Administrator
Wednesday, 25 August 2010 15:33
Amsha Africa distributing eye glasses in Mbuni village, Eastern Kenya.
We had a safe journey to and from Tala, Kangundo Town in Eastern Kenya for our eye glass distribution mission.
Kangundo is a 1 hour drive from Nairobi city. It is approximately 70 kilometers.
We arrived at Mbuni Village at around 12 noon to a village where old men and women were eagerly waiting to receive the glasses.
These eye glasses are provided in the ongoing partnership between Eyes on Africa and AAF.
Two days ago, we managed to get to the town in time to meet the area Chief and discussed at length the probability of him allowing us to use one of the local schools or even his office to conduct the exercise.
He accepted and I asked him to organize for us at least 3 tables and 4 chairs and he gladly accepted. He also provided two more people who are going to help with the exercise.
On the day of the function, we started with a word of prayer from one of the village member and then the area Chief gave us the opportunity to conduct the distribution.
We were able to distribute 120 glasses to all the old men and women who came.
They were extremely grateful and even cooked for us and gave us some pawpaws,peas,avocados and passion fruits to take home.
We have never received such a reception ever from the many areas we have been able to visit and give to the community.
We will definately be back to Mbuni village!
For more pictures, visit our facebook page at:
Festus Alango
AAF Project Coordinator
Published in
Projects
Wednesday, 05 May 2010 04:31
Pen Pal Program: Dear Friend
Jambo (Swahili translation: "Hello")!
I am excited to announce the launch of Dear Friend, a program I have designed to pair Kenyan and U.S. children with long-term pen pals. I recently accepted a board seat as Director of Special Programs for Amsha Africa Foundation ("AAF"), and I will execute Dear Friend in this capacity. I am posting to gather the names of children in each country who wish to be matched with a child in the other one, and also to raise funds for the program.
Introduction to Dear Friend
The goal of Dear Friend is to sustain long-term, 1:1 relationships between as many pair of U.S. and Kenyan children as possible, and to help all participating children achieve literacy goals, heighten their cultural awareness, and feel the joy of knowing another child across the world cares about them. This project will preserve the art of letter writing for our generation's children, teaching them to communicate well through the written word.
Any child in either country, between ages five and sixteen, is eligible. Once matched with a child of similar age and same gender in the other country, each child will begin the pen pal exchange. Dear Friend will provide all necessary writing supplies and postage to the parents, teachers, orphanage staff members, and other supervising adults of the enrolled children. All mailings will be directed to the addresses the supervising adults provide at registration; these addresses will either be schools, orphanages, or parents' homes.
Dear Friend will also provide support, ensuring that all children receive letters from their pen pals on a regular basis. (Letters between Kenya and the U.S. typically take two weeks to travel, and we expect that children on each side will reply to letters within a few days to two weeks of receipt.)
Tony Abuta (AAF's Executive Director) and I have begun to accumulate a list of children in both countries who want pen pals. I expect that by mid-February, I will have created hundreds of pairings, and that the letter exchanges will have begun. Tony and I plan to return to Kenya in May. My primary objective for this trip is to meet with headmasters and headmistresses at partnering schools, staff members at pre-selected orphanages, and parents within the community, to increase awareness of Dear Friend and expand my list of Kenyan pen pals.
Between now and this summer, I will spend several hours per week launching, maintaining, and expanding Dear Friend. My work will entail visiting, calling, and emailing Bay Area schools to identify U.S. pen pals; placing calls and writing emails to U.S. parents for the same purpose; and communicating with various AAF staff members, regarding their work securing profiles on the Kenyan children already enrolled.
Request for Donations
Dear Friend will rely on donor generosity to operate, and will gratefully accept your financial support, whether or not you enroll a child in the program. Donation is not a prerequisite to enrollment; participation is free. However, personal donations are critical to Dear Friend's success: Dear Friend will not receive support from AAF's general funds. Also, grant money for international service work is scarce, and can take several months to secure even when granted.
My initial fundraising goal is $5,000, secured through personal donations by March 15, 2010. Your donation is tax-deductible, and AAF will apply 100% of your gift directly to Dear Friend. (If you donate online, Network for Good will deduct 4.9% of your donation as a processing fee, but AAF will apply the entire 95.1% that we receive directly to Dear Friend. If you donate by check, we will apply 100% of your gift directly to Dear Friend.) Tony and I will personally oversee all recording and spending of Dear Friend donations.
Thank You and Instructions for Your Participation and Support.
I extend my heartfelt thanks, for supporting me in facilitating relationships between Kenyan and U.S. children. Whether you enroll children or provide financial support, or both, the lives you touch will be forever changed for the better.
To enroll a child, send me an email at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
, with the child's name, gender, and age. I will personally reply, and we will move forward with the matching process.
To make a financial gift, please visit the AAF website, at www.amshaafrica.org, and click on the link to Network for Good. Designate Dear Friend where indicated, so that we know to apply your donation to this project in particular, and not to AAF in general. If you prefer to pay by check, click on the site's "contact us" link, and find the address where you can mail your check. Write the check out to Amsha Africa Foundation, specifying "Dear Friend" in the memo line.
I wish you all great joy in 2010, and I thank you again for joining me in this vision.
Many thanks,
Katie Burke
Director - Special Programs
Amsha Africa Foundation
Published in
Projects
Wednesday, 05 May 2010 04:28
In Kenya, Abuse Against HIV-Positive Women Prevalent
This Daily Nation article estimates that half of Kenyan women with HIV were abused in 2009, based on a recent self-reporting study.
The study finds that rape and sexual exploitation are prevalent in Nyanza, Coast, Western, and Nairobi, the provinces in which researchers carried out the study. As might be expected, female, HIV-positive orphans are at the highest risk of forced marriage, in addition to other forms of abuse.
It is striking that a place of such natural beauty, spiritual generosity, and cultural strength holds this dark reality. There is so much life in Kenya ... and yet, as these jarring statistics show, the lives of many Kenyan women are compromised. Somehow, both truths exist.
Published in
Articles
Wednesday, 05 May 2010 04:26
Movie Recommendation: Brownstones to Red Dirt
This morning, I attended a screening of Brownstones to Red Dirt, a compelling documentary film spotlighting an inspired international pen pal program. This project pairs children in Brooklyn with children in Sierra Leone, in the same way I am matching Kenyan and U.S. children: through classrooms, orphanages, and 1:1 connections. The filmmakers were at the screening, so I told them about my project and said I would love to collaborate with them. I hope something cool comes of that.
Sierra Leone's Civil War (1991-2002) left many orphaned children as its truest casualties, and now they are forced into child prostitution and other inhumane circumstances, just to survive. Similarly and differently, the poverty and gang violence in Bed-Stuy/Marcy Park, Brooklyn kills its children, both literally and metaphorically, as they are either gunned down or forced into premature adulthood. The correspondence between children of those two worlds is heart rending: Rather than becoming hardened and cynical these children shine when invited to share their respective lives with each other.
The movie is poignant, entertaining, and validating for anyone doing this work. I walked out of it feeling encouraged about the endless possibilities, for children to make friends across the world. I identified an overarching theme - finding power in witnessing the triumphs and struggles of another - that breaks through the common thread of poverty, violence, and isolation in these two communities.
I encourage any interested person to join Brownstones' mailing list (instructions on the website, linked above) to find out when it will screen where you live.
Published in
Projects
Wednesday, 05 May 2010 04:24
Life in Nairobi's Slums
This Daily Nation article provides an illuminating and sobering glimpse at life in Nairobi's slums. Particularly haunting was the quote that it is "not uncommon for a lively child in her class to go home with a drunk father, only to return home the next morning 'like a torn and tormented ghost, who never smiles in the same way again.'"
Yet, as residents or even one-time visitors can attest, depravity is not the only face of the slums. I frequently speak of the palpable joy that effuses from the people who suffer as this article describes. The Nairobi slum dwellers I know are heroic, forever shining their bright spirits. Notwithstanding the atrocities of their daily lives, their cultural gratitude is immense.
Before I traveled to the Kawangware slum of Nairobi, I had never seen such spiritual wealth - even in my own country, the United States of America, where we have many collective blessings to celebrate.
Spiritual riches aside, those in the slums need help. I continually ask myself, "What more can I do to keep their felicity bulbs burning?"
Published in
Articles
Wednesday, 05 May 2010 04:23
Plie! Allegre! Pas de bouree!
This is just wonderful. Augmenting children's joy by encouraging their creative expression - what could be better? Michael Wamaya deserves a standing ovation, as do these little dancers.
Brava and bravo!
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Articles
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