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.
Celine: "We organised activities such as sports, arts and crafts and music for the children to broaden their education as extracurricular activities, such as music, art and drama which make up an important part of the St Mary’s curriculum are not offered in Kenya. Footsteps sponsor 8 schools and have built a children’s clinic in Katito village, and the money donated to the charity goes directly into building classrooms and supplying desks and equipment. The classrooms are all built by local construction workers to help the local economy. We worked with 2 of the 8 schools, Rae and Obingo."
Hebe: "We applied for the programme last year and raised money through Christmas card sales, cake sales so thank you to all here who contributed to those sales, and a very successful fundraising dinner, raising a total of £18,000. £8,000 of this went to building a classroom which now shows a plaque saying 'Sponsored by St Mary’s' at Rae primary school, and the rest will go to Obingo, the newest school sponsored by the charity which desperately needs financial support."
Philippa: "Our time there was spent organising activities, including sports. Though they were familiar with netball, it seemed to me that the game that they were playing was more of a contact sport, and even though I tried explaining the rules the language barrier meant I had to act them out - to the children’s amusement. In the end they much preferred their version of the game where footwork does not count as a foul!"
Celine: "Other activities included music, and Hebe and my ukuleles were very popular with the children who danced, clapped and sang along with us, always keen to make us listen to their own Swahili songs. We painted the classrooms with the alphabet or times tables or diagrams of the body, depending on the age group of the classes. We also introduced them to tie dye, tracing paper, and colouring pencils, along with games like duck duck goose and hokey cokey, which were very popular. On the last day we organised a sports day between the 8 schools, which became very competitive; one team was disqualified for sneaking in two county players into their team."
When we visited Magunga primary school, we participated in the opening of a girls’ dormitory. We learned that this dormitory would allow girls who are at risk of sexual abuse on the long road back home to attend school in safety. The rooms were about the same size as a single St Mary’s room; the difference is that they sleep 8 girls instead of 1.
We thought you might like to have a peek at what we got up to - it was such an amazing experience for all three of us to see exactly where the money you so generously donated back in March ended up! The two links below were forwarded (with her comments) by Suzanne Thomas, one of the accompanying Trustees - sit back and enjoy them when you have a moment!
Once, again, very many thanks for you tremendous support!
Celine, Hebe & Philippa
Forwarded by Suzanne Thomas, one of the Trustees of Footsteps:
These are links from the Rafiki trip this year …if you can, take 10 minutes to watch them. The group this year were so great and gave 110% from the moment they arrived. The first is a photo video of the trip. The second was filmed by one of the volunteers on his iphone….
