For the last year or so, we have been working hard to get the home’s shamba (farm) up and running so that it produces crops that can be harvested and eaten by the children. We started with one small plot of potatoes and slowly but surely more and more of the land is being cultivated. Some of this is being done by the older children who have been allocated plots by staff but the amazing thing is that a lot of this is being done by young children who have a passion for farming and are choosing to set up their own small shambas within the compound.

This weekend I was taken on a tour to see how the recent rains have helped the shamba to flourish. Even though I’ve been visiting regularly I was still shocked to see just how well things are doing. There were even new plots that had been dug and planted since my last visit and small tyre gardens that were just being started now have a variety of vegetables, maize and beans growing in them. The enthusiasm the children have is amazing…and these are the young ones who are still in primary school!

One of the best farmers is a young boy called Seth. Seth is in class seven at primary school and uses what he has learned in agriculture classes at school to help him develop his shamba. This year, he is growing maize, beans, kales, potatoes and pumpkins. His plot is continually growing and he has a nursery bed where he plants seeds and then transplants some to his shamba and gives some of the younger boys some to plant in their own plots. I asked Seth why he liked farming and he said “When there is no food, we can eat from here!” The farmer in the plot next to him, Stephen, told me “If we grow enough, we can sell some.” I asked him where the money would go and he said “We can give it to matron and she can buy things we need like beans or pens.”

As well as helping with self-sustainability, these farms are giving the children a tremendous sense of pride. They love to show people around and tell them what has been planted, as my parents learned when they visited recently. The children also ask me to take their photos and show previous volunteers and visitors what they are doing and are thrilled when I go back and tell them someone posted a comment on Facebook saying what a great job they are doing.

Our next Kumi Kommunity event is an open day at Kandara Children’s Home on Sunday 3^rd June. This is a chance for our friends in Kenya to come and meet these amazing young farmers, see what they are growing and give them a chance to shine with pride. There will be an opportunity to see around the home, including the St Andrews Baby Unit and our award winning ECD (Early Childhood Development) Unit. We will also have various activities to get involved in including a football match between the Kandara children and a team from Kibera.

Kumi Kommunity – Kandara Edition promises to be a fantastic day out. We hope to see you there! 

If you are interested in joining us, please get in touch. We plan to arrange transport from Nairobi for the day and would like to confirm numbers as soon as possible.

(Please note there will be a charge for anyone using the transport we provide as we aim to keep our administration costs as low as possible to ensure that funds raised go to the projects we support.)

As you may have read, we are celebrating our 10^th anniversary throughout 2012. The plans that we have been discussing for several months are starting to take shape and we have a variety of different events and activities scheduled to take place.

My role in this has been helping to come up with some of the ideas, putting together resource materials that can be used in Kenya and overseas and setting up a mini-site to keep everyone updated with what’s happening while looking back over the last ten years.

It has been lovely collecting stories from a variety of people about lives changed by Vision Africa and the impact it has had on communities. We look forward to sharing more of these as the year goes on. Some of the events lined up include Kumi Kuisine Dinner Parties which will officially launch on the 10^th March and our Kumi Kwiz which I get the pleasure of being the first to try out at a quiz night on the 23^rd February. These events will all raise awareness of what Vision Africa is all about and some much-needed funds which will allow us to continue with our work.

One event in particular has really captivated me and given me an insight in to the lives of the children and youths we are working with. We are planning to hold art exhibitions, known as Kumi Kulture, both here and overseas. These will include pieces of art in a variety of forms produced by children at the projects we partner with. To add some context to the work, I thought it would be interesting to get pictures of the projects and then came up with the idea of getting the children to take the pictures so we can see life from their perspective!

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been visiting projects and asking children to take five photographs of people, things or places at their project that are important to them. The children have to set up the shot – tell people were to stand, whether to pose or carry out an activity, to smile or be serious – and they must be the one to press the button on the camera and actually take the photograph when they like what they see. The results have been fascinating and often quite diverse.

I don’t want to give too much away as we hope you’ll be able to make it to one of the exhibitions later in the year but it is amazing to see what is important to a child. From water tanks to vegetables, friends to cupboards, animals to machines…the list is definitely varied. It has also been interesting to see the thought process they go through in deciding what to take their precious five photos of.

I had intended to only get a few children to participate but they seem to really enjoy it so I’m going to continue and then possibly make up a montage from each project including the ones that don’t make the exhibition.

There have been many touching moments as part of this piece of work but this week really made me smile. I went to visit our two schools for children with special needs and when I explained the project questions were raised as to whether or not the children could actually do this. So off I went with my photographers and their entourage of friends and we got the pictures done. The smiles and proud look on their faces and the teachers’ surprise at the results have really stuck in my head this week. So much so, I’ve decided to go back and get more children to take photos.

The next few months are going to be very busy but also very exciting and rewarding. I hope you’ll join us either online or at some of our events to celebrate our first ten years of working with disadvantaged children and giving them brighter futures.

Today’s smile is from Emmanuel who lives at the St Andrews Baby Unit in Kandara.

Today is Emmanuel’s first birthday! A year ago, he was born to a girl who was fifteen years old and lives with her grandmother as both her parents have passed away. The girl has a scholarship for secondary school and only had two years left until she completed her secondary education when her son was born. As her grandmother was unable to look after baby Emmanuel, he was brought to the St Andrews Baby Unit to be cared for as his mother finishes school.

Life wasn’t easy for him at first as he was extremely underweight and had issues with feeding. However, a year on and Emmanuel is a healthy, smiley little boy who is making great progress thanks to the care of matron Lucy and her team of staff at the St Andrews Baby Unit.

You can read more news from the St Andrews Baby Unit in a recent news article.

There are several ways you can support the St Andrews Baby Unit this festive season.

- Friends in Kenya can send donations via MPESA on 0702662351 or contact us to make a donation of food or other items.

- Friends in the UK can use our online giving page to make a donation or simply text VAVA11 £5 or VAVA11 £10 to 70070 to donate £5 or £10 (There are no charges for donating by text)

- Friends overseas can use our online giving page or support one of our three projects on GlobalGiving. All donations via GlobalGiving are tax-deductible for US taxpayers.

Today’s smile is from Joyce who lives at Mbeere Children’s Home in Riandu, near Embu.

Joyce was abandoned by her mother at a very young age. When she arrived at Mbeere Children’s Home she wasn’t in good health and her development was very delayed. Under the care of administrator, Henry, and his dedicated team Joyce started making progress.

These days, Joyce is a laughing little girl who happily goes to school along with all the other children from Mbeere Children’s Home. Although she still has a way to go, she has made remarkable progress and has a much brighter future ahead of her!

There are several ways you can support the Vision Africa this festive season.

- Friends in Kenya can send donations via MPESA on 0702662351 or contact us to make a donation of food or other items to one of our projects.

- Friends in the UK can use our online giving page to make a donation or simply text VAVA11 £5 or VAVA11 £10 to 70070 to donate £5 or £10 (There are no charges for donating by text)

- Friends overseas can use our online giving page or support one of our three projects on GlobalGiving. All donations via GlobalGiving are tax-deductible for US taxpayers.

* St Andrews Baby Unit - care of orphaned and abandoned babies in Kandara

* Seed of Hope - vocational training for disadvantaged teenage girls in Kisii, Kitui, Murang’a and Nairobi

* Kibera Mpira Mtaani - soccer and education in Kibera slums

Please take the opportunity this festive season to keep our children smiling by supporting our work in Kenya.

THANK YOU!

Today’s smile is from Gladys who has just completed her first year at our Seed of Hope centre in Kariti,  in Central Kenya.

Like all Seed of Hope centres, Kariti offers disadvantaged girls two years training in life skills, business skills and vocational skills. From next year, the curriculum will also include IT skills as the centre has just opened up its own computer centre to serve Seed of Hope students and also the wider community.

You can read all about this in a recent news article.

If we can get Seed of Hope Kariti connected with internet access, they will be able to post their own updates online and share more news about their work!

There are several ways you can support Seed of Hope this festive season.

- Friends in Kenya can send donations via MPESA on 0702662351 or contact us to make a donation of food or other items to one of our projects.

- Friends in the UK can use our online giving page to make a donation or simply text VAVA11 £5 or VAVA11 £10 to 70070 to donate £5 or £10 (There are no charges for donating by text)

- Friends overseas can use our online giving page or support one of our three projects on GlobalGiving. All donations via GlobalGiving are tax-deductible for US taxpayers.

* Seed of Hope - vocational training for disadvantaged teenage girls in Kisii, Kitui, Murang’a and Nairobi

Please take the opportunity this festive season to keep our girls smiling by supporting our work in Kenya.

THANK YOU!

Today’s smiles belong to Esther (Kandara Children’s Home School), Jacob (St Andrews Baby Unit) and John (Kandara Children’s Home who have all had a fun day out in Nairobi today!

Today was all about making Christmas special for a group of around fifty children from Kandara. They got to travel to Nairobi, jump on a bouncy castle, get lessons in photography, eat treats and have fun, games and even the odd Christmas Carol. This was all thanks to Vision Africa supporters who came together to ensure this would be a Christmas to remember. THANK YOU!

There are several ways you can support the Vision Africa this festive season.

- Friends in Kenya can send donations via MPESA on 0702662351 or contact us to make a donation of food or other items to one of our projects.

- Friends in the UK can use our online giving page to make a donation or simply text VAVA11 £5 or VAVA11 £10 to 70070 to donate £5 or £10 (There are no charges for donating by text)

- Friends overseas can use our online giving page or support one of our three projects on GlobalGiving. All donations via GlobalGiving are tax-deductible for US taxpayers.

* St Andrews Baby Unit - care of orphaned and abandoned babies in Kandara

* Seed of Hope - vocational training for disadvantaged teenage girls in Kisii, Kitui, Murang’a and Nairobi

* Kibera Mpira Mtaani - soccer and education in Kibera slums

Please take the opportunity this festive season to keep our children smiling by supporting our work in Kenya.

THANK YOU!

Today’s smile belongs to Benson from Percy Davies School for Children with Special Needs in Kambiti, Central Kenya.

What you can’t see from this photograph is that Benson’s arms stop just above where his elbows would be and he also has one artificial leg. In reality, it’s easy not to see Benson’s disability as he races around playing football, gets on with his work in class and always has a smile on his face.

Benson was one of the first students enrolled at Percy Davies School when it opened in May 2008. It wasn’t long before teachers realised the potential he had and he was able to be transferred to the neighbouring mainstream primary school for lessons while using the boarding facilities at Percy Davies School.

For many children with physical disabilities living in rural parts of Kenya, the journey to their nearest school is impossible to make on a daily basis. By locating Percy Davies School within five hundred metres of a primary school and secondary school, students with physical disabilities have the opportunity to reach their full potential.

It is often said that Disability does not mean Inability and children like Benson are a great example to all of us.

There are several ways you can support the Vision Africa this festive season.

- Friends in Kenya can send donations via MPESA on 0702662351 or contact us to make a donation of food or other items to one of our projects.

- Friends in the UK can use our online giving page to make a donation or simply text VAVA11 £5 or VAVA11 £10 to 70070 to donate £5 or £10 (There are no charges for donating by text)

- Friends overseas can use our online giving page or support one of our three projects on GlobalGiving. All donations via GlobalGiving are tax-deductible for US taxpayers.

* St Andrews Baby Unit - care of orphaned and abandoned babies in Kandara

* Seed of Hope - vocational training for disadvantaged teenage girls in Kisii, Kitui, Murang’a and Nairobi

* Kibera Mpira Mtaani - soccer and education in Kibera slums

Please take the opportunity this festive season to keep our children smiling by supporting our work in Kenya.

THANK YOU!

Today’s smile is from Murfai who attends the Luther Academy in Kibera.

Being on Vision Africa’s sponsorship program at the Luther Academy in Kibera means that Murfai is kitted out with a school uniform, shoes and bags and also benefits from the feeding program at the school. For Murfai, his sponsorship has an additional benefit for him and his fellow students. Murfai is sponsored by a school in the UK which enjoys interacting with the children at Luther Academy. Letters and drawings have been sent between the two schools and it is hoped that they can learn more about each other’s cultures through such interactions.

There are several ways you can support the Vision Africa this festive season.

- Friends in Kenya can send donations via MPESA on 0702662351 or contact us to make a donation of food or other items to one of our projects.

- Friends in the UK can use our online giving page to make a donation or simply text VAVA11 £5 or VAVA11 £10 to 70070 to donate £5 or £10 (There are no charges for donating by text)

- Friends overseas can use our online giving page or support one of our three projects on GlobalGiving. All donations via GlobalGiving are tax-deductible for US taxpayers.

* St Andrews Baby Unit - care of orphaned and abandoned babies in Kandara

* Seed of Hope - vocational training for disadvantaged teenage girls in Kisii, Kitui, Murang’a and Nairobi

* Kibera Mpira Mtaani - soccer and education in Kibera slums

Please take the opportunity this festive season to keep our children smiling by supporting our work in Kenya.

THANK YOU!

Today’s smile is from Eric of the St Andrews Baby Unit in Kandara.

Eric was abandoned in a school playground when he was a tiny little baby. Things were looking bleak for him until someone found him and he was taken the to St Andrews Baby Unit in Kandara. The baby unit gives total care to babies from new born to three years who have been orphaned, abandoned or are in need of a safe place to stay. Under the care of matron Lucy and her team, Eric grew into a healthy little boy and started walking and enjoying playing with his friends.

For children like Eric who have no family to return to, the best outcome is that they will be fostered with the prospect of adoption. We were thrilled when Eric got exactly that opportunity. Two weeks ago, he joined his new family and if the three month foster placement goes well, they will apply for adoption and Eric will grow up in a loving family. Now that really is something to smile about!

There are several ways you can support the St Andrews Baby Unit and  Vision Africa this festive season.

- Friends in Kenya can send donations via MPESA on 0702662351 or contact us to make a donation of food or other items to one of our projects.

- Friends in the UK can use our online giving page to make a donation or simply text VAVA11 £5 or VAVA11 £10 to 70070 to donate £5 or £10 (There are no charges for donating by text)

- Friends overseas can use our online giving page or support one of our three projects on GlobalGiving. All donations via GlobalGiving are tax-deductible for US taxpayers.

* St Andrews Baby Unit - care of orphaned and abandoned babies in Kandara

* Seed of Hope - vocational training for disadvantaged teenage girls in Kisii, Kitui, Murang’a and Nairobi

* Kibera Mpira Mtaani - soccer and education in Kibera slums

Please take the opportunity this festive season to keep our children smiling by supporting our work in Kenya.

THANK YOU!

Today’s smile is from Patience who has just completed her first year at our Seed of Hope Centre in Nairobi.

Patience was coming towards the end of her first year at Seed of Hope when tragedy struck and she lost her home and all her belongings in a fire. Thankfully, some friends of Seed of Hope came to the rescue of Patience and her family and they managed to get a new home and some of their belongings replaced. You can read more of this story in the news section of our website.

Patience went in to the Christmas holidays on a high knowing that she will be able to report back to Seed of Hope in January and receive her second year of training in life skills, business skills and vocational skills. By the end of 2012 she will hopefully be working in her own business and smiling as she serves her customers!

There are several ways you can support Seed of Hope and  Vision Africa this festive season.

- Friends in Kenya can send donations via MPESA on 0702662351 or contact us to make a donation of food or other items to one of our projects.

- Friends in the UK can use our online giving page to make a donation or simply text VAVA11 £5 or VAVA11 £10 to 70070 to donate £5 or £10 (There are no charges for donating by text)

- Friends overseas can use our online giving page or support one of our three projects on GlobalGiving. All donations via GlobalGiving are tax-deductible for US taxpayers.

* St Andrews Baby Unit - care of orphaned and abandoned babies in Kandara

* Seed of Hope - vocational training for disadvantaged teenage girls in Kisii, Kitui, Murang’a and Nairobi

* Kibera Mpira Mtaani - soccer and education in Kibera slums

Please take the opportunity this festive season to keep our children smiling by supporting our work in Kenya.

THANK YOU!