It’s been long. i have been lost! its been quite crazily busy in Thika and I’m not so good at blogs! there havent been any mass killings, houses being burnt and looted recently thankfully. we have troubles but must be thankful that the violence of jan-march is over. there are still sproadic problems in different villages and things are still quite desperate in areas around mount elgon (but that isnt about the elections) the new problems are about poverty, food and fuel. for some unknown reason that i still dont understand the majority of kenyans are apparently happy with the performance of the grand coalition government! - it must be the fact that all the top brass wives have been given ridiculously tax free allowances that impresses them! i love kenya but sometimes it leaves me confused!

for those that are not ridiculously rich and live in nice houses and drive hummersnfood inflation has hit 30%+, lots of people are now regularly skipping meals, lots of children are surviving on their one school meal provided by us or another charity in thika , and everyone has started to walk as transport costs are so high (at least this is good for the environment!). poverty is slowly increasing and destroying lives. crime is up in kiandutu slum and marriages are collapsing under the strain of too many needs and no back up plan. this makes me scared. the rains failed so the maize harvest will be poor. the unrelenting upward rise of food will now definitely not abate until at least march next year. i hope the urban poor can keep it together until then.

our children continue to both suprise and amaze me. clever, hard working, desperate for a route out of their current lives. they just need a chance and they will try to survive. child sponsorship is helping some of them to go to secondary school next year which has made us all very excited and now we hope we can find sponsors for the remaining few. things can always go wrong (one child’s remaining parent died in a tragic road accident recently and another’s mother ended up in prison and he is the only person left to look after his 8 yr old sister. but we look for ways to address these problems and keep the kids sane and as happy as is possible in difficult circumstances.

everyone that is able has now gone back to school after the holidays and we are about to take our new group of street children for rehabilitation. unfortunately our rental property has been allowed to fall into a state of disrepair by the owners so we are having to refurbish it first. not pleasant and not cheap but doors on bathrooms, lights that work, ceilings that do not fall in and taps that you can actually turn off are quite essential! friends of the earth would not be impressed by our water wastage of late - people are prompt when you have not paid your bill but they are not quick to repair!

the month has been very good. we have managed to help 150 children displaced from the crisis to return to school, have a few older displaced youth in skills training and now are helping 80 displaced families who feel they cannot go home with business loans to support themselves financially. we are very happy as we have a repayment rate of 100% at the moment. fingers crossed! unfortunately all the money for Internally Displaced Persons from big donors is going to the Rift Valley so there is nothing for the thousands who have decided to setlle in Thika but us! we cannot help anymore families at the moment with loans, school fees or medical assistance as you can only spend what you have but i hope that either we get in more funds or the government starts to recognise and support those displaced but who did not go to the camps (i think this is unlikely but i hope for the best!).

We just finished our holiday club for august with over 320 vulnerable children kept off the streets through our programme. the international and local volunteers were fab and i am looking forward to our christmas club! if you fancy being in kenya over christmas and would like to volunteer let me know!

our work in the local women’s prison, providing play therapy sessions once a week to their children who are with them is also going well but we have managed to touch the edge of a huge iceberg with this project. mothers who left children at home when they were arrested do not know where they are, they have no idea of their rights, what they will do when they get out, how to care for their kids…. we have started giving them small legal talks as well on their rights but if we start home visits to assess and sort their family situations we wouldnt be able to cope with demand so am having to limit our activities for now. we have some lovely donation of baby clothes last week so at leats the kids had something to wear at last!

other than that, i moved house - this was exciting for me but maybe not for you - so i now have my own small place to relax away from afcic. i went on holiday to lamu for a week (divine) and have started planning our festive activities and trying to convince my staff to have a thika fun run!

look forward to speaking to you all soon, take care and hope all is good with you all - life, love, work, friends and family

xxxx

I have been lost.

I apologise.

April is always a crazy month for AFCIC in Thika as it is one of the school holidays - therefore we have to support all current and former street kids who are back at school - ensure they are safe, fed, kept off the streets and that any family problems are addressed as early as possible so they go back to school in may. there are always some children who have struggled through the term and are feeling neglected/victimised by the family/ having pressure applied to go and earn money on the streets - and the holidays are an important time to follow up on these issues indepth.

On top of this food inflation is at 21.9% making it harder and harder to feed the children. We are finding it extremely tough and families are struggling just as much. Our Day Centre normally caters for 40-50 kids in the holidays. this april we had 70-80 on a daily basis (most of the kids surviving for the whole day on the lunch we give them). At my interim care centre we normally have 25 children in the holidays - this time we had 40. the children are supposed to come at 9am but most arrived by 7am each morning to try an d have breakfast as well as they were not eating at home.

The escalating food prices worldwide are well documented but combined with a lack of jobs and depressed economy following the violence, the poorest kenyans are particularly feeling the pinch. no one is getting a pay rise this year. I wanted to give my own staff a payrise to help them meet the challenges but am also not able as inflation and no extra income means we have to tighten our belts. that effectively means that my staff are getting poorer.

we have not seen an increase in street children in thika however because we have been on the streets picking up new children as quickly as possible and addressing their family issues and any poverty issues imediately so that they do not get drawn into an exploitative and abusive life on the streets.

we have 3 new international volunteers alongside our local volunteers. chris, megan and helena. Megan has been working on increasing the number of individual sponsors for our family sponsorship programme so that we can do more micro finance work and developinng family sustainability, increasing each families economic revenue and means of survival. we have 2 new sponsors so far but many more are needed! chris has been interviewing all the local stakeholders on the issues of street children and rape and is now training the children on acting skills. Helena has been working with the children, counsellor and social workers to fully understand their feelings and experiences, particularly important as we prepare for some children at our residential centre to go home and start school.

in other news we had a fab football tournament for alot of former and current street children we have worked with at our day care centre. we planned a tournament for 60 but ended up with 116! The winners are going to be going to Nyayo stadium in nairobi to watch the first televised match of Thika United courtesy of the team. We also had a table tennis tournament for Thika people which was lots of fun and i took the winners for a swimming experiment and to climb a buffalo mountain this weekend. the swimming lessons were particularly entertaining! unfortunately no buffalo were seen on the mountain

AfCiC are also involved in helping to write a memorandum on education for the ministry of education, focusing on the issue of those currently out of school (over 1.8 million children in kenya) and how this challenge can be addressed. we have linked up with lots of education organisations and ngos in nairobi and it’s really good to see what other people are doing and their concerns.

there has also been alot of activity immediately outside the thika office in recent weeks with mungiki activities making everyone a little nervous. we’ve had very quick riots, rocks being thrown, matatus set on fire - all just outside the office - as we are 3 floors up we have had great views! we have also witnessed police swoops to pick up mungiki suspects and matatus emptying the market within minutes after fears of new problems. Businesses shut down by the market for a few days in fear but all back to normal now! lets hope it stays that way!

anyway. hope everyone is well and happy. as always feel free to get in touch with any questions. sorry for the silence!
eleanor xx

Hey All, we are recruiting for our fantastic Kenyan School Holiday Club for this August. The club is a vital tool in preventing vulnerable children from drifting to street life during the long summer vacation and is lots of fun!

Please read the details below and do pass this on to anyone who you think may be interested. Interested parties please email info@actionchildren.org

Thanks
***

Action for Children in Conflict’s School Holiday Club is a programme of activities during the school holidays for over 280 of the poorest school children at our partner schools, St Patrick’s and Garissa Road Primary’s in Thika. Its primary aim is to keep children off the streets, safe and educationally stimulated during the school summer holiday.

The School Holiday Clubs provide children with a unique and exciting opportunity to make friends, to learn about new topics and to develop new skills. Theyattend lessons to revise their school work, address any difficulties they might have encountered during the academic year, and to prepare for the year ahead.

As well as being a highly enjoyable experience, the children attending the club benefit from an increased ability to concentrate on their school work, improved personal discipline and school results, as well as increased self-esteem and confidence.

We are looking for enthusiastic volunteers, who feel they can make a difference to the lives of vulnerable children in Thika. If you would like to join our team of volunteers, please email us at info@actionchildren.org for an application form, and return this to us together with your recent CV.

We are unable to offer volunteers any payment, and you are asked to pay for all your own expenses (flight, accommodation, visa, vaccination, spending money in country).

We also ask volunteers to contribute a minimum of £400 towards the School Holiday Club (to be paid pre-departure). As a small organisation, this money is vital to us, as it enables the School Holiday Club to function: without the Club, many impoverished children would be at a loose end, without food, money or anyone to care for them during the long summer holiday. They would end up on the streets, high on glue, without ambition for the future or desire to return to school at the end of the holidays.

The Holiday Clubs run from 11-28th August, but volunteers will need to arrive on Sunday 3rd August in order to attend a week’s training and orientation before lessons begin.

We are looking for people with good leadership and organisational skills, who can work on their own initiative. You need an outgoing nature and a good sense of fun with lots of ideas for games and activities for children. Some teaching experience is an advantage but not essential. Skills in music, dance, drama, sports and arts and crafts are also beneficial but not essential.

Volunteers will be involved in teaching one hour lessons in the morning. Classroom size is normally large and level of ability extremely variable. The National Curriculum is similar to that in the UK, and is also taught in English . Previous volunteers have taught about their country, culture and language.

Volunteers will organise, supervise and participate in the afternoon fun activities. Volunteers can also get involved in coordinating one of the Holiday Clubs. This involves liaising with the local schools, the teachers and local business community. Developing the timetable, recruiting local volunteers, organising the opening and closing ceremony and supervising the other volunteers during the Holiday Club.

We look forward to heairng from you soon.
xx

hi everybody! hope well!

so apparently we have a peace deal! its only two pages and quite vague on a few key issues but we hope these things will be sorted out over the coming weeks! everyone is very hopeful and happy but also with a healthy dose of skepticism. what we really want is that the deal will bring down food prices so we can all afford to start eating again! lots of desperate poverty at the moment and people reducing/skipping meals to save money.

we are all a bit worried about kofi leaving - he seemed in a bit of a rush to leave. please stay! will. have to see how things develop but things seem positive.

fighting is still on going in some key places though - esp in the rural areas in and around molo. also in the slums where different groups/individuals have taken over certain properties and are refusing to pay rents. this could turn nasty in places like mathare where both mungiki and the taliban gangs operate. we could see some more deaths.

at afcic we are busy trying to get a donor to support our income generating plans for internally displaced persons - we want to provide interest free business loans to those in crisis in thika district so that they can get on their feet as quickly as possible and do not become aid dependant. i also know from my previous work with asylum seekers and refugees in the uk and elsewhere that the easier it is to move forward the less you dwell on the past (therby reducing depression/trauma etc..). different communities and families can select a family to support and encourage also so we are hoping to build community ties and prevent any tensions between idp’s and the locals. fingers crossed! we are also busy with new children and are activities in makongeni. the street children there are loving our acrobat and have been putting togehter some moves which are both scary and very impressive!

i go to the uk at the end of this week to promote afcic, walk the monopoly board and meet some other donors/ potential donors. if you are in the uk and would like to meet up let me know!

have a great week xxx

Hi all!

hope well! very busy in thika at the moment. in addition to all the crazyness - some new neighbours arrived from western yesterday who’d been chased from their house last week - we set up a new outreach service for street kids in Makongeni last week - an industrial area a few kilometres from thika. we have borrowed a church which is not ideal as people keep coming in to pray! but its rent free and an excellent location and a way of testing the ground before committing to a property. we had 17 children today aged 12-18 years all out of school for a few weeks - to a year for various reasons. we played football, did some lifeskills, some NFE and had lunch together and will be following up with home visits for some of the children over the next week or so to see how we can assist to get them back to school or into skills training.

we are also launching an school drop out prevention programme in the coming weeks with my teachers linking up with all the poor schools in the area to provide training to teachers on dealing with children’s problems (rather than chasing them away!) and develping a hotline to us so that when they notice a child is attending erratically - we can intervene immediately rather than waiting to meet them on the streets. this should help prevent sexual exploitation on the streets and exposure to some increasingly hard core drugs. we are quite excited about this project as it has never been tried in thika district before! (perhaps in kenya - but i can’t make claims i am not 100% about it!).

in other news our kids are bright! some excellent results in the KCPE - Primary leaving exam - and some great schools for our kids. sponsorship has been an absolute nightmare but quite a few are now in school and we are searching for fees for the rest.

in other non related afcic news a local businessman (who runs a flower farm) gave me 144 red roses on valentines day! it was pretty cool - obviously it wasnt much to him as he must process thousands daily but very cool for me!!!! he’s not my future husband but i’m still very happy!

finally! - almost forgot! i am in the UK in March and with some fab friends we are going to walk the monopoly board around london to raise money for our work here in kenya! it will be on the 9th of march and drinking as you walk is permitted! would you like to take part? can you get some friends to sponsor you?? if so get in touch! it promises to be lots of fun and a great way to catch up and raise money!

much love always xxx

hi, hope well.

thika now has its very own Internally Displaced Persons camp at Thika Stadium (good job the footie season is over in kenya for the moment, although it would be the best ever turnout for a game!). its not all that organised and its a very fluid camp as people come and go according to work and meal times (between 600-1500 people). most people are from nearby and are still working so the camp mainly fills up at night. we are providing non formal education, life skills and games in the day time though for those children now not going to school. through this we were able identify a 4 year old girl last week who was being sexually molested in the camp. we rescued her and have been able to find her a safe new home, working with the district children’s office (parents had gone off to western and left her in thika!). unfortunately there is a lot of rape going on in the camps so we are working hard to identify other cases, encourage the camp organisers to improve security and advocate and educate on child abuse and rape.

in terms of the general atmosphere - it remains tense - an unresolved calm. the politcians are talking, and talking and talking a bit more but no solution appears in sight at the moment. one wrong move (or manipulated move) by either side could see the situation erupt quickly.

it is very difficult to make sound decisions. we helped one of my staff’s family to go back to western last week. i have another family who want to stay together as a unit but we cannot find a new house because of their tribe. do they stay as its calm or do they go? if they stay and violence erupts they would be targeted and so will they regret not leaving when they have the chance?

if people starting persecuting kikuyus again in western and rift valley, the situation will also erupt as people will want to take revenge on local luos and luhyas. very tragic. we pray for peace.

we were able to reunite a displaced child this week with his family through our legal programme. he had been sleeping at the police station for two weeks after losing contact with his parents during the violence in Kibera (nairobi slum) he fled back to thika and was found by the police. we were able to trace his old school and then his family and he is safe and sound after lots of tears!

we have an extra 16 displaced children on our feeding programme at st patricks primary school who have very little to their names as their families lost everything in western and rift valley provinces. i’m glad they are being fed but also know we dont have the funds to keep feeding them so i have been pleading with the local red cross to give us some extra food. fingers crossed they say yes! the situation is made worse by the fact that the food prices now are also making it very hard for us to feed our usual children. if you know people/ companies who are interested in school feeding let me know! it costs about 3 pounds per month to feed a child every day at school.

on other matters, i have got to know the district commissioner better and know he is also concerned about the long term effects of the crisis on vulnerable children. i also know that we have lent our police officers to other parts of the country so its really important that a peaceful solution is found as our security base in thika is now minimal!

i have no idea how the land issue can be resolved - and without an adequate solution some areas will continue to fight - kenya is a capitalist economy - people have been buying land from one another since independence. if these property rights are usurped how does that impact on other areas of the economy? will it matter who bought the land, when, how much? we do not know. there are massive inequalities in land distribution in kenya as there are in many african countries but those who own 1 acre are not to blame whatever tribe they come from.

i feel in a constant state of being unrelaxed, heightened anxiety for those around me and the immense pressures on our limited resources. i want us to be the most effective charity on the ground in thika, assisting people in durable ways that enable them to stand on their own two feet as quickly as possible and move on from the crisis but if i dont have additional money i cannot achieve our vision. we try, we pray, we hope.

as always, feel free to fire back questions xx

Leaflets have been distributed in central province telling luos & luhyas to get out by today or face the consequences. people are scared and lots of people are on the move. we have moved our staff members to what we hope is relative safety & moved their most valuable posessions so if it does go off they will not be left with absolutely nothing as had befallen so many. lots of people are camping at thika police station.

local leaders are trying really hard to keep the peace so fingers crossed things will be ok.
still more displaced persons turning up and helping as best we can.

take care, eleanor xx

hi

i am just back from visiting villagers near Molo Town and Nakuru in the Rift Valley. I went because my Day Centre Manager Evans family lost their homes 3 weeks ago in the fighting and they are in need of help - food, clothing & help in getting their children to safety (homes are still being burnt in the area and people being killed - 2 yesterday while i was there). We toured the area with his family to get an understanding of what had happened, how it had happened and how as an organisation we might be able to assist (beyond some basic necessities and school expenses). There was a lot to reflect on but it was most apparent that until there is security we cannot provide any sustainable assistance but we will look to find sponsors for their children and their neighbour’s children to get them away from the fighting and the traumatic images around them.

There was no public transport vehicles in sight so i knew something must be happening as we were approaching their farm. it seemed as if everyone was walking towards us, carrying what they could. the first time i have seen a real image that matches imagined perceptions when people abandon their homes in search of safety. Very tragic. it is difficult to carry much and you simply have to hope things will be there when and if you are able to come back. The Kalenjin were burning more Kikuyu houses but then in Molo Town rumours were afoot that Kikuyu youths had killed 2 Kalenjin in retaliation. We got out without incident however (we had thought the area safe before going there but the situation had changed quickly).

We had to stay the night in Nakuru as the distance is so far from Thika and found a decent place to rest our head. Many people have sought sancutary in Nakuru since the fighting began and it has not seen fighting up to now so we thought it was safe. our intention today was to introduce ourselves to the district children’s office and visit a few children’s organisations to establish what services are currently available in Nakuru as we are thinking about running a peace & conflict centre for children caught up in the violence. However, 100m from our hotel someone was killed, property was destroyed, a vehicle burnt, men wielding panga’s and insufficient police. we decided to get out quick (before another 7 people died) and tragically had to drive past the young man who had lost his life (in a police pick up) and avoid gun fire close by. everyone was doing the same as us and the traffic jam out of nakuru at 9am this morning was long with saddened people protecting themselves. The fighting worsened after we left and it appears further damage was caused. We do not know who was involved at the moment. We pray for all those who lost their lives today.

Thika District continues to be a refuge to many and more continue to come - especially now that they are closing many of the displaced camps in an effort to force people back home - a good strategy for some but not for others -for some it will never be home again and they must start afresh. We are trying/struggling to meet the needs of new displaced children as well as our existing children - for them to understand what is happening and why we are kenyans first and foremost - and need to stand together as friends/brothers.

If anyone would like to support a displaced child from the violence in a new school away from fighting please let me know! it costs about 250 pounds to send someone to a boading school for a year (fees, expenses, uniform, transport,books)

Take care, much love as always. Please pray for peace.

eleanor xx

hi,

just a quick message today.

Raila is adamant that he won’t give in on the disputed election results and we had 3 days of “mass protests” this week (i put it in quotation marks as only a few hundred people across the country, primarily poor unemployed men from the slums, seemed to actually be trying to protest. but raila is definitely winning the media war and the presentation of the crisis by the international media certainly seems biased in his favour and i cannot work out why. the real impact of the protests is more in the psychological fear it has had on the mass of people with people too scared to go to work (killing the economy and killing off jobs) in pushing kikuyus back into central province (our base) where people feel safe and in unbelievable food prices making it difficult to feed our existing children let alone help the new ones who are arriving in the province on a daily basis. there are now 2000 displaced persons in the district and most are planning to stay and start their lives afresh here, too scared to return to their former homes in rift valley, western and nyanza provinces.

The pressure on our services is growing so i ask anybody who is reading this to let people know about the situation and encourage people to donate.

Many thanks, hope you have a lovely weekend. will write with a new update next week, xx

We invite you all to an uplifting evening of song to be performed by the acclaimed Swindon and Wantage Male Voice Choirs in aid of Action for Children in Conflict, on Saturday 19th January at 7pm in All Saints Church, Market Place, Faringdon (Oxfordshire).

The concert programme includes something for everyone and ranges from classic Verdi opera to arrangements of Disney film track “A Whale of a Tale” and Elvis’ hit “American Triology”.

Tickets (£7) are on sale in the Action for Children shops in Highworth and Faringdon, by calling 01793 767820 or on the door on the night.

All proceeds go to the charity to support our projects in Kenya.

Please come along and support the event: with the current political climate in Kenya and the bitter ethnic tensions and fighting which this has sparked we need your help more than ever to carry out our mission of providing safe havens for children affected by conflict and crisis.