Quick Cyrus Update (and some other stuff)

Hi everyone,

I'm sure Meghann will be able to blog soon with a more thorough report of everything that's getting done in Kenya but I just thought I'd take a second to update everyone on what is happening with Cyrus (pictured here, photo taken last year at Tunza).

As of this week, he has slowly been regaining a little bit of his sight. He can now see up close and can make out shapes. He can tell if someone is in front of him and can identify things (e.g. telling the difference between a dog and a person) but his vision is not good enough that he can identify the person or see colors or anything far away.

He was taken to the Kikuyu eye clinic this Friday and they said that they were happy with his progress and would like to continue the same treatment that he had been originally given. We were told that it would take 3 to 4 weeks for the swelling of his optic nerves to go down and at that point, we will be able to assess how well he will be able to see. It has been a week since that point so we are very hopeful that he will continue to make progress in the coming weeks! He will be returning to the eye clinic on November 11.

Along with Cyrus, we (note: I say we as in Uweza because I was not involved and there only in spirit), brought one of the HIV+ patients from our Tumaini Health program to the Kikuyu eye clinic. She has been having trouble seeing and was given medication and will return in two weeks for further assessment. We hope that her condition will improve as well.

Our Tunza FC teams continue to practice every week, and I received an email from one of the oldest boys on the under-18 team about how their team is doing: with our Tunza team its going on well, hope that you will continue sponsoring us, we normally go to training every day, our coaches this round are serious on this hope come December in the tournament we will win!"

Finally, this week Meghann met two girls in Kibera that had compelling stories and we were able to provide them with uniforms so they could continue going to school. One of the girls is 12 and in class 4. She lives with her aunt who is paralyzed and bedridden due to having suffered from a stroke. The girl is responsible for taking care of her aunt and doing everything for the household and was not attending school because she could not afford the uniform. Her cousin is 10 and in class 3. She traveled to Kibera from Eldoret with her mother, after being chased from their home during the violence following the election. Her mother hasn't been able to make enough money to purchase the uniform and supplies needed to send her daughter to school. Uweza was able to provide both of them with uniforms and according to Meghann one of the girls kept chanting "I'm going to school again!" excitedly while purchasing the uniforms.

That's all I have - I think Meghann will be updating with more information soon.

Oh, sponsorship welcome packets are being sent out VERY soon. We sincerely apologize for the delay and are working hard to get them finished.

Thanks (as always) for reading and for your support.

Jen

I think we're finally staying on top of the blog...

So I just wanted to quickly update everyone while I was thinking of the recent updates here at Uweza. Like Jen said previously in the blog, we have been falling behind on some of our projects because of the situation with Cyrus. This week I have spent 4 out of the last 7 days at a hospital up to 15 hours a day working on the case of Cyrus. His bill at Kenyatta amounted to a number we simply could not continue to afford. So we were working together with the hospital for a future payment plan, as they refused to release him. At first it was crazy to think how the National Hospital did not wish to help this orphaned boy who is now blind by releasing some of his debt, but the more we thought about it, we thought about the thousands of other poor and destitute that the National Hospital caters to and we began to see our payments as a donation to helping the hospital achieve the power to help all of the others unable to afford private care in Kenya.

We also wanted to inform everyone on the official diagnosis of Cyrus. The doctors had been struggling with his case for days trying to diagnosis the direct problem. They were sure of a bacteria infection but they could not quite pinpoint the overall problem, and it was especially difficult as he was unconscious and not able to answer any questions. The final result, after talking with Cyrus once he was stabilized, was that he had also suffered from methanol poisoning. Thankfully, the doctors suspected this all along and provided Cyrus with the proper treatment. Cyrus received methanol poisoning from taking a methylated spirit, a household cleaner at Tunza Children's Center. We were surprised and saddened to hear this news because now we must also question why Cyrus chose to take this toxic chemical. The children at the Center have had no one to talk with about things such as drugs or the traumatic events they've had to deal with as orphans, and so we are not sure if he was suffering from depression nor do we know what he wished to accomplish from drinking cleaning fluid.

We are happy to see now that the counselors will be there for the children to discuss these matters. We are excited to see their progress so far, as Jen has mentioned in the previous blog, and we hope their presence will prevent cases such as Cyrus from happening again.

So as of Thursday, Cyrus was released from the hospital on a payment plan. He was referred to both an ophthamologist for his eyes, and a psychiatrist to seek counseling and find out why he chose to take the methylated spirit. So immediately, yesterday on Friday morning, we all awoke at 5am to take Cyrus to Kikuyu Hospital, a center with one of the best (and affordable) eye care facilities in the country. We arrived to be the second in line for the clinic that opens at 8am, however, we still spent the rest of the day getting tests and seeing specialists. At the end of the day, we were told that the methanol had permanently damaged his optic nerves, however, because of complications the nerves were still swollen. The doctor noted that partial sight could return once the swelling had been reduced, which would naturally occur in the next 3-4 weeks. In the meantime, Cyrus has been given vitamins and nutritional supplements to help his eyes heal, in hopes that if the vitamins are pumped into the recovery of his eyes during swelling, he may gain his sight back. Unfortunately, however, there is no guarantee yet and he is to return to the eye clinic to seek further treatment in one week.

After the situation at Kenyatta, our plan has been to first diagnose his eye problems and find a way forward. After we are through with the eye clinic, we will be taking him to counseling, and in the meantime he will talk with the Tunza counselor, Collins, that we have hired. If his eyesight doesn't return, we will search for alternative methods of schooling and sponsorship for Cyrus. Again, we are so saddened to see his life turned upside down, all for making one simple mistake and we want to try and help him move forward in the best ways possible.

As of today, the hospital care for Cyrus has amounted to around 56,850 Kenya shillings (around $780 US dollars), however, we and Tunza Children's Center, are in a great deal of debt. If anyone could help to provide for the care of Cyrus, please donate or contact us for more details.

Aside from Cyrus, we have been working with two babies needing formula in our HIV+ program that Jen discussed previously. We have tried clinics throughout Kibera and have had no success in finding a feeding program so that the children may receive formula. There is such a need, especially in Kibera, for formula due to the high infections of HIV among the population. But we are determined to get these two children formula, in hopes that it will save them from being HIV+.

Lastly, we have finally moved some of the support group goods to the United States and will soon be selling them there to everyone. The support group project helps a lot of our HIV+ patients to earn a living and provide for their families, while still helping to set up a fund for themselves in providing loans and healthcare during emergency times. Recently, this week we sold some goods to a few American students studying in Nairobi. When Daniel, our health director, went to the home of one HIV+ women, Mary, to give her portion of the profits, she was completely overjoyed. She told Daniel that it must be a miracle that he came on this day because she had no money in the house and no way of providing food for her children. She was so overjoyed to get 400 kenya shillings (around $6 US dollars) she even offered to give Daniel 100 shillings of the profit for helping her. But Daniel informed her that she had received her deserved share, and the rest of the profit would be put into the support group funds for loans and hospital care. By buying these goods, your donations make an impact on a personal and local level, as in the case of Mary, so please stay tuned for more on support group sales soon!


That is all the news for now, more soon!

Meghann

Update from America

Unlike the past blog entries, this one is being written from the United States. I returned home last Saturday, but still wanted to give everyone a heads up on what we were up to right before I left and also what has been happening since then. Meghann is still in Kenya and working hard to keep all of our projects running and make good use of our donations.

There is not a lot to update about since the last blog entry because our time and energy has been consumed with trying to handle the situation with Cyrus. Since we last wrote, Cyrus had made a lot of progress. He was moved from the ICU to a normal ward where he has been slowly recovering. He can now eat and communicate almost normally. Unfortunately, he is still completely blind. The doctors at Kenyatta had been assuring us that an ophthalmologist would be coming to check on his eyes and see what they could do, but unfortunately, that never happened. As is the case in America (and certainly other places), lack of funds for healthcare necessitates poorer quality care. This is not to say that Cyrus is suffering or not receiving decent care, but Kenyatta was the best we could do with our limited budget and we, undoubtedly along with numerous other Kenyans, have been growing frustrated with the general idea that good health must be bought.

This aside, considering the condition that Cyrus was in when we rushed him to Nairobi Hospital (where we did pay large amounts to ensure adequate care in the emergency situation), it is very likely that we saved his life. And we have been doing our best to make sure Cyrus is as happy and healthy as possible, despite his inability to see. We have visited every day, made sure he is eating and drinking enough and have been communicating with the doctors about the best options from this point on. He is being discharged in the next few days and we will be taking him immediately to an eye clinic to see what can be done. We won't be giving up on the chance that his eyesight may still return. We're also, in the event that he will remain blind, trying to find options for alternative schooling and care once he returns to Tunza so that he can continue to lead a normal life as possible.

So far, his hospital bills have amounted to about 50,000 shillings (about 700 USD) and they are still increasing. Because we are a new, small organization, this has taken a tremendous toll on our budget and we are starting to worry that it will affect our ability to maintain our other projects. We are continuing to reach out to our supporters or anyone that may have stumbled on this blog for assistance. All of the donations that we have received in the past have allowed us do the very best we could to help Cyrus but now we need help to continue being able to do so.

In Tumaini Health news, the patient that was pregnant and due at any time has given birth to a healthy baby girl. We are continuing to look for formula to ensure the baby is not HIV positive. We have provided her with milk, sugar and bottles as a temporary solution while we visit clinics to see what can be done.

We previously mentioned the beaded goods that the HIV+ support groups make and that we would be selling them so that the ladies of the group could earn some income for themselves and their families. After throwing away about half of my wardrobe at the airport to be able to get my bags under the allowed weight, I have carried 568 pieces of jewelry (necklaces and bracelets) back to the United States. Half of the proceeds from the sales will go straight to the individual who made the piece and the rest will be used to buy more materials and will go into a group fund that will be used to provide hospital care, medicine, and other needs for the members of the group. We will be posting pictures of the available items as well as more information on the Tumaini website (www.tumainihealth.org) in the coming weeks.

We have been continuing to visit the girls that were moved from Tunza to Hekima Place and they are doing really really well. The youngest girl, who is HIV positive, is gaining weight like crazy and has still remained off of ARV treatment. They have all made friends with the other girls and are really comfortable in the new home. They're attending school and overall, couldn't be happier.

Lastly, the counselors that we hired to work with the kids at Tunza have started holding sessions once a week. There is a male working with the boys and a female working with the girls. So far, they have held two sessions. The female counselor had the girls each write her letters so she could get to know them better and she let us know that they are being really open with her. The male counselor has told us that the boys are also being really open and the older boys have already started talking to him about issues of sexuality and asking questions about HIV. With over 70 kids at Tunza and only one caretaker, the kids (especially the ones that have reached adolescence) haven't really ever had the chance to express the problems and issues they deal with in an effective way and we're really excited about this opportunity for them.

For those of you who have sponsored a child, we are almost finished with the welcome packets and I will be mailing them out very soon!

Although this blog was originally intended to be for the summer while we were both in Kenya, we are going to continue to update it with what we're up to as long as one of us is in Kenya carrying out work so keep checking back.

Thanks for your reading and for your continued support. We wouldn't have been able to save Cyrus, feed a baby, support a group of HIV positive women or hire counselors without you. We may carry out the work but everything we do is made possible solely by the donations we receive so thank you.

Jen

A bit of news...

So things have kind of slowed here at Uweza right now, and we've been struggling to catch up on summer overdue summer work; mainly, the sponsorship updates and welcome packets. For those of you sponsoring a child, we really apologize but the updates are running a little late. Please expect them in the mail in the next few weeks.

But as for the organization, we have been really trying to get things done because Jen leaves this week and I am in school much of the time during the week.

Our Soccer League teams in Kibera have been busy practicing for their upcoming tournaments. Recently, all three teams were involved in a few tournaments with other Kibera teams. The Under 17 Tunza FC team won a few games, but never made it to the finals of the tournaments unfortunately. Our younger boys all did really well also, but they lost their first games in the tournaments, causing them to lose their place to advance to the next stage. All the teams have been practicing really hard lately in preparation for the upcoming tournaments. We are excited to say that we are working on setting up our own Uweza Soccer League tournament as well and will be inviting other teams in Kibera to join-- more news on this soon! Also, we are going to start a girls' Tunza FC team because the girls from the orphanage all expressed strong desire in playing soccer, like the boys. We are happy to give the girls the productive and recreational activity as well!

In Jamii Children's Center news, we are happy to report that the kitchen has been completely finished and the door, walls, and floor reconstructed. The two stoves are now in full use everyday so the volunteer kitchen staff can cook for all the children of the school. It has been a great help for the kitchen staff because they are able to cook with more efficiency, and the new sink has added more sanitary measures to the cooking process. Also, the kitchen has become a healthy environment for the staff members, because they are no longer inhaling all the smoke from the cooking due to the new chimneys. Additionally, the new stoves use less firewood per use now so it is saving the school and our organization money in the long run. As for the kids at Jamii, as previously mentioned, they all are having fun learning with their new school supplies from the Backpack Project and the available classrooms after the refugees have moved out. Learning is now back to normal at the center, and has even improved in the last few months with the help of the school supplies. We hope to be taking the kids on some educational field trips in the next few weeks and will update everyone on that soon.

With our health project, we have been preparing to bring some of the support group crafts to America for sale there and gain support for the groups. With the support group crafts, the women and men do bead work and make handbags for sale in local markets and internationally. 50% of the profit goes towards the owner of the bag or goods and helps the HIV+ patient to afford for his/her family's daily living expenses. 20% goes towards buying new materials for the groups to make further crafts, and 30% goes towards the group fund (which helps to provide emergency medical care and gives loans for business startup to the group members). We hope to soon be able to sell these goods from the US, and we will update everyone on our progress in the future. With the rest of the health outreach, its business as usual; we have been maintaining our home visit program and have been working with the HIV+ support groups.

And with the most news comes Tunza Children's Center. We have been working with them a lot lately to try and improve the living situations of the kids and to register Tunza as an official organization with the government. We have partnered with Faces of Kibera in the hiring of professional counselors (one male and one female) to come twice a week and interact with the children. We have been meeting with them and Mama Tunza, the director of the Center, in the last few weeks to try and work out a curriculum and time frame for discussion with the kids at the Center. We are hoping this can provide an outlet for dialogue for the kids, as well as give them a mentor or role model to look up to and talk to on a normal basis. Furthermore, the counselors can help to make Uweza more aware of the problems that certain kids in the Center are facing, so that we can handle these issues as they arise. We hope to start the sessions with the kids this coming week.

Lately, the Center has struggled with a bit of a food crisis as well, and so we have been helping to provide for food for the kids at a time when they are struggling to find any at all.

On Friday, every school in Nairobi was closed so that children could attend the International Trade Fair at Jamhuri Showgrounds, just next to Kibera. We decided to use this as a field trip for the Tunza kids, and so on Friday, we walked over 50 of the kids to the show because they had been begging to go all morning. They had a lot of fun, and we wanted to thank all the donors for helping us to send them to the show. They saw a lot of different animals and learned about farming and agriculture; they also saw many performances from local groups in theatre, music and dance. It was a fun day at the fair and the kids really enjoyed it, they were even treated to some ice cream. Pictures soon!

And the last bit of news comes about one of the orphans at Tunza Children's Center. Recently, Cyrus Renji, a 16 year old boy who has been living at Tunza for the last 3 years, has fallen ill. Cyrus attends Ayany Primary School and is about to graduate Class 8 and move on to Secondary School. He enjoys soccer and is a member of our Under 17 Tunza FC Team and attends practice and games regularly. At the Center, he is always around helping to do construction work and repairing the Center, and he does very well in school. On Wednesday of this past week, Cyrus was suffering from a headache and stayed home from school to rest. On Thursday, he woke at 7am suffering from his headache still and blurred vision. At this time, we decided to take him to the clinic to get a checkup and so we helped him to St. Mary's clinic in Kibera to seek treatment. By the time he arrived at the clinic, he had completely lost all of his vision and was quickly becoming confused and disoriented. At St. Mary's they referred him to Kenyatta National Hospital or a larger, more equipped hospital to handle his diagnosis. Kenyatta National Hospital is a big and bustling national hospital that caters to all who cannot afford any other means and many more from all over Kenya. At Kenyatta, when you enter the emergency room, you can see lines of people laying out on stretchers waiting to be seen, and even many on the floor if their are no more stretchers. These people, no matter what their condition, wait hours and hours throughout the day to be seen by a doctor or any medical personnel. Some end up dying just in the waiting room because they have not yet been seen.

And so at the time, we saw Cyrus quickly deteriorating and we knew Kenyatta was not the best option and he would die waiting to see a doctor. So we took him for treatment to Nairobi Hospital, a private hospital. By the time we arrived, Cyrus was still unable to see at all and was confused and disoriented and almost unconscious. He was rushed in to receive treatment and was given a CT scan and lab tests. The lab results came back that he had suffered from a specific viral and bacteria infection that had spread throughout, causing his current symptoms. So he began the proper treatment immediately and was put on an IV and heart monitor. By nightfall he was unconscious and still not recovering quickly enough, so he had to be admitted; after he had now been treated and was being monitored, we chose to admit him to Kenyatta Hospital to afford the bill. He was rushed by ambulance to Kenyatta where he was admitted to the Acute Room as he awaited a bed at the Intensive Care Unit. We surprised to be informed that for Kenyatta Hospital, the main and national hospital for all of Kenya, the Intensive Care Unit had only 12 beds. But we were glad to see that he was being treated in the Acute Room. By Friday, he was able to be admitted to the ICU where he is now recovering. We are really happy to see the progress he has made, he is now completely off his breathing machine that he had been relying on, and is slightly more responsive and alert; however, his eyesight has still not returned.

We wanted to tell all of those who have supported and have been aware of our projects here at Uweza to ask for your assistance. Now, more than ever, we really need your help. Uweza chose to intervene in the situation of Cyrus because there was no one else; he is a complete orphan with no other options than the Center, and the Center does not have the funds to provide such intensive medical care. Without all of our supporters there would be no Uweza; and without Uweza, Cyrus would have died that day had he not received immediate and proper medical treatment. We are hoping that with Uweza, he can continue to recover and maybe receive his eyesight back. But he has a long way to go, and his care so far has put a very large burden on our organization. We are really hoping that our supporters can come to our rescue to help Cyrus recover by means of hospital care. So far, our organization has accepted the burden of the Nairobi Hospital bill of 25,000 Kenya shillings (around $400.00 US dollars) but this alone has wiped out a lot of our funds designated for hospital care, and his Kenyatta bill (which we assume will be even more than this due to the duration of his stay) has yet to be paid, and we cannot afford to provide for this alone.

Please please please, if you can help to fund his care in anyway donate online here or send a check or money order to:
Uweza Aid Foundation
P.O. Box 1042
Evanston, IL 60201
United States

We know our supporters will come through for this cause, and if you can do anything to provide please help us in this time of need. As for the rest, thank you again to all who have been supporting us and spreading our news-- we could not do this without all of you, and everything we do and write here in our blog is all that you have done. So thanks again and we will be informing you all more on our projects soon!

Meghann

Good news!!

I know this is crazy that we are posting twice in one day when usually it is weeks between posts but I wanted to announce that we have officially been approved by the IRS for tax exemption and are now recognized as a 501(c)(3) public charity.

So all donations that we receive are tax deductible and all of our activities are tax exempt.

We are excited!!

A quick update (that ended up being not so quick)

Things have started to slow down a little bit because Meghann has started school and the rainy season has prevented us from being as active as we'd like to be but we are still doing our best to get things done!

Kenya schools have started up again after the break between the second and third term and we were able to enroll ten of our sponsored children to start the term at a new school. Following enrollment, we brought them into downtown Nairobi to a uniform store and provided them with two full sets of school uniforms, two pairs of socks, two P.E. uniforms and a new pair of shoes. Even in the poorest parts of Kenya, you can find kids in uniform because of the importance placed on education and being able to afford a uniform is associated with wealth and success. So it was great to be able to get the kids uniforms and to ease the burden of affording education to their parents and families.

In addition to providing uniforms, we distributed backpacks provided by our donors and any needed school supplies. Of the ten kids that we enrolled for this term, five are children of HIV positive patients that participate in our Tumaini Health Outreach. They have been out of school because their parents have been too sick to work and unable to send them. Those that had been attending school were attending schools within the Kibera slum that had poor infrastructure and insufficient funding. They are all now attending Ayany Estate Primary School or Olympic Primary School, both government-run schools with permanent structures in Kibera.

We support about 20 children through the sponsorship program (although some are still without sponsors) and the rest will be starting the new school year at a new school in January.

For those of you that have sponsored a child, we are working on completing the welcome packets for each student and hope to send them out by the end of this week. We still have some students that are attending school but do not yet have specific sponsors. If you are interested in sponsoring a child or finding more about the sponsorship program you can go here: http://www.uweza.org/sponsorship.

Last Saturday we had the chance to take our five soccer teams from Kibera (three Tunza teams and two Jamii teams) to the Kenya World Cup Qualifying Soccer match against Namibia. We loaded about 60 boys from the teams onto buses and traveled to the outskirts of Nairobi to the stadium that holds up to 60,000 people. Our seats were right next to the field and the boys had a great time cheering on the Kenyan national team to victory. The final score was 1-0 and Kenya is one step closer to qualifying for the World Cup. They really enjoyed the game and were so grateful to have the opportunity to go. It was good to get them out of Kibera for the day and see what the future may hold if they really build their soccer skills!

Its business as usual with the rest of our projects. Home visits with the Tumaini Health Outreach this week brought us to a 40 year-old man HIV positive man who is currently diagnosed with TB. He showed us skins lesions that had developed on his chest, arms, face and legs. He said that he had recently visited a doctor but the doctor said nothing about the lesions, despite the obviousness of the lesions on his face. We suspect that it is skin cancer, common in HIV positive patients and asked that he go to Ushirika, the clinic where our outreach is based, for a referral to a hospital where he can be treated, most likely with chemotherapy. We will be visiting him tomorrow to follow up. Another patient, a 30 year-old HIV-positive woman, is pregnant with her third child. She is past due and we are waiting in anticipation for the birth. Hopefully, she will be calling us when she goes into labor so that we can provide adequate hospital care to ensure that both the mother and the baby are safe and healthy during delivery. We're also still on the lookout for formula that can be donated to ensure that the positive status of the mother is not transmitted to the baby.

We have looked at several plots of land for our proposed pre-primary school in the past few weeks. There were two or three that we are interested in and would work out great for a potential school, so we're going to meet with the owners in the coming week to discuss how feasible it will be for us to make a purchase.

Time to run, we're going to spend the evening at Hekima Place celebrating the birthday of one of the girls. Thanks for reading and (we can never say it enough) your continued support.

Jen

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