here - Makindu Children`s Program
! ! ! ! A shared vision across the globe. When people truly share a vision, they are connected —bound together by a common aspiration. A MAKINDU SUCCESS STORY: FLORENCE ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! When Florence entered Daraja Academy in Nanyuki she was overwhelmed with joy. This was to be her home for the next four years for her high school education. She couldn’t believe it! An ordinary girl from the village with no parents now had the opportunity to achieve her dream of becoming a Civil Engineer. Florence (center) This is the inspiring story of Florence Mutaiti, a 15 year old girl from Nthia Village, Twaandu Location in Makindu District. Since her parents left her at a tender age, Florence has been living with her elderly grandmother who depends on relatives for support and from groups loaning labor skills. Florence did her Kenya Certificate of Primary Education in 2014 and scored 331 marks out of a possible 500. She felt she could have done better were it not for the challenges that she went through. In her own words she says, “I was often out of school since my grandmother couldn’t pay the school levies required. My school uniform had holes. After school I found heaps of jobs at home for me to do like farming and thus no ample time to study.” Even having passed the exam with good marks, Florence still had little hope of joining high school, not with the meager earnings of her grandmother. Months passed by as she watched her other schoolmates get into high school. The MCC staff had been in touch with Daraja Academy which supports girls in their high school education. They identified Florence and she was shortlisted, as were four other girls from MCC, who had applied for support from Daraja to attend an interview at Nairobi. Two weeks after the interview she was still waiting when she received the news that she had been picked. She jumped with joy. Her grandmother was in tears of joy. She exclaimed as she told one of the staff, “I wish her mother was here.” Now Florence is barely a month into her new school and she is all smiles. Daraja Academy through Makindu Children’s Centre has put a smile on her face and given her joy and hope. She is now fully sponsored for her four-year Secondary Education and her grandmother is as happy as she could be. By Carolyne Waeni, MCC Program Officer, Makindu, Kenya ! Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ makinduchildrensprogram ! SAVE THE DATE Makindu Children’s Program invites you to attend our annual dinner and auction to be held Sunday, September 13, 2015 at 4:00 p.m., location yet to be determined. Check http://makindu.org for updates. ! THANK YOU Karl Werwath, 2014 Proper Walker, for financing our March Madness Matching Challenge Grant. Karl matched $1095 in donated funds! This is above and beyond the $10K+ he raised for Makindu during the 2014 Proper Walk. ASANTE SANA, KARL! FEATURED SPONSORED CHILD ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! BECOME A PROPER WALKER ! JOIN US FOR PROPER WALK 2016 ! To be held in August, Makindu’s signature fundraiser and Adventure for a Cause will find you hiking through the Laikipia Plateau of Kenya’s Great Rift Valley to benefit hundreds of orphans at Makindu Children’s Centre. ! ! For more information, please visit www.ProperWalk.com or email [email protected] PEER TO PEER FUNDRAISING Makindu Children’s Program is launching a new fundraising campaign called Support A Child and we need your help. We have been harvesting the power of the internet for the past several years to enhance our fundraising efforts on behalf of the children. Global Giving helped raise money for the Centre’s borehole project to deliver clean water and we used another crowdfunding site to provide money for Holiday Baskets for the guardian’s families. ! Now we are launching a Peer to Peer Campaign to attract new donors and to spread the word about how we help thousands of children in Makindu, Kenya. A Peer to Peer campaign is an internet based or social fundraising method that uses our current contacts and our relationships. Each of us knows several hundred people and by using Facebook, email, and other social media we can let many new people know all about our successful efforts to assist vulnerable children in Kenya. ! To support a child for 1 year costs $400. This provides education (tuition, books, and uniforms), basic nutrition, medical services, and the support facilities at the Centre (laundry and shower). A Peer to Peer volunteer fundraiser will be provided the on-line tools and how-to-tips to educate their friends and family about our Cause and get their help to support a child. ! To become involved in our Support A Child campaign email [email protected] or visit http://makindu.org/ support-a-child-campaign. ! ! by Dennis Wininger, MCP Board of Directors HIV IN KENYA It has been over 30 years since the HIV/AIDS virus was identified. Although much progress has been made, the pandemic continues to call on the world to pull the plug on the disease and improve the lives of people living with HIV. Kenya’s achievements match or better global progress figures and offer significant reason for hope. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! The first case of HIV in Kenya was detected in 1984, and by the mid 1990s it had become one of the major causes of mortality in the country putting huge demands on the healthcare system as well as the economy and society. HIV prevalence peaked at 10.5 percent in 1996. The rate dropped to 6.7 percent in 2003 due in part to the high mortality of those infected. By 2012, this had stabilized at 6.1 percent due mainly to the rapid scaling up of antiretroviral treatment and the reduction in new infections. With the fourth-largest HIV epidemic level in the world, an estimated 1.6 million people in Kenya were living with HIV in 2013. There are now 1.1 million orphans to the epidemic. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Of the Makindu Children’s Centre children, Shida (bottom left) and Wambua (left) and another 111 enrolled children are living with HIV/AIDS and are all receiving anti-retrovirus treatments (ARTs). From Thomas Mwanzia, Director of MCC: “All our children are tested for HIV. We have a testing policy at organizational level. Before we recruit the children into the program, we usually hold meetings with the guardians, and explain the need of having the children, and also themselves (the guardians) tested. They thus voluntarily get tested. We thus know the guardians' HIV status, and the infected ones are all on treatment and care. They also have their own support groups where they meet, share their experiences and challenges, and encourage one another. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! Our children who are on ART treatment are doing well. Luckily, ART therapy is available even in the village dispensaries, so there is no hassle in accessing them. They however have to visit a doctor once a month in the district hospital (Makindu) for assessment and any other needed service. In the last 15 years, a total of 12 MCC children have died.” Over the last 20 years there have been tremendous efforts to change the grim statistics of HIV/AIDS and progress has been made (see below). In 2011 Kenya signed onto the UNAIDS global goal of zero new infections – “Getting to Zero 2011-15”. In addition, Kenya’s First Lady, Margaret Kenyatta, launched the “Beyond Zero” campaign in January 2014 aimed at eliminating mother to baby transmission of HIV and improving maternal health care. There are now 18 mobile health clinics serving some of Kenya’s most vulnerable communities. Last month, the President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, also pledged the country’s support and leadership for the global UNAIDS “All In” campaign to end adolescent AIDS. By Steve Randolph, MCP Board of Directors Some highlights in Kenya: ! The number of people tested for HIV annually has increased from about 860,000 in 2008 to 6.4 million in 2013. In 2013, 70 percent of HIV-positive pregnant women received antiretroviral medicine to reduce the risk of mother-to-child transmission. New infections among children have dropped by nearly 50% in the last five years from 20,000 to 11,000 in 2013. Overall, new infections have decreased by 15% in those years to about 100,000 in 2013. The prevalence of HIV/AIDS nationally has dropped to 6.1 % from a high of 10.5%. The number of people accessing treatment for HIV increased from 36,000 in 2005 to nearly 600,000 at 4,500 sites across Kenya today. At least 56,000 of those receiving treatment are children. (Sources: Kenya Progress To Zero Report 2014; UNAIDS news releases; USAID Kenya Fact Sheet) EAST AFRICAN SCHOLARS FUND: OBSERVATIONS FROM A VISIT TO MAKINDU ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! observations from EASEP mentors: Some ! ! Talk of resilience ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! is their parents Makindu ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! The shoes we find ourselves in ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! The East African Scholars Fund heartily endorses the “go back, give back” motto for international students in the United States. Students from the EASF-sponsored Education and Social Empowerment Program have added a new dimension to the concept, by giving back before they leave Kenya for a U.S. education. Their recent visit to Makindu Children’s Centre provided them with an opportunity to use their leadership abilities and mentor children of all ages. The 11 EaSEP students divided into groups to mentor and conduct activities for very young children, children close to their teens, and high school students. The EaSEP group also conducted informal needs assessments to better understand the many pieces which make the Makindu day center a success as it serves a large rural area which is home to foster families for hundreds of orphans and children with HIV. “(My group) spoke to high school students…topics ranged from careers to teen relationships. I believe we guided them how we know best. They told us of their hopes. One wants to be a cardiologist, another, an engineer. Although, I must add, the boys were severely underrepresented in the group. One of the girls had been accepted to a national school but couldn’t attend due to fees. Amazingly, she still has an almost insane drive to pursue her dreams of Electrical Engineering. Talk of resilience. I wish you were there to see her eyes beaming as she spoke.” (David Gitau) "To the children, Makindu is their parents, giving them their daily needs, providing security, giving them a sense of belonging, and inculcating moral values and important life skills. To them, Makindu is their mother, who wakes up in the middle of the night to soothe their cries. To them, Makindu is the medicine they take to cure an infection that threatens their lives. You would appreciate the importance of the center if you ask those children what they would be going through if they had not been at Makindu." (Samson Kipkoech) “(The younger children) have great goals and aspirations for their future; some desire to be pilots and they could draw beautiful images of themselves flying in aeroplanes. Others want to be doctors, nurses and teachers. However, some of them (10-12 years), do not really know who they want to be after school (and need an inspirational boost) once in a while so that they can get motivated in their academic pursuits and discover their passions, interest and talents.” (Joyline Chepkorir) Please visit our website (http://makindu.org) and our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/makinduchildrensprogram) as we will be sharing more observations from the East African Scholars Fund mentors. THANKS TO ALL OF OUR 2014 DONORS ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 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