With the academic year now underway we are sponsoring and paying fees for: 10 students at  university or colleges; 17 in secondary education; 65 in primary schools; and 17 in specialist schools for the disabled. These are children and young people who hitherto had no chance or access to any level of education. Hope through Education.

Our Projects continue, with the football kicking off, san pads being distributed, maize being milled for the community and our wayside porridge café being much appreciated by passers-by and the local community, the free Clinic for the disabled working at full stretch, and the micro finance project for the disabled ever-expanding. With the foul scourge of FGM now a thing of the past, we continue to educate the teen population, generally in matters acceptable-lifestyle, and specifically to avoid unplanned pregnancies. The cricket project is on hold, as we seek further, specialist advice on process and equipment.

With the grant from the Raval family we were able to proceed with our primary schools’ feeding programme, giving a tummy-busting, nourishing lunch to 1,761 kids at 9 local schools, which gives them the energy to fully engage with their studies. Filling tums… and minds.

We gathered 111 of our disabled community at St Peter’s to have them medically checked and assessed by qualified staff from Chuka hospital. This saved them the complications of individually having to arrange appointments with different specialists at the hospital, as well as the expense and difficulties of travel. These assessments will enable access to cheaper government medical insurance (there is no universal health care in Kenya), and also to obtain school scholarships for their children (secondary education is not free).

We are deeply grateful to Festival Medical Services (FMS) www.festival-medical.org for their very generous Grant to support our wide services to the disabled – through our rehabilitative free Clinic (the only one in the area), education at special schools, feeding, and general pastoral support for all the disabled and vulnerable.

I will be taking 3 visitors with me on our upcoming trip to Kenya from 14 – 23 February. Two are long-time supporters on return visits, the third is a medical student, referred by Festival Medical Services, who will be looking at possibilities and options of undertaking her Elective in our area.

Included in our Kenya visit will be going to the Kibera slums, to speak with current contacts about our mutual interests and needs, and meet a new organisation to discuss in particular micro finance in their context.