Friday 27^th April, between 7 and 9am, Panafric Hotel was the place to be for any serious entrepreneur in Nairobi.

It was our second ‘Plant a Seed’ breakfast in which we brought together an eclectic collection of Nairobi’s most successful entrepreneurs and business people for networking and sharing.

Our MC for the event was Mark Masai (CCTV, formerly NTV) who did a fantastic job of welcoming our guests and drawing everybody into the worthwhile conversation.

Our first session was a question and answer session with two successful entrepreneurs – Mwaniki Mageria of Balozi Productions and Faith Mamicha of Comity Travel.  It was extremely insightful to hear their experiences.  They shared what had made them successful, advice that had impacted on their businesses and their plans for the next ten years.  We all learned a lot!

We then heard from Seed of Hope, the benefactors of the event.  ‘Seed of Hope Centres’ rescue disadvantaged and vulnerable teenagers who have not had the opportunity to complete their education due to poverty or other unfortunate circumstances.  Seed of Hope trains the teenagers in Life Skills, Vocational Skills and Enterprise Skills, preparing them for a future of financial independence in which they can sustain themselves and their families, allowing them to be agents of change in their communities.  Our ‘Roots’ program facilitates business start-ups for our graduates, ensuring that they are equipped and empowered to reach their potential.

Purity, a second year student at Seed of Hope Nairobi, wowed the audience with her bursting confidence and hopes for the future.  She was truly an inspiration!  She shared how her dream was to learn from everyone in the room so that one day she would have a successful enterprise like those seated around her.

Finally, our guest of honour for the day, Mr James Gitau of Peak Performance shared with us on the theme of leadership.  He had a lot of wisdom to share from his years of experience and success.  It was a pleasure and privilege to listen to him share and divulge a little of his expertise.  We all left with a new motivation to inspire others around to work towards a brighter future.

Attending a Plant a Seed breakfast is a very worthwhile investment for anybody in business and the most rewarding element is that the proceeds from the breakfast are invested in Seed of Hope Centres.

If you attended – thank you for being with us and contributing to a brighter future for the teenagers of Seed of Hope.  If you didn’t – watch this space for the next date so that you don’t miss out next time!

If you would like to know more about Seed of Hope or find our how to sponsor one of our students please visit our website.

The idea behind “Plant a Seed” events is to give people an opportunity to share ideas, make new contacts and learn from leading business people. All profits from the event will be invested in our Seed of Hope centres which offer business skills, vocational skills and life skills training to disadvantaged youths and mentor them as they set up small businesses after graduation.

Our last Plant a Seed breakfast took place in 2010 with speakers Mugo Kibati and Joanne Mwangi, founder and managing director of Professional Marketing Services (PMS) (winner of the Top 100 SMEs award in 2010) talking on the theme of Vision 2030. Carol, who attended the event said “I would definitely attend future Plant a Seed breakfast events. It was very well done. The speakers shared some valuable expertise and it was wonderful to build somebody’s future even as I built my business”.

On the 27^th April, the next Plant a Seed breakfast will focus on the theme of leadership. There will be two guest speakers at the event. Gina Din-Kariuki is the founder and CEO of Gina Din Corporate Communications (GDCC) based in Nairobi. The company was founded in 1997 and offers innovative communication solutions across the region. Its mission is Excellence. James Gitau is the founder and CEO of Peak Performance, a transformational firm with a vision of empowering the people of Africa and beyond with skills that will stir the desire to unleash their God given potential.

As you can read in one of our recent news articles, Vision Africa works with a number of businesses which engage with our projects in a variety of ways. We have learned the value of networking and know that the Plant a Seed breakfast will be a valuable investment for businesses with the added benefit of raising funds to support disadvantaged youths working towards setting up their own businesses.

Join us at PanAfric Hotel from 7am to 9am on 27^th April to “Plant a Seed”. For more details about this event or to reserve your ticket (2,500ksh), please contact us on 0702 662351.

Our recycling enterprise, re:future, takes donations of plastic, paper and glass and turns them in to cash by selling them to recycling companies. Before our event began on Saturday we welcomed a new donor who had attended a conference and saw all the plastic water bottles were being thrown away. He asked if he could take them for recycling and was immediately given enough bottles to fill the boot of his car. We also had a visit from a tour operator who has a camp site in the Maasai Mara and has to transport all her trash back to Nairobi. After a tour of our Seed of Hope Centre at Dagoretti Corner and explanation of what we collect and how the funds help train youths, the tour operator has agree to separate plastic and glass waste items and drop them at our centre.

Another guest at Saturday’s event was a travel agent called Binti Safaris. This small company helps our Seed of Hope programme in two ways – they purchase corporate gifts for their clients from our Crafted enterprise and they also donate directly to the project. As their representative told other guests “This is our way of giving back. It’s great to know that as our business grows, so does Seed of Hope and the great work they are doing here.”

Peperuka is another small business that has chosen to support Seed of Hope. Their recent collection of t-shirts was modelled by some of our students for a photoshoot and on the runway as part of the fashion show at our Kumi Kommunity event. This has been a great experience for our students and as an added bonus a percentage of the sales for this range of t-shirts is being donated to Seed of Hope.

We also had two water companies who participated in the event on Saturday. Kathini Spring Water came along with a donation of bottled water for guests while Silverboy Bottling donated three hundred bottles of water branded with Vision Africa’s anniversary logo. Florence Kamaitha of Silverboy Bottling told us “Most of us are busy working fulltime and though we have the desire to help the underprivileged, we are not able to commit fully to helping them. So we decided to support causes that are committed to helping the under privileged. Basically completing the circle. Another reason is, being a small business, we believe in networking. We are not able to afford advertising, but we believe when we position ourselves with our products, we can get people talking about it. Word of mouth really helps,you know, and such events act as a platform for such.”

Of course, it was much easier to publicise our event thanks to Wachoraji Media who donated their time and skills to design a poster which also served as the invitation for the first Kumi Kommunity event. If it hadn’t been for the invite, perhaps Myrobi’s representative might not have attended the event and offered to do a professional photoshoot for our new jewellery collection and even provide the models!

As you can see, several small businesses are already supporting the work of Vision Africa, each in their own way and all very much appreciated.

How can your business engage with our projects? Do you have skills to donate? Can you recycle your waste materials? Would you help support a small business started by a group of students? Can you offer time to mentor students?

Please get in touch and let us know how we can partner with you and your business to give brighter futures to disadvantage children and youths in Kenya.

In many ways, we have Emmanuel Jal to thank for Sheila’s involvement in Seed of Hope. After meeting him at the Edinburgh Film Festival, Sheila decided to sponsor a child through Emmanuel’s charity, Gua Africa. After some time, she began to plan a trip to Nairobi to meet the boy she had sponsored and researched a number of contacts that could help her use her experience in the jewellery business to benefit jewellery makers in Kenya. We are delighted that someone introduced her to our work and she was able to visit our vocational training centre in Nairobi in 2011.

After her visit and discussions with our team, it was decided that Sheila would help to put together a jewellery collection to be produced and sold by Seed of Hope under the social enterprise “Crafted”. The first step was to carry out market research to determine what styles and materials would work best. Sheila has travelled extensively over the years and knew that fabrics and braiding hair are two things that are important to many African women. She set about designing a collection of jewellery that brought these two concepts together and so the “Kushuka Collection” was born.

When she came to Nairobi to start the process of teaching the Seed of Hope girls to make the collection, Sheila wasn’t sure what the skills level would be like. To manage her expectations she decided that even if just ten pieces were made and the girls involved got to see their finished work in a fashion show that would be a boost for them. The goal was set that after a week of workshops, a fashion show would be held to showcase the new range. Sheila brought a few Couture pieces for the show and then started to work with the girls to design the other pieces in the collection.

When we asked Sheila how the workshops were going, she said it had been an emotional rollercoaster and that she had been overwhelmed by the skills and initiative the girls had shown. Her students have taken on the concept she created and have already come up with ways to develop it. Part of their work has been to carry out market research locally. This has shown that there is definitely a gap in the market which the unique and well-designed Kushuka Collection can fill not just in Kenya but worldwide.

One or two people have been allowed a sneak preview of the collection and the response has been very positive. Sheila is very optimistic and hopes that it will take off. There are already plans to showcase the collection at the “Jewellery of the World Exhibition” as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the UK later this year.

As for the girls involved in making the pieces, second year student Purity told us that she has enjoyed the week of workshops and the things she has been taught have really helped her. Each girl has created her own design and named it. Purity’s collection is called “Achiever” and she explains that is because “in life you have to be someone who achieves something every day. This jewellery is the thing I’ve achieved in my life.” She says that it feels so great to name a collection. “My name and what I’ve made is going to be shown outside and I’ll be famous!”

One of our graduates, Priscillah, has also been participating in the workshops this week. Her collection is called “Nurture” because “if you have a seed, for it to bear fruit you have to put it in the soil and nurture it. I made something that came from nothing to be something. I feel good, I feel like somebody.”

We look forward to unveiling the Kushuka Collection tomorrow, 31^st March, at an event to celebrate Vision Africa’s tenth anniversary and showcase the wonderful work done by the staff, students and graduates at our Seed of Hope centre.

What attracted you to Vision Africa?

My initial thought was ‘Wow’ what a great organisation …small but making a big difference in Kenya, and using a range of projects and methods that were making a real difference to people lives.

What do you enjoy about working with Vision Africa?

I enjoy the opportunity to talk about the vision and hope that exists through all the Vision Africa projects. Despite working and existing in some very harsh conditions, it is not difficult to ‘sell’ something of the spirit, and determination that is found in diverse places such as the children’s homes or Seed of Hope or new projects such as Claytons Mechanics.

The work of Fundraising is very diverse largely, it is about developing networks of friends and supporters who can see the possibilities and create their own networks who will want to be involved and support what we are doing at Vision Africa…I like talking… so that helps !

What are you excited about in your role with Vision Africa?

The sheer scale of what could be done is both daunting and exciting. Debs & Kirsty and others are fulfilling dreams in Kenya for some of the most vulnerable people in the World. The emphasis on developing work and projects that are sustainable both in financial terms and helping people in the long-term is transformative. My job here in the UK is to give them the impetus and resources to extend our horizons to see more communities and individuals helped with learning and skills.

What would your dreams be for the future of Vision Africa?

That Vision Africa is at the heart of raising living standards, and opportunities for learning.  That through the work and ministry of Vision Africa that skills and fun in living are enhanced for the children of Africa, and Kenya in particular. That the work of Vision Africa reaches such value that lives of young people are transformed daily, and that through our projects and programmes, young men and women get to live full, Independent lives, with the skills, opportunities and character to thrive.

We hope you’ll join us in welcoming Andrew to the team.

For the first time in Seed of Hope’s history, boys were also present for the International Women’s Day celebrations as the students from Clayton’s Mechanics were also prepared to be inspired by the guest speakers. In fact, the boys actually asked more questions than the girls – men taking advice from women shows just how far we have come since the events that initiated International Women’s Day over one hundred years ago.

The two guest speakers were graduates from Seed of Hope. Rosabella was one of the first Seed of Hope students to graduate back in 2004 and Mercy followed her in 2005.

Rosabella was the first to speak after being introduced to the group by the headteacher, Florence. Rosabella told the students “Seed of Hope came to my rescue and they’re helping me right now in my life. I thought it was the end of the world and the end of me when I didn’t go to secondary school. We all believe going to school is making the future for us.” She then went on to explain how Seed of Hope helped changed her life, the successes she’s had so far and how Seed of Hope can lead to great things. She was given a round of applause when she told the students “You here can go on to employ someone who has been to university!”

Rosabella was definitely an inspiration for the students as she told them that having graduated from Seed of Hope she went on to start her own business which she has built up over the years and is now very successful. She then decided to return to her studies and take herself through secondary school while still maintaining her business. In fact, she just received her final results last week and was congratulated by the Seed of Hope students who had many questions about how to juggle studying and running a business. The advice they were given was it is hard but you have to plan and if you want to achieve in life you have to sacrifice. Her final comment was “I don’t want to ask for favours. I want people to be asking me for favours. I’m from a family of seven and I’m helping my people”.

Mercy then took to the floor and explained how she had joined Seed of Hope when she had no-one to care from her after her parents passed away. She said “It’s a great blessing for me to be here. Spiritually and emotionally I learned a lot at Seed of Hope. I had no-one to care for me and Teacher Florence is now like my mother.” Mercy had a different experience to share as someone had seen her determination during her time at Seed of Hope and decided to pay for her to go to secondary school after she graduated from her course. After completing her secondary education in 2008, she found employment and is now studying a certificate in Business Management with the hope of doing a diploma when she completes the exams she is currently studying for.

Mercy told the students “I am not ashamed to say where I’ve come from. In fact, it’s an encouragement.” Her family was not interested in her before she joined Seed of Hope but now that she is educated and earning Mercy says “I have proved them wrong, I proved that I am someone.” Her advice to the current group of students was to focus on the positive rather than dwell on the negative. She says “Be confident and know what you want in life. If you are determined and have a goal, you will make it. I have not reached where I want to reach. One day I want to be a successful manager of a very big company. One day I’ll come here in my car.”

International Women’s Day 2012 is about “Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures”. For Seed of Hope this is an on-going theme and we are proud to see graduates like Rosabella and Mercy achieve their goals and share their stories to inspire more girls to work hard and become successful in their own right.

If you are in Nairobi and would like to learn more about our Seed of Hope programme, please join us on the 31^st March for our Kumi Kommunity event and meet some of our students and graduates.

“Kumi Kuisine” involves supporters hosting a dinner party for ten friends with each guest paying £10, $10 or 1,000ksh to attend. We will provide hosts with an information pack including five short videos which give an overview of Vision Africa’s work and also show the impact of our work through the stories of children who have been assisted by one of the projects we partner with. These videos can be played at the start of your event to get the conversation flowing or even between courses to keep guests entertained.

To launch “Kumi Kuisine”, we want to hold dinner parties in as many locations as possible on the 10^th of March. We already have some lined up in Manchester, Glasgow and Nairobi. Can you help us add to this list by hosting your own party? If the 10^th March doesn’t suit, don’t worry, as we hope these parties will continue throughout the year!

Please contact us if you would like to host a “Kumi Kuisine” event and we will send you an information pack.

Be sure to check out our special anniversary site, The Kumi Kollection, to read some of the success stories and memories people have of Vision Africa from the past ten years.

Ten 10 Kumi Ten 10 Kumi Ten 10 Kumi Ten 10 Kumi Ten 10 Kumi

We are delighted to announce that 2012 sees Vision Africa celebrate its Tenth Anniversary! For ten years, with the help of our dedicated supporters and project leaders, we have been assisting disadvantaged children by working with community projects in various parts of Kenya .

There will be a lot happening to mark this special occasion both in Kenya and overseas. Today we launch a micro-site called “The Kumi Collection” where we will share memories of the past ten years, some of the success stories and details of events such as the Kumi Cup, Kumi Couture and Kumi Cuisine. This site will be updated throughout the year so be sure to check it out and also send us your own stories.

We have chosen the name “Kumi Collection” as “kumi” means “ten” in Kiswahili and we are all about the number ten this year!

As today is the 10^th of January, we are also launching the print your own “Kumi Calendar” today. Each of the twelve pages has a photograph representing one of our projects and there is plenty space for you to write up the events that are taking place as part of the Kumi Collection.

To order your copy, simply make your payment using one of the following methods:

-          Supporters in Kenya please MPESA 150ksh to 0702662351

-          Supporters in the UK please use our text giving service and send a text to 70070 saying VATA10 £1 to make a donation of £1 or change the amount if you would like to make a higher donation.

Whichever payment method you use, please send the reference number you receive to Kenya@vision-africa.org and we will email the calendar to you.

Thank you for all your support over the past ten years and we hope you enjoy sharing this special year with us.

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for all the latest news.

With most of our projects closing down for the Christmas break, staff from various projects were invited to sessions that would help them prepare for the next year. The first session was held for all Seed of Hope staff from all four centres. They gathered in Nairobi and spent a day discussing target setting and reviewing whether or not they had achieved targets set for 2011. There was also a session on Income Generating Activities (IGAs) as this will be a focus for 2012. As with all other Vision Africa projects, each Seed of Hope centre is required to find ways to cover some of its own costs rather than rely one hundred percent on donations. Each project must find viable IGAs that will work in their community and with the resources available to them. In 2011 there have been varying degrees of success in terms of IGAs so the opportunity was taken to discuss why certain ventures succeeded or what could be done to boost others.

Taking this a stage further, a second day was set aside to focus on IGAs for all Vision Africa projects. On this day, representatives from each area of Vision Africa’s work were invited on a field trip to visit two sites where income is successfully being generated. The idea behind this was to inspire the project leaders and give them some ideas of how to set up IGAs or how to improve on some that have already been started. The day was also a chance for project leaders to bond and share their experiences with each other.

The first site visited was a shamba (farm) in Kandara District. This was an amazing site that had our staff speechless at first….and then full of questions! The shamba was relatively small at just one acre but productivity was high. Very little of the space was unused and each area was cleverly designed to maximise on income. We started by checking out the space that was allocated for growing maize, beans and arrowroots. This was densely populated with a very healthy crop. Questions started to arise as to which fertilisers were used and how the place was irrigated. This is where we started to learn how each aspect of the shamba was connected. All waste water was channelled to assist with irrigation and after being used to create biogas, some of the animal waste was piped down to the area where the crops were grown so that it could be spread easily. In fact, no fertiliser was purchased and everything was grown organically.

We then proceeded to an area where pigs were being bred. This is something that a number of Vision Africa projects have tried and some have had more success than others. A lot of time was spent here learning about the best ways to care for the animals, the best feeds to use, the standards required by a local company that buys pigs to produce sausages…the questions were endless. It was a similar case when we moved on to visit the cows and chickens which are producing great yields unlike those at some of our projects.

Everyone agreed this had been a very valuable visit and those with land felt challenged to try and implement some of the ideas they had seen and improve productivity and ultimately income at their own sites. There was a lot of discussion in the vehicle as project leaders discussed opportunities and their plans for the coming year.

It was time to head to Nairobi where we were to visit Kenya Children’s Home, formerly known as Thomas Barnardo’s House. Here, we were told that after several years of building up income generating activities the home managed to cover its own budget. There was a moment of silence in the room as our project leaders absorbed this information. Then it was time to take a tour of the place and see just how this had been achieved and what lessons could be learnt for our own projects. We visited a bakery, vocational workshops, a fee-paying school, cafe and various other enterprises being run on the site. At each stop, our team took notes and asked questions. This had been another worthwhile visit and initiated a lot of discussion among the Vision Africa team.

The following day was our final team meeting of the year. There was a definite buzz of excitement as people talked about the field trip and how it had impacted their views of IGAs and what they could do at their own projects.

We look forward to seeing how the ideas discussed will be put in to practice in 2012 and bringing you reports on how our projects are making progress on their journeys towards self-sustainability.

If you are interested in giving one of our projects a helping hand to get an IGA kick started, please contact us. Alternatively, check out our gift cards which include some items that will be used to get projects off the ground.

Due to increased exam fees and the very high cost of living many students’ families have been unable to afford the DIT exams this year. However, two of our centres received funding from local authorities which enabled their students to sit their DIT exams. These qualifications, in addition to the Seed of Hope certificates received upon graduation will assist students who wish to seek employment as dressmakers in the future. It will also help with the credibility of the small businesses they start up.

As well as receiving funds to help with exam costs, our Seed of Hope centre in Kitui also received a donation of a ten thousand litre water tank from the Ministry of Water. It is encouraging to see Seed of Hope centres receiving support and recognition from their local government offices.

Our Nairobi Seed of Hope centre also ended the year on a high with a colourful graduation ceremony. Students performed songs, dances, a drama and even a fashion show for the crowd that gathered to celebrate the graduation of the class of 2011. Guest of Honour for the day, PR guru Gina Din, said the event had really encouraged her. “When you hear the names of the places these girls come from, you automatically think of women who are househelps or perform other low income jobs. Now we know there will be independent young business women there who are empowered and can be great role models for their communities.”

Also in attendance on the day was local entrepreneur Evans Muriu who had been invited to officially launch Seed of Hope’s first program for boys, Clayton’s Mechanics. As businessman in the local automobile trade, Evans was able to encourage the first group of students who have enrolled for the course in lifeskills, business skills and mechanics. We are delighted that he has offered to mentor them on an ongoing basis.

After a successful graduation at Kariti Seed of Hope, it wasn’t long before their latest project got underway. As announced at the graduation ceremony, a computer centre has been launched offering lessons in basic computer packages and also bureau services such as printing and copying. This will help the Seed of Hope students who will also receive lessons as well as the local community. You can read more about this in a news article on our website.

All in all, 2011 has been a great year for Seed of Hope. We would like to thank everyone who has contributed towards this project and look forward to reporting more success stories in 2012 so that you can see just what a great investment you have made.

There are several ways you can support Seed of Hope.

- Friends in Kenya can send donations via MPESA on 0702662351 or contact us if you would like 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 donate to our Seed of Hope project on GlobalGiving. All donations via GlobalGiving are tax-deductible for US taxpayers.