Students knit dolls for children in Kenya

This past week I was priviledged to visit Helen Gobby's grade 5/6 class at King George Public School. She has 28 students and thought it would be a great idea to teach her students to knit. She had heard about the comfort dolls that people in North Bay were knitting for our team to take to Kenya and hand out to the children and thought this would be a great idea for her class. She enlisted the help of several women knitters in North Bay who came into her class to help teach the children.

Each student knit a doll, wrote a letter to the student who will receive the doll and included a picture of themselves with their letter. They worked hard on their project and were very proud and excited with their achievment when they presented them to me to take over in September.

What a great idea since children in Kenya rarely have toys. I am anxious to give these out to the students in Kenya to see the look of joy on their faces. Thanks to all these students and their teacher for thinking of children on the other side of the world who have so little..

In a little more than two months I will be leaving once again for Kenya. This year's team is smaller than usual but there are three fantastic people going with me. Steve and Ada Dreany and Kathy Hallett, all from North Bay. We have a lot planned for this trip and I am hoping that everything will be accomplished.

I am always excited in the lead up to the trip each year: collecting what we are taking over, purchasing school supplies, deciding what projects we have funds for and making sure that all our paperwork is in order. It is a busy time but full of anticipation.

I will begin blogging on a more regular basis to let everyone know about our upcoming trip.

I have done a lot of speaking this year about Kenya, but mainly to church groups. Tomorrow I will speak to a grade 5/6 class in North Bay and in the evening to the Trefoil Guild. A week or so ago I drove to Parham and spoke at a small school of only 115 children. They were so excited to hear about the kids in Kenya and they have been busy raising funds all year. They are anxious for the strike to be over so they can send me their cheque. Their teacher Debbie Jones is one amazing woman and used the fundraising as part of her teaching.

We are so lucky to live in a great country like Canada and have so much.

Kenyan Craft Sales

Today is Canadian Thanksgiving and it has been two months since my last trip to Kenya. I am so thankful that I get to go each year and I am thankful for Transformed International, the group that hosts us every year. The projects we have helped with are doing well and Veronica Home is almost completed.
It has been difficult for me returning home this time. Not sure why that is but I am always wishing I could be there. I always know that once I get back home I need to begin fundraising for the next trip. Fundraising is difficult yet we need the funds to do projects and we need to do fundraising to have the needed funds.

We will be at the Davedi Club in North Bay on November 6th & 7th to sell Kenyan crafts and at the Best Western Craft show on November 14th. This is one way we earn the necessary funds, and most of the crafts that are for sale are made by groups that we help support in Kenya. If you live in the North Bay area and are out and about on these days, do drop in and help support Hope2Kenya.

Referendum Day in Kenya

I have been following closely the voting in Kenya today for a new constitution. My friend Daniel Lipparelli, from Kitale, has been posting updates on his blog dlipparelli.blogspot.com and so far there does not appear to be any violence.

Kenya is 7 hours ahead of us and a while ago the YES votes were leading over the NO votes. If this continues it means that there will finally be a new constitution, which was promised after the violent elections in 2007.

In 1012 Kenya will have another National election and hope is there that after this constitutional vote, there will not be any violence during and after that election.

My hope is that everyone stays safe in Kenya over the next few days while all the counting takes place and that people accept whatever the vote dictates.

Dear Sandy and Kenya Youth Team,

My name is Sr. Mae Kierans and I am from North Bay. I was working in Kenya 2004-2008 with Sr. Carolyn Schan in Kibera and Ngong when I first met that amazing woman, Sandy Foster! One of my favourite activities in Kenya was to visit the staff and students at St. Aloysius School at least once a week. In the attached photo I am at the old school giving a class of St. Aloysius students pens donated so they can write their government exams.

I have returned to Canada to help my elderly father in St. John's for as long as he needs me but Sandy has continued to help as much as she can the people we were helping in Kibera and the Nairobi area, especially the children and their mothers. With so much to do, you wonder where to begin, but we just tried to help those we could see right in front of us.

When Sandy told me this morning that she brought you young people to Kenya I was thrilled! I am retired. There isn't much I can do now at my age to change global structures, so I help small groups and individuals in small ways. But you young people have the time and the vision to push for change in the social and political structures in the global community to eliminate the obvious injustices you have just witnessed. We have to start somewhere. If everyone on the planet lived the way we in North America live, we would need two more planet Earths. Won't happen. So we all need to make drastic changes in the way we in North America live ourselves.

Youth going to other parts of this small planet to see the true cost of our North American lifestyle will spread the word and will want to start to make changes so no one on our planet has too much and everyone has enough.

I love it when I hear young people have visited the people on this planet who live in the shadows. You have seen down and dirty what we all need to see. That was very courageous and generous of you! Congratulations to you and to Sandy and all the best!

Mae

We are back home

As I write this blog today I have had two ok nights sleep after a very long and tiring flight home. We were so fortunate since no one was sick on the way home and everyone got to go into Amsterdam Square in Holland to walk around and spend a couple of hours before our final flight to Toronto

I am very proud of the team this year. The youth group was amazing. They got along well with everyone on the team and they never complained. I think that each of us on the team was affected by what we did and saw at one time or another and each of us shed tears at one time or another. We each were affected in different ways. I am glad that we had a taxi when we went to visit the Maasai women or we might have lost Sally there. She was so inspired by the women that we met and their way of life. We had to keep checking Sarah's bag to see if she put a small child in to bring home. Children were attracted to her and she spent hours holding them. When Steven is Prime Minister of Canada and can exert any pressure on the Kenyan government I know that he will change their education system so that all children are given the right to a free education. Sandra will move children to be the best they can be and they will follow her like the pied piper and Laura will bring a sparkle and bright light to everyone she meets. Kids and adults alike will enjoy helping her accomplish whatever she chooses to do and I know she will succeed in whatever she does. Emily will make a difference in the lives of everyone that she comes in contact with and will make a difference in this world of ours for the better. Cathy will continue to teach everywhere she goes touching lives with her sincerity and humour and Caren will forever remember this experience and help as many children as she can both here and in Kenya to have a chance at a better life.

With a team like that it wasn't difficult to accomplish all that we did. My hope is to have a write up and pictures on our web site soon. Our friend, Daniel Lipparelli, already has some of the things we did with his group with photos so go to www.transformedinternational.org and go to blogs to see those.

I will continue to blog about our upcoming events and I think the youth on this trip somehow started a facebook page for Hope2Kenya, although I am not sure how to get on it.

Aloysius High School, Kibera

Hi everyone:

This is Sally. You will get another blog from one of the other team members about today as well, but I just had to write a little bit. We visited a secondary school today - almost all the students are HIV + and orphans, or someone in their family is HIV + and ill. But you sure wouldn't know it to see their smiles and their energy. The highlight for me was when the choirmaster started to speak with me about their choir. And then, the school secretary, Esther (with whom I spent some very interesting time !), organized the choir and next thing we knew we were listening to the most angelic voices singing the most beautiful songs. They have a sacred choir and a "fun" choir. They perform a cappella, but with pure heart and soul. Their rendition of The Lord's Prayer was stunning and very powerful. Their joy and excitement was contagious. It was easy to forget that these children are hungry and ill. Their school day goes from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Some of them walk 2 hours through the filth of the Kibera slum to attend school. They receive breakfast and lunch at school and usually those are the only meals they will have. They attend school from Monday to Saturday!

It was a fabulous way to end our time with "projects" in Kenya. Thanks to Sandy Foster for all her hard work in organizing this trip, supporting everyone through our personal ups and downs for the past few weeks and for allowing us all the privilege of seeing first hand where the hard fundraised dollars go and the good work that is being done here in Kenya. I will never forget the children, the folks here that toil year round for their well being and everyone back home in Canada who has taken these people into their hearts by supplying dollars that help feed, house, clothe and educate some amazing people.

Remember, we are all so lucky and blessed to be born in Canada. Be grateful for all that we have and share if you can. See you soon!!!

Sally