Twiga Kids Relax ...

Update on Esther

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.

A Gusii in Maasailand

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.

Stand tall and help a child today

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

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?

KCIS on the BBC - Part 1

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.!

They Don't Just Work Hard ...

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!

Catch-up

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.

That's a Rash Idea

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.

Keeping the kids amused ...

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?

Can you spare a few pennies?

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

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

River Cottage, Kenya

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?

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 ...

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.

Our Goals for 2009

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!

Kenya to declare food emergency

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?

Volunteers

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.

New Name for the Children's Home

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]

Some of Our Kids

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!