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News from the Field: Drought Appeal Update

Thank you all so much to all the generous supporters, to date, of our Drought Appeal. Through your gifts, the communities of Mwangaza and Elmolo are receiving critical food and water supplies.  Joseph and his team we are receiving messages of thanks on a daily basis from the people of Mwangaza and Elmolo – on their behalf we thank you!!

News from the Field: Life Straw Update

Thanks to Joseph and his amazing team on the ground in Kenya, we have the first pictures of our Life Straw project in action.  The Life Straws have been provided to the children at Mwangaza and Gar Qarsa schools in the Marsabit region.  Thank you Joseph for your tireless leadership in the field and to Life Straw UK for helping the children of the schools in the drought ridden regions of Northern Kenya.

A Huge Thank You to All at Cranleigh Prep School for an Amazing Landmark!!

While our little blog is only a week old, EnKI has been going for a little while longer.

2012 will be our 15th birthday and it has always been so uplifting to witness first hand the generosity of so many, to help the children of Kenya, who without such kindness would have such little hope.  

While we hope the blog keeps you all up to date with all the new exciting projects and developments, we also want to use it to thank all the inspirational people who have helped us and the children on our journey over the last 15 years.

One of our longest standing supporters is Cranleigh Prep School, who since 2002 have forged a link with Ronda School in the slums of Nakuru, helping fund the building of classrooms, toilet blocks and much, much more.  This year, the teachers, parents and children of Cranleigh Prep have reached a truly momentous landmark, having now raised over £25,000!!

Words cannot express out gratitude to Debbie, Stella, Mike and Carolyn Wilson and all those so heavily involved in helping transform the school at Ronda and the lives of so many children.  Thank you all so much from us all at EnKI and all the children and wider community at Ronda!!!

Life Straw – Bringing Help and Hope to the Children of The Horn of Africa

With the conditions for the people and children of the Horn of Africa worsening, one small idea is helping bring relief to many.  Life Straw is a simple, easy to use portable water purifier that is bring relief and hope to many in a region where the provision of safe water is one of the critical aspects of relief, along with the provision of food, to help save 4.14 million children from the worst famine to hit the region.

This Life Strawcan be carried around for easy access to safe clean drinking water, is just 25cm long and 29mm in diameter and can be hung round the neck – at the cost of only GBP30.  More information on Life Straw can can found at http://www.lifestraw.org.uk/LifeStraw.html or by watching how it has helped in Haiti http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6ZAt-zFoo8.

Life Straw is a point-of-use water treatment system intended for routine use in low-income settings Filters up to 18,000 litres* of water, enough to supply a family of five with microbiologically clean drinking water for three years, thus removing the need for repeat intervention Ensures high flow rate and high volume of purified water.  It:

• Complies with US Environmental Protection Agency 1987 Guide Standard and Protocol for Testing Microbiological Water Purifiers:
  • Removes minimum 99.9999% of bacteria (>LOG 6 reduction)*
  • Removes minimum 99.99% of viruses (>LOG 4 reduction)*
  • Removes minimum 99.9% of protozoan parasites (>LOG 3 reduction)*
• Removes turbidity
• Requires no electrical power, batteries or replacement parts
• Requires no running water or piped-in water supply
• Has an easy-to-clean prefilter and purification cartridge
• All raw materials are US Food and Drug Administration compliant or equivalent

*Clasen, T. et al. 2009. Laboratory assessment of a gravity-fed ultrafiltration water treatment device designed for household use in low-income settings. Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 80(5), 2009, pp. 819–823

In Northern Kenya, especially at this time of drought and famine, the threat of  diarrhoeal disease is even more evident – and EnKI is now investing in this simple device to help children in the schools that we support.

If you would like to donate to help the children of Northern Kenya in this desperate time, please use our Just Giving link or contact Rakhee at rakhee@enkifund.org.

EnKI is a 100% volunteer charity which means that over 95% of all funds donated go directly to helping the children.

Thank you so much for all your ongoing support!!

Nancy reflects on the past and future of EnKI

“I am a very lucky 25-year-old lady. I hail from a humble village in the outskirts of Nakuru, Kenya. 11 years ago, after my primary school studies, no-one would have thought I would then go the High school, let alone university – life was so challenging and food so scarce. I am so grateful to Mike and Veronica Payne, who through the EnKI Fund, came to my aid when I most need it: they supported me through my education. They are more than god parents to me – they love, care and cherish me and I value them loads. I would love to see EnKI as a close knitted family where we, the older boys and girls of EnKI, through our own initiative, join hands with the EnKI friends, to give advice, support, care and fund raise to help our fellow brothers and sisters who are where we were before EnKI  came to our rescue. God bless the EnKI family”. Nancy Moige.

People such as Nancy are helping shape the future of EnKI and ensure that our original vision of sustainability 14 years ago is becoming an exciting reality.

Her passion to use her education and skills is helping pave the way for Kenyans who want to take an active lead in finding solutions to many of the problems the communities of rural Kenya are facing.

The Children of Elmolo find friends in the Cranleigh C of E Primary School

Tags

Cranleigh C of E Primary, Elmolo, EnKI, Fundraising, School Partner Programme

The bond that continues to grow between the teachers, parents and children at Cranleigh C of E Primary School and their counterparts in the impoverished region of  Elmolo is inspiring to witness and be a part of.  

Jane Byford and the teachers, parents and children at Cranleigh have raised well over about £1500 that has gone directly to helping improve the conditions at Elmolo Bay Primary.  Over the past five years, the connection has flourished and every pound raised continues to help provide ever more hope for the children of Elmolo.

Jacob Naikele – Head Teacher at Elmolo Bay Primary School writes:

“Elmolo Bay Primary School, located on the south eastern shore of Lake Turkana, Kenya, provides schooling opportunities for the children of Elmolo – the smallest tribe in Kenya and indeed in Africa. The Elmolo community is also amongst the poorest in Kenya, deriving its existence solely from Lake Turkana resources. EnKI established linkage between our school and Cranleigh C of E Primary School about five years ago. – and the subsequent benefits  to our pupils and the  school have been great. Elmolo has since benefited from:High school access educational scholarships, learning resources materials, school uniforms, and regular and inspirational visits from EnKI trustees. The mails and music exchanges enables our community to understand and appreciate international relations. On behalf of Elmolo community and the school, I thank EnKI and her donors for being so VERY important in the lives of our Children. Indeed the programme has restored Pupils’ hopes, aspirations and confidence to face the future.” 

 On 19^th September, Mike Payne – Head of our UK team, received a cheque for £671 for EnKI and Elmolo from the ever-generous children, staff and parents of Cranleigh Primary.

“We have launched our work supporting Elmolo. Each class has been asked to sponsor 2 children from classes at Elmolo. I have tried to match up the children with children of their own age. They are planning their own fund-raising events and also plan to write letters etc.” Julie Molesey Rep-Teacher at Cranleigh.

The team at EnKI would like to thank everyone involved through Cranleigh C of E Primary for helping make such a difference for the children in the community on Elmolo.

Racing The Planet – Sahara Run

In October last year one of EnKI’s inspiring trustees, Richard Bray, undertook the Racing the Planet, Sahara Run – and completed the  250km in a staggering 36 hours 58 minutes –  placing 16^th out of the 160 runners – and in so doing raised £2975 for EnKI and the children.  Check out Richard’s journey at his blog http://zebrayontherun.wordpress.com/.

We can’t thank Richard enough for his amazing effort and generosity, and in thanking Richard we also would like to thank all the people and companies that sponsored ands supported him on his adventure.

As Richard writes on his blog:

Firstly I must thank the people who kindly sponsored me. I raised a total of £2975 which all goes to the EnKI charity fund. As a small charity we are able to see direct, tangible benefit from the funds that were raised. At this point EnKI is still deciding how best to use these funds. I will report back when a purpose has been decided. I must thank everyone who was kind enough to generously donate their hard-earned cash to this worthy cause. It means a lot to me and the Kenyan community that will benefit from the funds.

Special thanks to.

Aldas Palubinskas,  Richard Atkins and the entire team at Mobico in New Zealand. A very generous donation that will go far in Kenya. Thank you guys.

Sally Peters and the team at Kenyan Airways for kindly donating two flights to Kenya. We raffled tickets for the draw to win them and we pulled the winner a couple of weeks ago. Oliver Simpson was the winner and will soon be flying over to the warm continent to enjoy his prize. Thanks again Kenya Airways – a very generous donation that helped us raise a lot of money for EnKI.

Mark Power and the team at Concep. Mark is also a close friend and keen runner helping me not only to raise money for the charity but also to push me on the many training runs I did before the race. Thanks mate – A very generous donation and I can’t thank you enough.

John Mazur and the team at ReachLocal. Always supportive of my crazy adventures. Thank you for your kind donation.

I also have to thank my lovely Girlfriend Emma and my loving, supportive family back in NZ. Particularly to my mum for her fundraising drive back in NZ and helping to raise the awareness of the EnKI fund. I must admit that a lot of the funds raised are down to Emma and her hard work gathering sponsorship £’s at every opportunity she had. Without her love and support, I simply would not have been able to run this race and raise this much money. Thank you.

A Sponsor’s Thought

“One hundred years from now it will not matter what I had in my bank account, the sort of house I lived in, the kind of car I drove, but the world may be different, because I was important in the life of a child”

Humble Beginnings

When we started our journey as EnKI in 1996, we set out to achieve one simple goal, to give children a life, not just an existence. Since then we have been blessed to have found support in so may corners of the world.

From the generosity of our sponsors and the indefatigable spirit of all our board members and field force to the rural communities in rural Kenya – everyone of you have helped change the world for those who have so little. My words become limiting when trying to describe the gratitude I hold in my heart for all of you who have made the dream of our little charity become a positive reality for the EnKI children.

While we have come a way since our beginnings, we still have very much to do, and while one child exists without hope, that is one child too many. If we each believe that, as individuals, we can make a difference through out thoughts and actions, today each one of us can bring hope where often there is none.

We hope you enjoy this  EnKI blog and that in some ways it helps you feel more connected to the children that you have done so much to help. Thank you for your support on the journey thus far…