upcoming Kenya trip

I have not blogged for several months. Our hope2kenya team was in Kenya last year from mid September to mid October doing 5 medical clinics. It was an eye opening experience for all 5 members of the team. To update yourself on the trip you can go to www.hope2kenya.org.

We are now preparing for another trip. This is the largest team I have taken and is consists of 10 people including 5 youth. This is the first time I have taken youth on a team and I am very excited about it. These kids are all amazing and come from different backgrounds and schools. the youngest is 16 and the oldest is 24. Our adult team has one returning member, Cathy McCallum, and this is her third trip with me. The other members are all newbies but are excited about the challenges that will face us.

Debbie Jones is from a small place called Verona, outside Kingston, Ont. She is a "master"teacher (my words) and will be doing teacher training at the schools that we help support. While she is doing this, with the help of Cathy, the rest of the team will be handling the classrooms. This will be exciting for everyone.

As of Friday of this week we should have purchased a piece of land with a building on it which will be the new orphanage for young children with HIV/AIDS. We are working along with Transformed International on this projects and our hope is to house 10 children. Once we can raise more funds we will do an expansion. Since the property is large, the hope is to build a home for our Neema Home, which houses our street girls program. We will be working on the building when we are there, and purchasing the furnishings and equipment for the orphanage.

The school we built at Kolongolo Village last year is finished and our job this year is to paint the interior of the school to make it a brigh and cheery place to be.

We are also hoping to send a container to Kenya with school furnishings and resources, wheelchairs, crutches, canes, board games, shoes, games and anything else that we think the people in our projects can use. If you have anything just give Sandy a call at 705-752-2156 to arrange pickup.

On February 20th we are having a Pasta dinner at Trinity United Church in North Bay beginning at 5:00 pm, to help raise funds to offset the students trip and on February 26th Trinity Arts is sponsoring the Tenor Jeff Wiseman in concert at the church at 7:30 pm. Hope2kenya will receive $6.00 from every ticket sold for the performance.

Since we are going in July (to accomodate the youth that are going) we have to work hard to raise funds for our projects in only 5 months. With the disaster in Haiti it will be an uphill battle but we always seem to manage.

Keep reading for upcoming blogs as we again approach another exciting adventure to bring help and hope to the orphans and widows in Kenya..

The Food Crisis

Sept. 11, 2009 is fast approaching. That is the day the team leaves for Kenya. I have never been nervous about travelling and working in Kenya before but I am this trip.
There is a severe drought in Kenya and there is a shortage of food. Consequently the cost of food has almost tripled and the average Kenyan can't afford to buy Maize flour, which is the staple in that country. People are dying every day and especially children. That is why I am nervous.

We have so much in Canada. We often eat dinner and then scrape our left overs into the garbage. The children in Kenya could live on our left overs. How will I feel when I am holding a child who is dying of starvation? I don't know but I am nervous.

We will be doing a food distribution in the area where we have done them for the past three years. Areas where there is abject poverty. With the cost of corn and beans at an all time high we can't even afford to purchase what we have in the past and that means we will be feeding a lot less people. It is just a drop in a huge bucket but we can only do what we can do!!

Please remember these children each day and if you have a strong faith pray for rain.

Getting Ready

As I prepare to go back to Kenya I am excited, but I also realize that with 4 new team members it will be very life changing for them. They will interface with many orphans, students, AIDS widows, grandmothers raising children, street kids, Masaai women and teachers working with few supplies. They will work at health clinics and see children ill from worms, starvation, and stomach ailments - things that are just not common in our society where we have plenty.
They will learns the importance of water and how wasteful we are in our society and they will come to understand how valuable a commodity that food is in Kenya where people are now dying of starvation because of the drought.

The number one killer in North America is overeating and the complications it brings. The number one killer in Africa is starvation due to the lack of food and without food the susceptibility to diseases.

We will do what we can while we are there and hopefully be ambassadors for Canada and for peace.

New logo

Hope2kenya has a new logo. We have always been known as Team Tumaini (which means hope in Swahili). We will still continue to be that team when we travel but our overall logo has now been added. It was designed by Sean Hamilton of Toronto and really says it all. Our goal is to bring hope to the children of Kenya by providing education, clean water, food and safe places to stay. We also try to provide widows with skills so they can earn money to look after their children.

The blue in the logo represents water and the yellow represents the hope that we try to provide. The child in the middle with upraised arms says it all.

Thanks Sean for the wonderful work.

New Logo

Excitement is beginning

We are now at our six week mark and the team is getting excited. Next Friday (Augsut 7th, 2009) we will be having our last fundraiser in this area. Caren Gagne, a team member, owns a restaurant and she is hosting a pot luck dinner and music jam. There will be both a silent and live auction as well as a 50/50 draw. If you are in the area of the La Tea Da Tearoom in Rutherglen drop in and say hi to everyone and help support the cause,

Sharon Kutchaw and Mary Crowder are two team members from Sudbury. They have worked very hard at raising funds for the cause. They have done silent auctions at their local golf course, held a BBQ, done a Toonie sale at a Mall in Sudbury and have sold our HOPE necklaces. They are fantastic and hard workers and have helped add funds for the projects we will do in Kenya.

All the funds that we raise go directly towards projects in Kenya. Each team member pays all their own expenses for the trip. We take our funds and purchase stuff for the projects while we are there and then we know that the money is being used directly to help the children and widows that we work with.

Thanks to everyone who has donated funds to help with all our endeavours.

Fundraiser held by Ambulance Service

Today was a great day. The North Bay Central Ambulance and Communication Centre organized a BBQ to raise funds for our team. The rain held off and they had hot dogs and drinks. The group, under the direction of Chris Reed and Jennifer Durham, have also have been selling tickets on several items over the past few weeks and I drew the tickets of the lucky winners.



They presented us with over $500.00. I was there for the BBQ and it was a heart warming experience to see these hard working people raise these funds. Lori Butterfield, who is on this years team, is a paramedic with this group. These folks work in a stressful job and still find time to give back.

Thanks to everyone at CACC and to all those who purchased tickets and hot dogs.