexion that I am neither Kikuyu or Luo!

Other people, including Mzungu Chick seem to think that it is quiet for the time being, although I hear that the ODM is likely to call for more rallies. At least they will be "legal" as the "Government" has lifted the ban on public meetings. Oops! I am descending into politics ...

I have to get to Kisii soon though, because I have been collecting cell phones and my man there has already sold some of them. So I have to get there to deliver them. That will give every kid in the children's home a new pair of shoes, replace some school uniforms and probably buy some books.

I hope to spend about a week in Kisii, staying with friends there. We are looking at the possibility of starting up a business from which some of the profit will go towards the children's home. At the present time, with food prices rising, all funds are being used just to feed the kids, with help from the people in villages around here where I live.

So, this would seem to be a good time to say a big "THANK YOU" to the cusotmers of Woolton Hill General Store who have helped to feed our children this year.

And a special thank you to Sue and Raj, who run the store, for letting me plaster posters in their windows, and who were the collection point for the funds and phones.

Help from the UK

2008-02-10T12:23:00.000Z

Since the start of the crisis in Kenya, Kisii, where the orphanage is located, has been reasonably quiet with only a few skirmishes in the town centre. But it has seen nothing like the violence that nearby towns have suffered.

However, the town has received over 300 refugees from neighbouring towns. These people are now camped out in the grounds of various churches.

Food is in short supply and local producers have raised their prices - naturally. So the orphanage suddenly found that they were struggling to feed the children properly.

So I launched an appeal in my village shop, asking people to put their change into a box.

So far, we have raised £95, which means that we were able to send the orphanage £85 after expenses. This is a lot of money n Kenya!

We are also collecting old cell phones. Not worth a lot here, they can be sold for a minimum of £20 in Kenya, and this money will buy every child a new pair of shoes!

Other people have been collecting clothes for the refugees, but I don't know how I am going to get them out there yet. I am not having a lot of luck with the airlines. One in partcular was very keen to help ACIS, but I can't seem to get any sense out of them at the moment.

And then there is the question of our vehicle, which was destroyed in the troubles. Being such a small agency, we don't have the funds to replace a vehicle at the drop of a hat.

Oh well, I am sure something will turn up.

Mercy Gate, Kisii

2008-02-01T12:58:00.000Z

The following day, after breakfast and a photo-call, we drove to the site of the Mercy Gate home.

There is no home, just a plot of land, but this is where Vincent and his wife Abigael want to build their orphanage. It is a good plot with fertile land.

More and more kids arrived until there were about 20.

I had brought two frisbees with me and these were gratefully received by the children, who immediately put them to good use.

The children performed a couple of songs and dances for their visitors.

We amused ourselves for a while until the representatives of the Merlin NGO arrived. This was the reason for the trip. Merlin are charged with providing mosquito nets to children, but the home had not received any.

We discussed the problem, and eventually, arranged for the kids to be registered for anti-malaria HIV/AID and opportunist infection drugs. Mission accomplished.

After a lunch of fresh fruit, we set off for Nairobi, taking a rather shorter route through Narok, and arrived home at about 21.00.