the success continues

I was in the heart of Kibera when the power-sharing agreement betwen Mwai kibaki and Raila Odinga was being signed. In some ways it was quite surreal.There were lots of people crowded around televsisions they could get access to and there was a hushed silence.

There were however no cheers or exclamations of joy. Just a collective sigh of relief and a wait and see attitude. My current position is one of cautious optimism. The fact is that even if everything from here on in is smooth - there is still a lot of work to do.

I am pleased to say that we have had visitors from the UK who are amongst those of you who contribute to the projects. They have agreed to write down their impressions so that I
can circulate them in the next email update.

There are now 30 businesses up and running. In the end because enough money was effectively raised we were able to support every member of the women's group. They are now supporting 4 young women through college/ apprentiships.

They are also trying to liaise with another women's group to extend the business to business support to help get other women to become self-sustaining. I mentioned in the last email that I was appraoched by another self-help group called Lukongo Muchanganyiko women's group.

They are a group of stay-at-home mothers who had been badly afected by post-election violence and did not have access to any other forms of help. Many of their husbands were casual labourers and had lost their jobs.

We were able to help them start to rebuild their lives through a donation that saw 20 women
receive 3,000KSH each. Although they do not have any businesses I was impressed to see that they were already a registered group who had been sharing scarce resources with their community.

The men's group were running over budget for the carwash so I asked them to review what was going on and to be very careful in their budgeting for the other businesses suggested before further funds were to be released. They are working on it.

To be fair to the men - prices for quite a lot of things in Nairobi including building supplies
have been quite erratic in the last couple of months as violence has made transporting goods across the country difficult to say the least.

Also they have now constructed an office for the carwash without asking for extra money to do so.

As many other NGOs working in Kibera have found, it is more often than not the women who are more savvy and organised when it comes to projects and tend to get things working a lot quicker in microenterprise.

In fact some that I have come across have been surprised to find that I was working with a men's group. To me the men are key, a lot of the looting and burning that went on during the troubles was due to yong men who had nothing to lose.

Once things are in place with the carwash we are then going to move onto the men's group other project proposals including a scrap metal business etc. I have also been approached by another group I am keen to work with.

The Kibera Youth Reform who have HIV/AIDS projects and a burgeoning football team are all
self-rehabilitated criminals who are living back in the community they originally came from in
Kibera. Not an easy thing to do.

I look forward to receiving their proposal in the near future. They comprise both men and women and are trying to find positive ways to leave their previous life of crime behind them for good. I was enthused by my meeting with them.

I have also since heard from other sources that the neighbourhoods where some of these (quite hardened) ex-criminals used to live are a lot safer since their self-initiated rehabilitation project started.

The work as you may have gathered is now moving depper into Kibera from the Makina Ward which is closer to the edge of Kibera into Katwekere and Ayani. Places where there are barely roads and the facilities even harder to come by than I have previously described.

EMERGENCY PROJECTS:
The treasurer of the men's group has a young daughter who was badly burnt whilst rushing past a cooking stove on which tea was boiling. It is the type of accident that is typical of life
Kibera - avoidable if people only had decent living conditions.

She would not have been dealt with in hospital had fortuiously some money been donated in cash that day and I was able to avail the funds immediately. She has undergone quite a lot of surgery already and we await to see how her health improves - and if she will recover the use of her arm.

It is quite possible I may have to try and raise funds for the family in the not to distant
future in order for her to be discharged from hospital. The chair of the men's group also has a child currently facing health challenges who we were able to support.

Brian is a delightful 4 year old with cerebral palsy who has been having serious problems with eating and required surgery. Good quality but reasonably priced medical
care was found which will see him get the surgery for just 7000Ksh (50 pounds/ 100 dollars).

I am learning fast how difficult it is not to become involved in other aspects of the people who
I am working with's lives. There is no safety net in Kibera and it is hard not to step in when
there is great and obvious need.

THE FUTURE:
One thing that has been concerning me greatly is the act that there is probably going to be a famine in Kenya given the serious disruption of farming activites in the Rift Valley (Kenya's
bread basket).

So there are 2 steps we are looking at:
1. suporting a great project to get seeds out to displaced people and farmers before the rains (please indicate if you would like to hear more about and i will send you the details)

2. I have got some farmers already to agree to help groups in Kibera set up Kitchen gardens so that local residents will be able to feed themselves in the coming months. They are organic farmers which is an added bonus.

This week also sees the start of the health clinic opening at the children's home. Our volunteer paediatrician (who has a wealth of experience working with doctors without borders) visited the home yesterday and was able to treat sick children.

Thankfully as money has been coming in reguarly we are able to buy the medication required and also the medical supplies that were sent from the Uk have been extremely useful. We hope to make this a regular occurence.

Yesterday also 10 children and 2 teachers from my mother's school took a bus load of donations to the children's home. It was an important visit as many of these middle class children had no idea how their contemporaries were living only a few kilometres from where they study and play.

They came up with the brilliant idea of inviting the children from the home to come and use the school's playground once a month and we hope to start this after the Easter holidays. It was an eye-opener all round.

ENDING ON A POSITIVE NOTE:
Erick continues to make waves at his job and the Food for work project has been so successful he was chosen to represent Kenya at a conference in Uganda and took his first flight last week.

Early indications are that the French Government will continue to sponsor the project.

Thank you once again for all your support - thanks especially to Laurel Wilson, her family and Prick up your Ears for organising a very successful Night for Kenya raising lots of money for the projects - the photos of which we hope to post on the website very soon.

I will be updating the website in the next few days so please continue to bear with me if all the information is not up there as quickly as you might like to see it. There's no big office with lots of staff dealing with this all - just me...

We continue to hope that Kenya will rise Phoenix like from the ashes.
Please feel free to continue to circulate my emails to those who would like to hear positive news coming out of kenya.