wayati: Welcome to a buzzing 2012 from Kitui

The wonderful year of 2012 commenced for us in KDC office with a 2 day reflection and planning session which was a really good start to the New Year. It was amazing to see what had been achieved during the previous year with regard to all the projects and also looking at the challenges that we faced last year.
The drought was the most most pressing because it meant that the people living on the margin had no food and were suffering from poverty, finding it so difficult to put food on the table and send their children to school. This really has put a lot of pressure on the Child Labour Eradication Project as we are only able to cater for specified numbers and believe me there are so many more to assist. The cost of living has really increased in Kitui and the funds made available to us are for the purpose of prevention i.e. enabling families to resend their children back to school is an enormous challenge. The same thing applies to the children that have withdrawn from child labour and we find very often that the parents want the children to work, even though it is illegal, because they will be able to bring some money home. It's a vicious circle and to assist with this type of difficulty we have Self Help Groups, Table Banking, Mini Enterprise training and support for the families and guardians. All of these supports are enabling the people to become self-sufficient slowly but surely.

Yesterday I visited one such group who come together and allocate a % of their saving to the total orphans by helping with school fees and uniforms. Their generosity is so wonderful and they do it so willingly.

This morning I met with some ladies who make some beautiful jewellery but the challenge for them and us, as a support group, is to access the markets, find agents or wholesalers to buy their products. The main markets are in Nairobi, Mombasa and Malinde which are huge distances from Kitui. IF YOU KNOW ANYBODY WHO CAN ASSIST US WITH FINDING A MARKET ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD PLEASE PLEASE LET ME KNOW. Have a look at the photos !!!!

Next week I will be accompanying the monitoring staff when visiting the students who have returned to school, chatting with them and looking forward to getting their views on being back to school or in apprenticeships. I am very well aware of some difficulties students are facing and fully realise the need for our Centre where we can assist the students to prepare for the return to school or vocational training. Presently we are sourcing a premises to rent to facilitate this urgent need.

So now you see that this is a busy time for all of us in KDC with existing projects and we also have more projects coming on stream.
Stay with us for the next news bulletin and ALL THE VERY BEST FOR 2012.