CHASE Africa News #2

A focus on our new partner, Dandelion Africa, in CHASE Africa's December newsletter.

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Here with a few stories of what we have been up to over the last three months.

After months of discussion we facilitated the free supply of family planning commodities to our partner CHAT. As these commodities make up around 50% of the cost of a mobile clinic this is an enormous financial boost and will mean we can reach many more women. In the spirit of co-operation CHAT have shared these commodities with our two other partners Mount Kenya Trust and our newest partner, Dandelion Africa.

Robin met the founder of Dandelion, Wendo Aszed, on his trip to Kenya in July and was really impressed by what they were achieving. Dandelion works with 24 women’s groups in the Rift Valley and their mission is "to stimulate awareness and involvement in creating sustainable solutions to improve economic livelihoods and health for women and youth in these marginalised areas". Initially CHASE agreed to fund a mobile clinic which would visit three villages offering basic curatives and family planning. The first three clinics have proved to be enormously popular with over 3,500 people attending and a letter of appreciation received from the Ministry of Health!

We have been so encouraged by the success of the first three clinics that we have agreed to do six more and our aim for 2015 is to run two a month.

Stories of change

Dandelion Africa have sent us a number of stories from their recent Salgaa outreach. Salgaa is a small village about 20 miles north of Nakuru. People came to the mobile clinic from Sumek, Lelechwet, Boror, Chepsion, Deloraine, Belbur and Salgaa centre - over 1,600 people in all.

Margaret Wanjiku is 32 years old and was given a 3 year implant in 2013. She has three children, aged between 2 and 12 years. She chose the implant because she wants to give her children a good future. She now runs a greengrocers and can help her husband in contributing towards the economy of the home. She is thankful that she did not listen to people’s myths about implants, she says she can carry heavy things and is living a happy life thanks to the choice she made to use this method of family planning.

Faith Tanui with her two children.

Margaret Wanjiku with her daughter Karen.

Faith Tanui is 25 years old and has two children - a 4 year old and an 18 month old. She chose a 5 year contraceptive plan because she felt she could not fend for any more children. Life is hard she said, and with the little her husband earns she wants to help give their children a better life.

Dandelion's work is of vital importance to the communities that they visit - they are enabling families to choose when they have children which has a direct impact on their ability to provide for them.

Dandelion's Family Planning work goes beyond giving families choices. Wendo writes "There was a girl who was brought to me during the outreach, who had been raped. She is 11, they had reported to the police but the culprits had absconded. She was living with well-wishers and they did not have the money to take her to the hospital, so she came to the FP side and the nurse had a look, let's just say that she cried and was so relieved that she could talk to someone and get medicine and the much needed help she was so desperate for. So this project is not about FP only, its about the ripple effect if has on a community that is marginalised and children who are not getting proper treatment and for that we are so so grateful."

It costs only £5 to enable a women to choose
family planning for three years.
Go on, change a family's life...

Give £5 through MyDonate

Our pilot project with the Mount Kenya Trust involving a conservation organisation offering basic curatives and family planning is going from strength to strength with an increasing number of people attending the monthly clinics in different locations around Mount Kenya.

Not forgetting our roots we were very pleased to be able to fund a new reforestation project with MKT. This project will see the planting of 10 hectares on the slopes of Mount Kenya, an area of immense conservation value.

Images from Kenya

These are trees we funded 12 years ago on a school site in Rongai near Nakuru. They've been looked after by staff and students at the school.

Below are some more photos from Dandelion's recent Salgaa outreach.

Letter of appreciation for the Salgaa outreach from the Medical Office of Health (click to read the full-size version).

And finally...

If you're looking to shed a few pounds after Christmas and fancy a trip to London, we may have just the thing for you!

CHASE Africa has very kindly been offered one of Tusk Trust’s Golden Bond places in the London Marathon. We are looking for a runner who would like to raise funds to support CHASE Africa’s work of providing access to basic healthcare and family planning through mobile clinics in northern Kenya. These clinics operate among poor communities in this rough terrain using camels as the mode of transport and usually reach over 1,000 people at a cost of around £5,000. Our target is to cover the cost of a mobile clinic. Any one keen to run in the London Marathon please get in touch with robinwitt@chaseafrica.org.uk.

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