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Saturday, April 3, 2010

Let's build a home for RUKIA!

I wrote about Rukia a couple of days ago (see previous entry). These are some pictures of her harsh reality. Let's join hands together and build this deserving woman and her family a new home, and a new life.Above: This is Rukia's families toilet. They didn't have money to build walls around, and a roof over it. Even worse, the logs looked rotten when I was there and I am worried that one of the children can fall 20 feet down into a pile of you-know-what. It is also extremely unhygienic in the open air and flies buzz around freely then coming a few metres over to the house to land on the children. Disease is potentially rampant here.
Only last week I visited Rukia's home to find this kitchen still standing. The following morning it had been taken down with the heavy rains. It was only a matter of time. Now they have nowhere to cook but outside of their house in the grass, rain or shine.
Another side view of the kitchen. You can see that there are a few kitchen items sitting in the background as they have nowhere else to put them.
This is a picture of Rukia herself. She is a hard working and kind woman and even knows a bit of English. She takes the best care she can of her children but without a roof over their heads it is virtually impossible to shelter them from the common diseases such as malaria and pneumonia. So many children die of these diseases in the rural areas of Kenya.
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My goal is to raise 1000 Canadian dollars within the next two months in order to build and furnish (with beds and mattresses) a house for Rukia and her family. They have been left like this for too long. Please contact me if you wish to help with this noble cause. I will be forever greatful (and so will she!).
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I forgot to mention that one of her daughters is currently in Grade 9 via a sponsorship that somebody from Canada sent me. Her daughter got a very high grade on the 8th grade national exam here in Kenya (the school system is a bit different over here) and was devestated that she wouldn't be able to continue with her studies. Soon I will post some pictures of her studying at her new secondary school :) !!!!! Thank you to her sponsor!!!!!!!

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Finally... BLOGGING AGAIN!

Firstly.... You people with 'amandainafrica', 'amandagoestoafrica' as your blog titles, I dislike you. I wanted those ones. However, 'aflaninafrica' shall have to do although not quite as simple.
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Feeling guilty.
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I have been feeling uber guitly about not blogging for a long time. It used to be the one thing I couldn't stop thinking about when I first came to the village in Kenya back in January 2007. "Got to remember that for my blog". Needless to say, many people were indeed following my blog and because of the stories I was able to tell, they were also finding ways to assist my programs. I'm not only starting this new blog for the fact that I need serious help with fundraising, but also because it is a way to document all of the things I do. I am always so busy over here that I tend to forget the small details and it's the small details that make it worth my while.
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If you want to remind yourself of where all of this came from please visit my old blog which has awesome stories at www.gone-gone-going-africa.blogspot.com.
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Backtracking.
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So.... just to catch all of you up! Last year on June 6th I opened an African craft store known as KUKU HUT in Kagawong, Ontario. The little shop received so many positive comments (and the sales proved it too!) that I am trying my best right now to open a second shop this year. Opening this store had just an idea since the first time I witnessed the true beauty of African handicrafts... but finally it was a reality!! I don't really think of kuku hut as a business... but a hobby. I love the fact that I can connect everyone who has been following my whereabouts back home with a bit of true African heritage. In addition, I purchase from over 50 individual suppliers (some of which are groups of men and women this many more than 50 people) at more than a fair trade price which sustains them and their families. I received many letters from them after my first order saying things like 'Thank you Amanda for your purchases. This year I was able to pay my child's secondary school fees without a problem'. This is the kind of stuff that really empowers me and gives me the strength to go through the hectic logistics of sending a container of stuff all the way from Kenya to Canada once again this year. I hope you are all as excited as I am about the upcoming 2010 collection! If I do say so myself, we have some amazing new products!
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Kiddies in the school.
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Now for the real reason I am here. Because of all of my craft orders I have been directing my charity in Western Kenya from afar most of the time but the locals on the ground are more than capable of taking care of things when I'm not around. After all, I built that project up FOR them, so it should be run BY them!!! I was there last year in October for a few weeks and again last month for a couple of weeks. Tumaini Academy that started from one mud classroom is now a 5 room classroom with a kitchen and staff office. We have about 100 kids, of whom about 80% are either orphaned due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic or come from extremely vulnerable families who literally have nothing. It's funny because this time I'm finding 4 year old kids in 'baby class' that I had helped to recover from malnutrition as very small babies my first trip over here. Now they are as fat as ever and running around causing the type of Mayhem that 4 year olds do. Of course, just because the school has been built and we have healthy kids there, this does not mean that everything is so wonderful. There is still a lot of heartache in this village that will make your eyes water.
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Amida.
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I think that anyone who read my old blog can remember the story of Amida. Amida was the lucky receiver of a sponsor who built and furnished a house for her in 2007. Check back on the old blog for the original story. Amida's then malnourished son, Issah, now goes to our school free of charge with a cute little uniform donated by friends. His older sister Karima is in grade 5 now and although things are not easy for her, she is trying her best to do well in class. With her mothers health not being great she really has so much on her mind. As I went back to check on the house as I always do when I return, I found that it has been kept in good condition. I told Amida that I was happy to see that despite her not feeling well she has been able to take proper care of it. There is a bit of a problem with the roof as it seems the builder forgot to put ridges on it so we need to put a couple of extra iron sheets on top to stop the leaking. The mattresses we brought them back in 2007 have had their fair share of use and are not in the best of shape. Of course we didn't buy the BEST quality that time as we were on a tight budget and they needed so many things but we must come up with a plan to replace them. Karima isn't even using hers because it has basically fallen apart. They also need some basic household items like washing basins and a table with some stools for the sitting room as it is totally empty until now. What I would really like to see done is a proper chicken house built onto the side of the house like we did for another mama nearby in 2008. She only has one chicken left because they got sick due to the wet and cold during this rain season and all died. With a proper housing unit she would be able to keep the chickens properly and she's also told me that she would love to have a goat. Goat's reproduce often and selling the goats would give her a bit of an income once in a while. I was also saddened to see that her business had failed. I know understand why. Of course in 2007 I made some mistakes because I was new and didn't necessarily understand everything I needed to about the situations I was seeing. It wasn't that she hadn't taken care of it, but the fact that the housing sponsorship hadn't been enough for her to buy all of the household items she needed. So, as she made money from the business she slowly justified buying those things that she so desperately needed. Why, one might ask, wouldn't she wait until she had some capital? Probably the fact that Amida never had that chance to go to school and is completely illiterate. She relies on her literate 10 year old daughter Karima to make such decisions for her. I do feel though that if she had a sponsor to help her purchase those things she needs that her business would prosper. With some counselling on top of that, I know that she wouldn't even need that sponsor for more than about a year. Without trying to sound like a World Vision advert, as little as $30 a month would really change their lives.
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Rukia Usundwa.
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I really don't know how Rukia's situation passed me by in 2007 but I have now been aware of it for a good year. There is always so much to do that I can't get it all done at once but I am taking this time today to let everyone know. I arrived at her house on the 25th of March with my assistant project director, Maurice. We didn't find Rukia there so we decided to come back the following day. Rukia's situation is poor. She is a single mother of 5 children as her husband passed away a few years ago. Rukia's oldest son has his own small hut next to hers but it is infested with bees, the straw roof is coming down, and he sleeps on a makeshift bed made from sticks he collected from around. The worst part is that this young man is 21 years old and even completed his secondary education. It saddens me to know that his mother struggled so much to educate him and still there was no opportunity available to him. His name is Yassin and his aspiration is to join the Kenyan army which my organization is planning to assist him in doing. What is worse than his situation is the fact that Rukia sleeps in a 9 foot diameter (at most) mud house with the other 4 children. Not to mention that the next born gave birth 4 months ago to a baby boy. So, the 5 of them and the cold, crying infant sleep on the cold ground every night as they don't even own a mattress or enough blankets and clothing to make them comfortable. Outside of this house is a bigger round hut which is supposed to be the kitchen. But literally between the first and second day I went there it had fallen over due to the heavy rains and its poor construction. Rukia could only shake her head in disbelief of her own bad luck. There is a 'toilet' behind the eldest sons house, if you can call it that. It is an unsafe hole in the ground with some rotting logs and no walls for privacy anywhere to be found. What amazes me and puts the desire to help this family in me most is how hardworking Rukia is. I know for sure that if she had the opportunity she would make something of herself. Even though her small 9 foot diameter round hut isn't much to speak of she has smoothed the mud walls to perfection so that they almost resemble cement. When you see houses looking like this anywhere in the rural area, you just know that whoever is living there cares about their lives and has potential. Normally you only see it done on bigger houses, the kinds with a lot of cows standing around them proving to you that the family is well off. Rukia's daughter Umi, the one with the 4 month old baby, is 19 or 20 years old and when I asked her what she wants to do with her life she said that she would be interested in doing a vocational training such as tailoring or beauty school. As odd as it seems there is a big demand even in the villages for having your hair braided by a professional! Even though her first passion was to study business, she only completed the 8th grade due to the families situation and wouldn't be able to complete it without re-joining secondary school with children half her age. I would really like to see a house built for this family. It would only cost about 1000 CAD to complete it including furnishing and that might even cover the cost of a toilet and repairing the sons house. If anyone is interested in assisting with this noble cause please do contact me as I am eager to get it started. I will post pictures as soon as I can to make this short story a reality for all of you.
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I am in a rush today so I am going to leave it at that for now... I'll be blogging again very soon and posting pictures :)
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This time I promise to keep you all updated!!!