At the end of July this year we will be travelling to Kenya as a group of 31 volunteers to run a programme of sport, games, art and general fun for the children of the schools we have built in and around Kisumu. After a couple of days spent visiting some of the projects we will launch into a full programme of activities ending in a Sports Day which has become the major event in the calendar for the Footsteps Schools.
For those of us in Footsteps who travel to Kenya often, and even for those who come only once on a Rafiki programme, the experience over there is always a positive one. We know that life is hard, we see the difficult living conditions, and even use the “interesting” toilet facilities. These things become little anecdotes and stories to tell our friends about back home where we experience consistent access to affordable food, health care services free at the point of delivery and good quality education for our children.
Obingo has already been transformed by the work of Footsteps since we first saw it in a terrible condition over five years ago.
Since then we have built four classrooms from scratch and finished off an incomplete pair of classrooms.
July 2014
Our school make-over programme continues steadily and January saw the completion and handing over of four new classrooms.
Rae Primary School now counts on eight pristine classrooms paid for by Footsteps supporters and Kobeto has two. Fortunately the work doesn’t stop there either. We have funds in place to build two more classrooms at Rae and to finish off the partially built structure of six classrooms at Kobeto.
Work is expected to start in the second quarter of 2014 and be ready by July when our Rafiki Programme takes place.
Beatrice Trapp is taking part in our Rafiki 2014 programme and is doing the Roehampton Club Triathlon on the 5th April to raise money. Here's what she says:
"I am trying to raise money to fund one of the many very worthwile projects that the charity undertakes. I have decided to do my first ever triathlon at the end of April and I will also undertake the training challenge of completing the equivalent of two iron man over the next few months. (82km running, 7.6km swimming, 360km biking).
Come and enjoy a morning of social doubles with a group of friends, or join a group with the same playing level, followed by lunch, a glass of bubbly and a chance to win some fabulous prizes in a raffle.
£25pp includes tennis, refreshments and a two course lunch.
Thanks to everyone who came along to our Footsteps Cinema showing of ‘Out of Africa’ this morning at the Curzon in Wimbledon. It proved to be a really excellent morning in terms of Fundraising and hopefully for the people who came along to see the film. Certainly by 9:30am the café outside the cinema was buzzing. The film went off without a hitch and there were very few dry eyes in the house by the end.
Furthermore, we raised £500 from tickets and from the raffle which will buy us about four beds with mattresses for the Children’s ward in Kisumu.
TO ALL OF YOU WHO SO KINDLY ATTENDED THE RAFIKI DINNER AT THE LIGHTHOUSE RESTAURANT IN WIMBLEDON ON A COLD AND RAINY ST PATRICK'S NIGHT!
We would like to thank you for your generosity in supporting Footsteps charity and give you an idea of what the three of us (Hebe Bourne, Celine Buckens & Philippa Strahan) did during our week in Kenya at the end of July this year. We gave a presentation at school last week and thought you might like to hear what we told them about our fantastic trip.
You will have heard of the terrible attacks that have taken place in a Nairobi shopping mall in the last week. The Footsteps trustees are following the state of affairs in Kenya and will continue to monitor the situation over the coming months. One of our Trustees is visiting Kenya in December and will assess the position on the ground and talk to the authorities.
