Jo Bayley

Name: Jo Bayley
Role: Family Sponsorship Co-Ordinator
Age: 23
Home Town: Chorley, England.

Jo joined Action for Children in Conflict as the organisation's Family Sponsorship Co-Ordinator in October 2008. Her placement with AfCiC is her third voluntary placement in Kenya and she has also completed community projects in rural India.

Jo first visited Kenya in 2006 when, as part of her Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award, she completed a 5 week multidisciplinary expedition with Adventure Alternative. Following her graduation in 2007, she spent six months working with street children across Kenya with Moving Mountains NGO.

She temporarily returned to the UK in December 2007, shortly before the post election violence broke out. Whilst in the UK she worked as an Administrator for the charity Addiction Dependency Solutions, simultaneously writing proposals to grant making trusts in order to return to Kenya.

Jo completed a BA Joint Honours in American and English Studies at Nottingham University and served as the Fundraising and Marketing Committee Member for the Nottingham University run organisation, Tanzanian Development through Education and Medicine (TanDem). Her previous experience in fundraising, communications, marketing and administrative work is invaluable to her in her role as the Family Sponsorship Co-Ordinator.

Monday

The week begins with an office based day, during which I update the Family Sponsorship spreadsheet and complete some forms from the week before. However, this is only possible once I have managed to access the AfCiC network on the laptop. It definitely helps to be an IT expert when it comes to the office computers! It's not a particularly exciting day but a necessary part of the role. The office is often quite noisy as some of the street kids like to come and say hello and there's always a constant stream of people with enquiries. In the evening I cook for the other girls in the house and we watch a DVD.

Tuesday

Work is slow going in the morning as two boys from the ICC decide to leave the centre and come to the office to speak to the Director. As she's not around they wait but their constant noise and interruptions mean that it's hard to get much done. Having updated the master copy of the payment record sheet, I go through the case files making sure an accurate record is in place of all the money that has been spent on each family supported by the scheme.

One of the mothers who is being sponsored comes to the office to see me. A couple of weeks ago myself and Florence, the ICC social worker, conducted a home visit as she stopped making loan repayments a couple of months earlier. Before Christmas, food prices rose astronomically in Kenya and her business collapsed. Due to her financial difficulties, she moved back in with her ex husband as this meant she no longer had to pay rent on the one roomed house she occupied with her children. At the time we visited, she was visibly depressed but insisted she needed to consider whether she wanted to take an additional loan. When she visited the office this morning she requested an additional business loan and, after completing the necessary paper work, I am able to assist her with some money.

In the afternoon I have my bi weekly meeting with the Director to go over the Family Sponsorship Program. We go through the cases to discuss their progress and try and come up with some ideas as to how to increase the number of sponsors in order that we can assist more of the families who are in need of support. We also discuss the volunteer section of the website which I am currently in the process of updating and a couple of funding proposals which I am assisting with.

Wednesday

I spend my morning sending emails to various l inks in order to increase the profile of the Family Sponsorship Programme and the charity in general. I want to utilise the organisation's Facebook group to send out a message en masse but I need to contact the administrator of the group first in order to do this. I send a couple of updates to current sponsors and remind them that soon the children currently at the ICC will be rehabilitated into the local community. In order to ensure a smooth transition from the centre back to their home environments, it is important we support the families and make sure they are financially able to provide for their child's basic needs. I request that current sponsors consider friends, relatives or colleagues who may wish to assist the charity through sponsorship.

Another parent comes to the office as we have agreed to start assisting her through the Family Sponsorship Program. We completed the business plan when we conducted a home visit previously, so today it is just a case of going through the loan agreement and completing the payment record sheets. Once the parent has left, I update the information on the computer and email the sponsor to update them on the utilisation of their money.

I head home for lunch as I haven't been feeling well the past few days and don't feel able to stomach the local food that is sold in the restaurants in town. I've attempted to make soup and I'm quite impressed with my efforts but it still doesn't reach my mum's standards! Can't complain though, food here is a lot better than I expected.

In the afternoon I begin to construct some kind of budgeting form to give to all the sponsored families, in order that it might help them to plan out carefully their income and expenditure and manage their money more effectively. I finish off a funding proposal which is due in by the end of the week and email it to the Director so that she can check it over. A couple of friends are coming out to visit in March and I send some emails to them to discuss their plans and request a few items for the children and a couple of treats for myself!

In the evening I chat with a friend from the UK on the phone. Sometimes it's easy to forget that life at home is continuing without me and occasionally talking to my friends makes me feel like I am missing out on things back home. But I know that in the future I will look back on my time in Kenya and know that it was all worth it. Life in the UK continues without me whilst I am here, but likewise it will still be there when I go home. The experiences I am having here in Kenya are once in a lifetime.

Thursday

Thursday morning I have a very early start. One of the families in the Family Sponsorship Programme was due to start repayments three months ago but we haven't had much contact with them since the loan was given. The father battles with alcoholism and, with seven children in the family, food is often scarce. Previous follow up visits have been unsuccessful as we have always found the house empty, so we leave Thika at 6.30am in the hope of catching them still at home.

The matatu is crowded and I don't even manage to get a seat. I have to perch in the aisle, wedged between two other seats. It's rather uncomfortable to say the least and, after a bumpy journey, I am relieved when Peter, the Outreach Social Worker, tells me it's time for us to get off. Sadly the horrendous journey is not over yet and we have to take a motorbike taxi from the main road to the family's home. Riding pillion without a helmet over cross country terrain is pretty terrifying and I close my eyes and pray for it to be over asap.

We arrive shortly after 7am and fortunately meet the father as he is leaving the house. We stay for about an hour to discuss the problems the family is currently facing and trying to plan a way forward. The situation is frustrating as the answer to the family's problems is far from simple. We make some provisional decisions and inform the family there are some things we need to discuss in the office but we will be in touch.

Arriving back in Thika just before 9am I head to the office where I complete a follow up report. I check my email and send a couple of updates to sponsors in the UK. As I'm taking over control of the budget for the program, I create a monthly expenditure spreadsheet which will keep track of all the different expenses incurred.

In the evening I head back to the house where I relax with the other volunteers and watch a DVD. It's been a long day travelling about and this, added to the heat, can be pretty exhausting so I head to bed early.

Friday

First thing this morning I go to the office to check my emails and to print off some background information forms and business plan templates for the home visits I will be going on later. A member of the family I went to see yesterday comes to the office to see me to discuss further one of the issues we touched upon yesterday. Florence, the social worker from the Interim Care Centre, arrives mid-morning and we head to Kiandutu, the slum on the outskirts of Thika town. When we arrive at the slum we are met by Pauline, the woman whose home we are going to. She leads us through the twisting alleys of the slums and I smile at the excitement my presence causes.

At Pauline's house Florence talks with her about the problems she is currently facing and her present economic situation. They speak in Kikuyu, the local tribal language, and so Florence interprets for me so I can understand what is being said. We draw up a plan for business selling charcoal and we discuss the implications that receiving a business loan has. Unfortunately, despite Pauline's need for immediate help, there are not enough sponsors at present to help everyone and we have to leave her with the promise that her details will be kept and we will contact her if funds become available.

We go straight from Kiandutu to Ruiru, which is some 20km away from Thika Town. We go to the home of Joyce, who is the mother to a boy who underwent rehabilitation at the Interim Care Centre. Joyce is a single mother with five children. She tells us that she worries her children hate her because she is unable to feed them adequately. It's upsetting to her and we try to reassure her otherwise. We discuss her plans for a business which she has obviously thought about prior to our visit. Her ideas are very viable and her need is immediate but we have to tell her the same as we told Pauline earlier on, that, until we receive more sponsors, there is not the money to assist her at the moment. It's frustrating because both of the women I have visited today are very willing to work hard to improve their standard of living. They just need help getting started. Before we leave Joyce's house she requests that we pray. Although her prayer is in Kikuyu, Florence later tells me she was thanking God for the help that AfCiC has given her and the blessings she has been given so far. Moments like these reassure me that the work AfCiC is doing is making an important difference to the lives of the people we support.

I don't' return to Thika until 4.30pm and, as I haven't eaten all day and I'm very dehydrated, I go straight to the house rather than returning to the office. In the evening I head to Porkies, a local bar, to have a couple of drinks and dance to some local music. Being white means you attract quite a bit of attention when you go out in the evenings but most people are just being friendly and it's a good chance to talk to some locals.

Saturday and Sunday

At the weekend myself, and two of the other volunteers, go to Lake Naivasha for the weekend. There's lots to do in the area but we are more just going for some rest and relaxation and spend most of the weekend lying in the sun. We take one of the AfCiC tents and camp out by the lake at Fishermans Camp. There's a nice bar & restaurant at the site and in the evening we sit out and have a couple of drinks with dinner and try to spot the hippos coming out of the water to graze. Sunday afternoon we pack up the tent and head back to Thika, ready for another week at work.