Dear Fund-raising Committee and Online Volunteers,
We are happy to write the good news that CBSM has received more donations towards the down payment on the land for our school facilities. Sue G, Julie M, Giancarlo M and Andrea N have kindly sent in donations.
We now have received nearly 50% of the money we need.
Please continue working hard so that we might be able to make the down payment and thus be able to continue with the school next year. If we are not able to make the down payment, we will have to relocate once again and this would be such a shame. The children need a stable and safe place to go to school.
Thank you,
Lia and Rev. Wasike
P.S. Part of the down payment is being collected through PayPal and another part is through betterplace.org and the rest is through fund raising efforts of the CBSM women co-ops.
The first Kimilili Football Tournament was a roaring success.
We are working through all the photos and collecting all the stories of this momentous day.
Please stay tune...
Dear Children of CBSM, Today is your big day! The first Kimilili Football Tournament! Good Luck and Fair Play!Even though you will be cheered on in the Kimilili Stadium by your friends and families, please know that you have a large number of fans cheering for you from far-off places as well.One spezial sponsor of yours is a wedding shop called Champagne & Strawberries* in the UK. The owner and workers of the shop think so well of your football playing, they have made a donation of £48 GBP. Christina, a CBSM volunteer, wants to ask you if you will send Champagne and Strawberries a photo of your team with all of your names. Do you think that is possible?We’ll be looking forward to Rev. Wasike’s stories of all the day’s going-ons.All the best,Your Fans from Afar Champagne & Strawberriesare a wedding shop based in Taunton, Somerset, UK. They sell a large variety of wedding dresses, other wedding clothing and accessories.
written by LiaWe would like to welcome Helmores Estate Agent in Devon, South-West of England for generously signing on as sponsors of our Kimilili Football Tournament. This family-run estate agent are donating £100 GBP towards the tournament and the down payment on the land.When one of our UK volunteers, Christina, recently approached them about the possibility of acting as sponsors, they immediately said yes. They are strong supporters of their community locally, and happily extend their support to faraway Kimilili. For they recognise what a good thing the tournament is for the community, and that the children badly need their school land secured. Their website is www.helmores.com
written by Lia
Well, as you can imagine with the football tournament only two days away, we are in the fury of activity organising all the last details. It has been a wild and wonderful journey so far and we only hope we have created the best conditions for the children to show off their football talents. Hopefully, the adults will come in large numbers to celebrate the children’s athletic skills and dedication.
UN volunteers from India, Canada and the UK, have teamed together with Lia in Germany and Rev. Wasike in Nairobi and the CBSM Community in Kimilili to make this event memorable. A number of private donations have insured that we will be able to offer the 230 children participating in the event proper food and refreshment. Many of the children are walking long distances to the event and so will be in need of sustenance. We were able to raise funds to buy a football. Rev. Wasike is still trying to see if he cannot get the loan of two more balls so that they can play some games parallel.
CBSM has rented the local stadium and PA system for the day. Keep your fingers crossed that the rains wait until the event is over before falling.
Rick arrived from the UK on Monday. Rev. Wasike and his wife met him at the Kenyatta International Airport for two hours to get to know him and make arrangements for his performance on Saturday.
Christina in the UK has found three potential sponsors wanting to contribute to our goal of making a substantial down payment on the land.
Your comments here and through emails have been important towards convincing others of the worthiness of our cause.
For all of you across the globe who have made such fine efforts to make the first Kimilili Football Tournament happen, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
written by Lia
The world is small and the coincidences large... we heard that the singer and social activist,Rick Sharpe, was coming to Kimilili this week to visit the children and widows of the OMWABINI Rescue Steps Charity. One of our UN volunteers contacted him and told him about the Kimilili Football Tournament. Not one to be shy of making a spontaneous commitment, Rick Sharpe has promised to perform at the tournament! What wonderful news this is! Rick Sharpe has been travelling to Africa for the last 25 years and has been engaged as a volunteer both on the ground and back in the UK for most of this time. He raises funds and awareness by putting on gigs and events, visiting Kenya when he can to work with the children. The projects that most interest him are those that promote the construction of traditional housing for the widows and children, freshwater projects, education, and work in the AIDS clinic.During this trip, Rick is making a documentary about the OMWABINI Rescue Steps Charity, recording the children’s choir singing SwahiliGospel music, as well as working in the AIDS Hospital at Webye. With all this on his plate, you can imagine how delighted we are that he is taking time to support CBSM’s fundraising efforts and perform at our Kimilili Football Tournament on July 3rd.
written by Lia
We have been experiencing further pressure from the landlord of our school to make the down payment towards the purchase of the land that our temporary facilities are built upon. If we do not manage to do so before September there is a real chance that we will be out on the streets, as it were, come the end of this year.
So far, ten community members in Kimilili have pledge funds (a total of 200 USD). Steve in the States has made a private donation of 100 USD. And we are hopeful that members of the betterplace.org might also find it in their hearts to contribute.
Even though the amounts given are a good start, we must show resilience and invent other ways to raise funds for the needed deposit (1,5000 USD). With the help of Christina, a volunteer in the UK and two other local volunteers in Nairobi, we have requested CBSM Kimilili to organize a fundraising football tournament involving CBSM children and other schools in Kimilili Town.
The district sports officer of Kimilili is on board, as is the chief executive of the Citizen TV/radio station and they have promised to cover the event. As you can imagine we are very excited about this news and hopeful that we will raise the needed attention and funds to make the down payment.
The tournament will be held on July 3rd, 2010. There will be a total of 16 teams, each with 6 players (10-12 years old). Each game will be 20 minutes long and the winning team will receive a trophy.
We are also planning to run three other events in between matches - a singing and dancing competition, an art auction and a costume race using recycled materials.
We would appreciate it if you could please spread the word of this tournament to your friends and family.
In this time of Football/Soccer fever, it does well to think of about how this game is about good fair competitive spirit and how it can bring about positive change in children’s lives. Please do consider donating 5-10 dollars towards this cause. Every bit helps.
written by Lia Hadley
I'd like to post a profile of one of the women in CBSM whose hard work and active participation has done much to build a strong community over the last years. Janerose Kuya epitimises how the empowerment of women does not stay with the one, but its goodness spreads to many.
Janerose Kuya is the business leader in one of our Village Phone Salons (VPS) situated in Baraki Area at the Kuywa Junction about 20 kilometres away from Kimilili, Kenya. She and her husband are the main caretakers of their nine children and four grandchildren. They have four acres of land; half of which they plant with maize and beans for livestock fodder and to sell in the market five kilometers away. The other two acres they use as a homestead and kitchen garden. They also keep cows, sheep, and a few goats.
Janerose started in June 2009 the self-help women’s co-op to improve women’s incomes. They opened up their VPS with the help of a private micro-loan (150 USD). In the first six months, they experienced many challenges and successes as local Village Phone Operators (VPOs). The initial challenges resulted from the nation-wide drought, since people
did not use phone services when they needed to use what money they had to pay for food. It was also difficult for the VPS to establish regular customers due to strong competition.
Yet there have also been many successes. Janerose’s co-op was able to pay off their micro-loan early. They received enough income from the VPS that all of the co-op members’ families were given sufficient supplies of milk during the famine months. Since the harvest late last August, there has been a steady increase in the number of regular
customers and, as a result, an increase in income for the co-op members.
Janerose has become a role model of a successful businesswoman within the community. She is now a group leader in a women’s gardening co-op. She has not only discovered new friends through this venture, but she has also achieved a new standing within the
circle of community elders.
If you want to read more about Janerose and her women's co-op please download this pdf.
Starting in 1991, the nonprofit social enterprise organization KickStart began selling low-cost, human-powered irrigation pumps to enable smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa (mainly in Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mali, and Tanzania, but also other countries) to enhance productivity, improve household incomes, and sustainably contribute to poverty reduction. Approximately 130,000 pumps have been sold across Sub-Saharan Africa, irrigating over 31,000 hectares of land. With a $35–95 MoneyMaker pump, a farmer can grow and sell enough additional produce to make considerable progress from poverty toward middle class. For the people using them, KickStart pumps have led to an increase in annual household income of 100–200 percent.
In our last workshop, private donors donated enough funds for us to be able to give 3 kickstart pumps to the various women's co-ops. They have been proven to be saving devices in combating drought conditions.
Plot of land CBSM is trying to buy. The temporary school facilities is in background.
The success of our work often relies on creating a circle of help and participation. We are very fortunate to have a lively community of people in Kimilili, as well as in other places in Kenya and in other countries. We are all working our hardest to create a better life for the children and widows of Kimilili. At the moment, we are asking the betterplace.org members to join this circle.
The landowner has asked Rev. Wasike for a down payment of 1000 Euros by the beginning of September to assure that the children can start school again in their temporary facilities. This down payment will be 30% of the total cost of the land. If we do not raise this money by then, the CBSM school children will have to leave the land and start over again to find a place to learn.
The 380 Euros we are hoping to raise at betterplace.org represents 10% of the cost of the land we need to purchase. The Kimilili community members have made pledges to raise another 10% and have already raised half of this sum. The last 10% we are hoping to raise through a fund raising event in Germany this summer.
We believe this circle of help, where everyone carries a small load on their shoulders, is the best way to move forward.
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