What we have been doing instead of updating the blog...

Hello again and sorrryyyy for the delay in posting (is hearing that getting old yet?), we have been really busy trying to get things done as the summer is quickly coming to an end. We've been accomplishing a lot and there is a lot of news to report!

I'll start with soccer. As previously mentioned, we have expanded our league and now are supporting six different teams. We have three teams from Tunza, two from Jamii and have started a team in Malaba, in rural Kenya. More on Malaba later but we have provided the Jamii and Malaba teams with balls and equipment so they can hold weekly practices and hope to be able to provide them with shoes and uniforms as we have with the three Tunza teams. The Malaba boys walk over 1 kilometer to get to a field where they can practice and have been meeting to train every day of the week.


The Tunza Under-18 team is currently playing in a Carolina for Kibera tournament with other teams from throughout Kibera. They have played in three games so far, losing two and winning one due to the opponent not showing (we will take what we can get). They were so nervous to be playing in actual games for the first time and we know they'll get better as they get more experience and gain confidence. The boys all wore their uniforms, socks and shoes and were smiling and excited the whole time, despite the losses. They have another non-tournament game tomorrow morning against the rumored best team in Kibera and they will continue on in the tournament despite the two losses, hopefully racking up some victories! We're working on finding other tournaments and more matches for the other four teams and are looking into holding our own Tunza-Jamii tournament in Kibera this fall.


Things are moving along quickly with the construction of the kitchen at Jamii, it is almost completely finished. There is now a sink with water that runs straight to the kitchen, so the cooking staff doesn't need to fetch it from the water tank and haul it to the kitchen every time they need to cook or wash. Two stoves with chimneys were also built so the staff can cook multiple things at once and smoke can exit the kitchen. View some photos of the recent constructions HERE. Additionally, the refugees that had been living in the Jamii classrooms have now moved out and Jamii will start the third term of the year as a fully functioning school next week for the first time since the election. We are talking to the director to see what else will be needed because all of the supplies were stolen or destroyed during the violence.

Last weekend, we paid a visit to a rural village near Malaba, which is a border town between Kenya and Uganda. We have been supporting the village when we are able to as an unofficial Uweza project since last year. The village is struggling with the problem of orphaned children. Many children have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS and other illnesses and to the recent violence following the election. There are about 40-50 orphaned children with nowhere to go. Some have been taken in by guardians within the village, but the guardians are not always able to provide for them.


One of the women from the village that we met last year, Leah, has been working to provide for the kids, ensuring that they get three meals a day and have a place to sleep. The kids have been sleeping on the floor of an abandoned house in the village. Last week, we brought them mattresses and blankets to resolve this problem. They were so happy to receive them, jumping all over the mattreses and huddling together and covering themselves with the blankets. We left for the night with them yelling "THANK YOU GOODNIGHT THANK YOU GOODNIGHT!"

We also were able to provide them with some money to go to the market and buy food. Another one of the residents of the village works in agriculture and brought up the idea to us to support them in an agricultural project, buying them a piece of land to farm so that they can have a sustainable supply of food and a way to generate income to provide for the kids. We're still working out the details but this may be a project that we'd like to take on in the future.


In Tumaini Health Outreach news, we have been busy going on home visits, trying to reach as many different patients per week as possible. On average, we try to see about 5-6 patients per day, three days a week. Also, we have discovered that a lot of the women that attend the weekly support groups are really talented at beading work and at making bags and purses. So we're working with them to try and bring a lot of their items home to the United States (I'll be clearing out an entire suitcase when I return home in September for this) to be sold as a way of providing income to both the support groups and the individuals that make the items. Pictures of some of the items will be posted on the website soon - let us know if you're interested in buying something!

There has been a major development at Tunza Children's Center - we recently moved 5 of the girls to a new home. We worked in conjunction with one of our partner organizations, Faces of Kibera, to determine some of the most vulnerable girls and we found them a fancy new home out of the Kibera slum. Tricia, who runs Faces of Kibera, has been in contact with the head of the home, Hekima Place (www.hekimaplace.org) for over a year and a few weeks ago, they were able to find a spot for five of our girls. The home, which takes in orphaned girls from throughout Kenya, is located in Karen, a suburb on the outskirts of Nairobi in a secluded and peaceful setting.


The girls now have their own beds, new, clean clothes, a huge backyard to play in, shelves full of books to read, toys, and three big, healthy meals a day. They are attending a good school in the area and are deliriously happy. One of the girls is HIV positive and was about to start ARVs right before the move. She hadn't been gaining weight and the unsanitary conditions of Kibera were taking a toll on her health. Following the move, her doctors decided to postpone ARV treatment. She is doing much better health-wise now and we hear that she is "eating like a horse" at the new home. We wish we could be able to provide such a tremendous opportunity to all of the orphaned kids at Tunza (and the rest of Kibera) but are happy for these five girls and of course will continue working on trying to improve the quality of life of the kids still at Tunza.


We haven't been doing a lot with our relief project because most Kenyans have been able to return home and restart their lives, but we have spent some time in a refugee camp near Nairobi. The camp, previously mentioned in one of Meghann's post, is home to about 300 refugees living in plastic tents. It has been over eight months since the election so the situations of these families are particularly bad for them to be unable to find the means to leave the camp and restart their lives. For the family of the former Jamii student that we know, we have been able to provide cooking supplies and blankets to make life a little easier in the camp. We also will be sponsoring the student to restart school, after eight months of not being able to attend. Recently, the mother of the family located an available home and place to restart her business so we will be helping resettle the family by assisting with a few months of rent as well as business startup costs so she can once again begin to provide for her family.

The final major development is that Uweza may be starting a school! This is very, very preliminary but we recently met with three of the teachers who used to work at Jamii and they brought up the idea to us to start a pre-primary school in Kibera. After the election, Jamii shut down for several months and the teachers were forced to find work elsewhere. They have now been replaced at Jamii but have not lost their passion for teaching and wanting to help the kids of Kibera. All three of them are not only excellent teachers but they have a genuine interest in the well-being of each child that comes into their class and we couldn't imagine finding three better people to run a school. So we were really excited about this idea but, of course, it will require a lot of planning and budgeting. We really like the idea of a pre-primary school (what they refer to preschool as here) and getting the kids a good, solid running start before they begin elementary school. Then we can funnel them right into Olypmic, the best school in Kibera.

Before we get ahead of ourselves, though, the first step is to find a structure to house the school and figure out the costs involved. We've heard about several potential locations and are looking into them in the coming weeks as well as determining if this is something that will be feasible. It will also take a great deal of fundraising (donations for Uweza Pre-Primary School accepted here: http://www.uweza.org/getinvolved.html) but we'll keep you posted!

LASTLY, the uweza site (uweza.org) has been updated with new galleries of Jamii School, Tunza, the soccer, and the relief situations.

As always, we really really want to thank everyone for their words of encouragement, donations, and continued support. We would be useless (for the most part) in Kenya without our supporters and can't thank you enough. I apologize again for the time we put between letting you know what we're up to, but hope that when we do get around to blogging that we make it worth it.

Kwa heri until next time!

Jen

Guest Blog - Amy Auguston shares her experiences working with Uweza

Visiting the slums of Nairobi is overwhelming. You wonder if there is anything that you can do to help relieve the crushing poverty. During my most recent visit, however, I felt hopeful. Why? Because I had the pleasure of seeing Uweza Aid Foundation in action. I can attest to the enormous difference that Uweza, with your generous donations, is making in the lives of so many people. In this blog, I’d like to share some observations of Uweza’s projects, from my visit to Nairobi in July 2008.

The health project is a tremendous resource for the people of Kibera. In addition to dispensing invaluable advice about how to live healthily with the virus, the project fosters a sense of hope and community among the patients, who are often stigmatized because of their HIV-positive status. I was able to accompany health worker Daniel Ongoro on some of his home visits, and I saw the impact of his kindness and concern for HIV-positive individuals.

Daniel is a constant presence on the streets of Kibera. Riding his bicycle from home to home, he delivers home-cooked meals, medication, medical advice, and more to those in great need. With Daniel, I visited the home of an HIV-positive single mother living in Kibera, who did not have beds for her large family. With funds from Uweza, Daniel provided her with two new beds and sheets. I’ve also seen Daniel tend to HIV-positive orphans living at Mama Tunza Children’s Centre, who greet him with hugs and call him “Uncle Dan.”

Mama Tunza Children’s Centre is as lively and hectic as you’d expect the home of more than 70 children to be. The children who live at Mama Tunza’s have had invariably difficult lives, with many having experienced illness, bereavement, and/or abuse. But they remain some of the brightest, happiest, and most buoyant children I’ve ever encountered. Mama Tunza Children’s Centre truly becomes their home, and it is an extraordinary place where they can learn, play, and grow. To continue to thrive, the centre needs considerable investment to ease overcrowding, improve sanitation, and to better provide for the health and nutritional needs of the children. Your donations to Uweza, as well as the work of Faces of Kibera, will help to make Mama Tunza’s a better place for these children.

Attending practice sessions of the Uweza Soccer League is one of my fondest memories of my trip: the excitement and enjoyment of the boys as they play is absolutely palpable. The boys are also unbelievably happy about their new shoes, socks, and jerseys. As Meghann wrote, some of the boys sit down after practice to painstakingly hand-clean their new sneakers! It’s a joy to see the boys running around and being rambunctious kids, as they learn invaluable lessons of teamwork and discipline.

Upon my return from Kenya, I decided to sponsor a child through Uweza’s sponsorship program. I’m happy to know that the money I send will transform the child’s life through educational and health opportunities, and that through Uweza, I can track the child’s progress. I can’t wait to see pictures of my sponsored child in his new school uniform, heading off for his first day at his new school!

Uweza is doing amazing work, but there are still so many needs: for example, food costs are skyrocketing all over the world, and the slums of Nairobi are no different. I was shocked by how much the prices of staple foods like rice have increased. Your donations are needed—and appreciated!—now more than ever.

So, thank you for reading my thoughts and for your support of Uweza.

Amy Auguston

Look! More frequent updates!

We are doing our best now (one month into our trip - oops) to update the blog more frequently and keep you more updated about what we've been up to. So with that, here goes...

Things are going well and we're working hard to try and create sustainable systems and projects here in Kenya so that we can develop and expand as time goes on. We have spent the past month and a half trying to ensure that each project is supplied with the necessary resources and people to run smoothly and we are now trying to come up with new ideas and initiatives to expand what we are currently doing.

Two of the HIV+ patients that we had been supporting in the hospital for the past month have been discharged. One of the women had been in the hospital so long that she couldn't remember when she arrived and her bill was extremely large. She obviously is not working and has only a 16 year old daughter and would not have been able to pay it. Fortunately, a friend contacted a radio station and told them about the situation and one day when we went to visit the patient, we found that she had been discharged and the bill in its entirety had been paid.

Also, the HIV+ woman that Meghann mentioned in a previous post and who was 7 months pregnant became ill and we brought her to the hospital. A few days later, much to our surprise, the doctors informed us that she was actually 40 weeks pregnant and 2 weeks overdue! The doctors performed a C-section and a baby girl was born. It was lucky that we brought her to the hospital when we did so that the baby could be delivered safely. We began to take the necessary precautions to prevent HIV transmission from the mother to the child but a few weeks after she was born, the baby girl died. This was very sad news but we learned that the baby was unhealthy even before birth and that admitting the mother to the hospital when we did likely saved her life. She has since been discharged and returned to her four other children and is doing well. We're working on finding a social worker to counsel her about family planning.

We were able to provide the ladies of two of the HIV+ support groups with reusable sanitary pads that had been sewn by some very helpful groups back in America. They were excited to receive these as they had been previously using items such as newspaper and old rags. We also hope to provide them with the supplies to create their own pads as a sustainable and affordable option, rather than purchasing disposable pads every month.

Construction has been underway at Tunza to try and solve some problems that existed when we arrived. Windows were built in some of the rooms and classrooms that were too dark for the students to learn or see during the day. Wood and cement were also purchased to build a stronger foundation for a large water tank that was at risk of collapsing. A fresh coat of paint was put on the entire center and holes and cracks in the walls were patched up.

Also at Tunza, we're working to bring some social workers from a nearby hospital to talk to the kids once or twice a week about issues such as life skills, sexuality, HIV/AIDS. Many of the children have come from very difficult circumstances and faced great hardships and would benefit from having someone to talk to about decisions they face and problems they're dealing with. Additionally, many of the children are adolescents and we hope to educate them and prevent cases of abuse and sexual misconduct in the center.

Today, we took four students that are attending Jamii Children's Center (an Uweza supported project) to Olympic Primary School for testing so that they can enter Class 1 this coming year (pictured to the left). Olympic Primary is a government-sponsored school and the best school in Kibera-- and an interview and test are required for entry. The students are currently attending Jamii despite finishing their pre-primary education and ready to move on to Class 1 because their families were financially unable to send them to primary school. They all passed the test with flying colors (two students received 100 percents and two missed only one question) and are very excited to begin school next January. The students are part of our child sponsorship program, even though we have yet to find for some of them, we knew they were too bright and hard working to not let them have a chance at proper schooling--so if you are interested in our sponsorship program or sponsoring one of these children, please email us!

That's all for now. Once again, thank you, thank you, thank you - none of this would be possible without you and both we and the people we blog about truly appreciate your support!

Jen
jen@uweza.org

Busy, busy, busy

Sorry once again that we are not keeping up with this blog and updates; lately we have been busy running around trying to get everything together, and on top of that we have both been sick off and on for the last few weeks but now it seems we are getting better and ready to work harder. Things have been going great here with all of the projects and we can't thank you all enough who have supported Uweza for making it all happen.

With Tumaini, our partner health project, we have been busy with patients in and out of the hospitals as well as adding more HIV+ patients to our home visit initiative. Now, there are over 200 families in Kibera who have joined the home visit program, where we visit them and ensure they are taking the proper medication and diet, as well as provide company and an outlet for discussing their issues. We are working on creating a database and profile of all these families in the near future.

Furthermore, the girl named Jenny that we talked about in our last blog entry who we met at the hospital and was abandoned has been returned home by her grandmother and we recently visited her to check on her and she has improved tremendously. Before, she could not sit up even, and when we found her at her home on Sunday she was sitting up outside and looking much healthier. She has been persistently requesting that we take her to school but she is not yet healthy enough to go. In the meantime, we brought her some gifts including a cd player and drawing materials to keep herself occupied in the house.

This week we will be having a Tumaini Outreach meeting to discuss plans for implementing a Young Girls' Health Initiative, where girls get together to discuss vital health matters with proper counselors and doctors, as well as a Health Exchange Program, where HIV+ patients travel to other support groups in different areas and exchange ideas and discuss health matters. All of this could not happen if it wasn't for all of you helping to support these initiatives.

In our Soccer League, we have recently added two more Kibera teams, making our Kibera league up to five teams now (2 Boys Under 12 teams, 2 Boys Under 14 Teams, and 1 Boys Under 18 Team). Furthermore, we are returning to Malaba in Western Kenya in the next two weeks now that we are better and healthy to work on improving the 2 teams we started in June of this year and to equip them with soccer balls and all the necessary equipment. Next week, the boys on the 5 Kibera teams will be entering a Kibera-wide soccer tournament, so we are hoping for their success! The three teams attached to the Tunza Children's Center have received their uniforms and can now wear them proudly, and in the future the other 4 teams will also receive uniforms. Here are photos of the Tunza boys and their uniforms, for full team profiles visit uweza.org/soccer:
Tunza F.C. Boys Under 12 Team

Tunza F.C. Boys Under 14 Team

Tunza F.C. Boys Under 18 Team


As for Jamii Children's School, we have recently started rebuilding the kitchen to make it more efficient as well as healthy for the children and cooks. We added an underground pipe that connects the water tank to a brand new sink in the kitchen, so the workers no longer need to drag large amounts of water to cook and clean across the school. Additionally, we are building a stove with two huge pots and two chimneys and it is almost finished. Before, the kitchen staff had to cook one thing at a time and it would take all day to cook one meal for the children. This also wasted more resources because it took double the amount of firewood, and in the last year the price of firewood has doubled -- so the new stove will save the school a lot of money in the future. Furthermore, the smoke from the cooking would just circulate inside the kitchen and constantly be inhaled in large amounts by the staff and the children; now, the smoke billows out to the air through the chimneys, making the kitchen much more healthy. In addition to the kitchen, the school also received new blackboards, as they were stolen during the election, and thanks to those who donated for our 2008 Backpack Fundraiser, all the children received new backpacks and school supplies. Learning has now continued at Jamii Children's School. As for the future, we are arranging to take the children on some educational trips in the near future and will keep you posted.

More pictures are coming soon, I just figured out how to add them, so for the next entry we will have pictures, and news on Tunza Children's Center and the construction and renovation we have been doing, as well as our plans for more relief efforts in the refugee camps. Thanks so much for your continued support!

-Meghann
Uweza Aid Foundation