We put together a video to try and show you some of the things that we have accomplished so far this year and to give you a better sense of how donations are used. We are so grateful for your support and hope we've represented you well through our work in Kenya!
Jen
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Eyesight, salaries, computers, and chickens
I received an e-mail from Meghann a few days ago with news about what they're up to in Kenya and thought I'd pass it along to any and all blog readers. They've been keeping busy and are getting a lot done!
Cyrus is doing a lot better. He is still going to the eye clinic where they have been continuing to monitor his progress and give him medicine to help reduce the swelling in his eyes. This week, he was able to get around the center by himself and even walk around in Kibera outside of the center with one of the other Tunza boys. He can't see perfectly but had definitely made a lot of progress and we are so happy that he will not end up permanently blind. We'll be continuing to monitor the situation and look into possible alternative education opportunities if his vision is not well enough to return to his normal school.
Recently, Tunza Children's Center has really been struggling to afford food and teacher's salaries. The teacher's had not been paid for months and have been teaching on a volunteer basis only. Last week, we were able to pay all of the teachers and staff salaries for one month and hope to pay them for another month next week. We also purchased beans and ugali for the center and a truckload of firewood. We received some very generous donations to help us out in supporting Tunza so thank you to those donors!
We are also getting ready to enroll the six sponsored kids from Tunza to enter classes 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7 at Olympic Primary School for entrance in January. The kids that will be going are some of the top students in their class at Tunza and we're excited for them to have this opportunity.
Meghann and Dan are working on setting up an office/computer center in Kibera, as Meghann mentioned in her last blog, and they may have a way to get some computers for free. It will be a great opportunity to be able to help children in Kibera become proficient in the use of computers and we're hoping this will work out!
The chicken coop is almost finished and by next week, Uweza will have 50 chickens and many, many eggs to supplement the diets of patients in our Tumaini Health program.
There are some other projects in the works, including the implementation of solar power at some of the centers and schools we support to reduce costs and the negotiation and purchase of land for our new school but details have not yet been worked out so maybe next time we'll have more info.
Thanks for reading and for your continued support of Uweza. We are accomplishing a lot more than we imagined we would be able to when we started the organization earlier this year and it is due to the support we have received, we truly appreciate it!!
Jen
Cyrus is doing a lot better. He is still going to the eye clinic where they have been continuing to monitor his progress and give him medicine to help reduce the swelling in his eyes. This week, he was able to get around the center by himself and even walk around in Kibera outside of the center with one of the other Tunza boys. He can't see perfectly but had definitely made a lot of progress and we are so happy that he will not end up permanently blind. We'll be continuing to monitor the situation and look into possible alternative education opportunities if his vision is not well enough to return to his normal school.
Recently, Tunza Children's Center has really been struggling to afford food and teacher's salaries. The teacher's had not been paid for months and have been teaching on a volunteer basis only. Last week, we were able to pay all of the teachers and staff salaries for one month and hope to pay them for another month next week. We also purchased beans and ugali for the center and a truckload of firewood. We received some very generous donations to help us out in supporting Tunza so thank you to those donors!
We are also getting ready to enroll the six sponsored kids from Tunza to enter classes 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7 at Olympic Primary School for entrance in January. The kids that will be going are some of the top students in their class at Tunza and we're excited for them to have this opportunity.
Meghann and Dan are working on setting up an office/computer center in Kibera, as Meghann mentioned in her last blog, and they may have a way to get some computers for free. It will be a great opportunity to be able to help children in Kibera become proficient in the use of computers and we're hoping this will work out!
The chicken coop is almost finished and by next week, Uweza will have 50 chickens and many, many eggs to supplement the diets of patients in our Tumaini Health program.
There are some other projects in the works, including the implementation of solar power at some of the centers and schools we support to reduce costs and the negotiation and purchase of land for our new school but details have not yet been worked out so maybe next time we'll have more info.
Thanks for reading and for your continued support of Uweza. We are accomplishing a lot more than we imagined we would be able to when we started the organization earlier this year and it is due to the support we have received, we truly appreciate it!!
Jen
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Some news
Hey Everyone!
So things have been going really well here in the last few weeks, but it still has been hard to manage all the ideas we are having. We have had some help in our organization from some students studying here in Nairobi and it really has been a big help lately. Let me first start with the updates on what we have been doing, and then move on to talk about some things we really want to start up soon.
First off, as Jen said about Cyrus last week, he is really improving quite well. I walked into the orphanage yesterday to be greeted by him walking around by himself. As Jen said though, he is still only able to see shadows and shapes, and a very small amount of blurred vision, but his progress so far has been amazing and we are still hoping for the best. In fact, he goes back to the eye doctor today so we will see what they say and keep everyone informed. I wanted to thank everyone again for their generosity in stepping up to help Cyrus during these last few weeks, it has really been amazing the amount of care and support we have been receiving for his cause.
Secondly, on Friday of last week, we sent our FIRST EVER 1st grade sponsored students to one of the best public schools in Kenya. They were not reporting to class, but they had to report in full uniform to the headmaster to make sure they would be prepared to return in January 2009. The boys were so EXCITED to wear their new uniforms and go to the school where they will be studying in a few months. We took 5 boys, who had graduated pre-primary school in December of 2007, but there parents could not afford to take them to primary school, so they instead remained behind at Jamii. But next year, with the help of your sponsorships, they will join their classmates for an amazing chance at a better education. On Friday, we arrived at Jamii Children’s Center in the morning to prepare the boys and they would not stop grinning in their new uniforms. It was great to see them walk with such pride to Olympic Primary, their new school, where we know soon they will be excelling in their studies.
We have been continuing to do home visits in our health program, as well as the support groups have been going very well. In fact, in a few hours 80 of the support group’s bags from their craft making will be arriving in America! Along with the over 500 pieces of jewelry already in America, we are going to start selling these things soon, so stay tuned.
We have so much planned for Uweza and partnerships between the members of Uweza and the communities in Kibera, it’s a very exciting time. We are currently registering as a nonprofit in Kenya so that we may be dual registered in both Kenya and the USA, and once we can achieve this registration we will be able to buy land for our new school! We are right now in the process of negotiating some spots of land we have found and cannot wait to get this project moving. The three teachers from the community involved in the start up process have really been amazing, and we have been having regular meeting with them to make sure everything can be put in place, for a possible opening of UWEZA ACADEMY in January of 2010.
Additionally, this week we will be building a chicken coop to allow for the occupancy of 50 CHICKENS (to start). We will be using this project get eggs that we can give out to our HIV+ patients for extra nutritional supplements during home visits.
Additionally, we have been looking into some other community projects, such as the installation of solar energy for our current projects, such as the orphanage and the school to save on energy costs and reduce the bill. We also are trying to get together an office in Kibera, that might act both as an office and a computer training center at a free or low cost to children in the community of Kibera. We have had some help with friends in the past few weeks proposing these ideas and offering help to initiate them, so we are SUPER EXCITED about the coming months. But these are all very new ideas, and are going to take a lot of planning and support, so please continue to stay in touch with us!
More news soon! And thank you everyone who has been making this work such a success in this past year.
Meghann
Uweza Aid Foundation
So things have been going really well here in the last few weeks, but it still has been hard to manage all the ideas we are having. We have had some help in our organization from some students studying here in Nairobi and it really has been a big help lately. Let me first start with the updates on what we have been doing, and then move on to talk about some things we really want to start up soon.
First off, as Jen said about Cyrus last week, he is really improving quite well. I walked into the orphanage yesterday to be greeted by him walking around by himself. As Jen said though, he is still only able to see shadows and shapes, and a very small amount of blurred vision, but his progress so far has been amazing and we are still hoping for the best. In fact, he goes back to the eye doctor today so we will see what they say and keep everyone informed. I wanted to thank everyone again for their generosity in stepping up to help Cyrus during these last few weeks, it has really been amazing the amount of care and support we have been receiving for his cause.
Secondly, on Friday of last week, we sent our FIRST EVER 1st grade sponsored students to one of the best public schools in Kenya. They were not reporting to class, but they had to report in full uniform to the headmaster to make sure they would be prepared to return in January 2009. The boys were so EXCITED to wear their new uniforms and go to the school where they will be studying in a few months. We took 5 boys, who had graduated pre-primary school in December of 2007, but there parents could not afford to take them to primary school, so they instead remained behind at Jamii. But next year, with the help of your sponsorships, they will join their classmates for an amazing chance at a better education. On Friday, we arrived at Jamii Children’s Center in the morning to prepare the boys and they would not stop grinning in their new uniforms. It was great to see them walk with such pride to Olympic Primary, their new school, where we know soon they will be excelling in their studies.We have been continuing to do home visits in our health program, as well as the support groups have been going very well. In fact, in a few hours 80 of the support group’s bags from their craft making will be arriving in America! Along with the over 500 pieces of jewelry already in America, we are going to start selling these things soon, so stay tuned.
We have so much planned for Uweza and partnerships between the members of Uweza and the communities in Kibera, it’s a very exciting time. We are currently registering as a nonprofit in Kenya so that we may be dual registered in both Kenya and the USA, and once we can achieve this registration we will be able to buy land for our new school! We are right now in the process of negotiating some spots of land we have found and cannot wait to get this project moving. The three teachers from the community involved in the start up process have really been amazing, and we have been having regular meeting with them to make sure everything can be put in place, for a possible opening of UWEZA ACADEMY in January of 2010.
Additionally, this week we will be building a chicken coop to allow for the occupancy of 50 CHICKENS (to start). We will be using this project get eggs that we can give out to our HIV+ patients for extra nutritional supplements during home visits.
Additionally, we have been looking into some other community projects, such as the installation of solar energy for our current projects, such as the orphanage and the school to save on energy costs and reduce the bill. We also are trying to get together an office in Kibera, that might act both as an office and a computer training center at a free or low cost to children in the community of Kibera. We have had some help with friends in the past few weeks proposing these ideas and offering help to initiate them, so we are SUPER EXCITED about the coming months. But these are all very new ideas, and are going to take a lot of planning and support, so please continue to stay in touch with us!
More news soon! And thank you everyone who has been making this work such a success in this past year.
Meghann
Uweza Aid Foundation
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