Over the last few months we have felt more like a humanitarian relief charity than a school-building one as we have responded to the devastating drought situation in Kenya.

However with the recent return of the rains now providing some relief to our schools - at least as far as water is concerned - we are resuming our building programme and putting to work some of the funds that we have built up over the last few months. 

Behind the scenes, we have continued to be busy. We are delighted to announce the appointment of a new Chairman, who joins us at an important stage in our growth and development. We are also excited to announce - even before we celebrate Easter - that our Christmas Carol Service will be returning this year. 

Looking ahead, we have two guaranteed places in RideLondon-Surrey this summer so if you or anyone you know of may be keen for a 100-mile bike ride please do get in touch.

We hope you find this update informative and we wish you a very Happy Easter.

After many months of tireless work, our redevelopment of Ngambenyi, our seventh partner school, is finally complete. We are very proud of what we have achieved and think that it is our best school development so far. But don't just take our word for it, this is what a former teacher at the school had to say...

"None of us every thought the school would be built to this standard."
Mercy Marigo

Thank you to all of you that have responded to both our recent appeals. We raised £7,033 from our water appeal, £1,562 of which has been spent purchasing and delivering 140,000 litres of clean water and £2,492 on increasing rainwater harvesting and storage capacity. Thankfully the rains have now returned to Kasigau after an absence of the best part of a year, filling water tanks and replenishing other water supplies.

Our latest appeal has so far raised £1,708 towards our school lunch programme but with food prices continuing to rise we still need so much more to be able to maintain this programme for the rest of the year. At current prices, it costs just £18 to provide a daily lunch for one child for a whole year or £250 to provide lunch for all 2,700 pupils for a day.

At the end of last year we appointed a new Chairman of the Board of Trustees and in January he joined Charles and our team in Kasigau for a few days to see our work at first-hand. He has written a brief report on his observations and thoughts which we hope you might find of interest.

"I think my overwhelming feeling was that the charity has brought dignity to the lives of the children, and they realise that there are many of us who care deeply about offering them the first step to improve their lives through education."
Chris Ott, Chairman

Carol Service 2017
Wednesday 13th December

After the resounding success of our inaugural Christmas Carol Service last year, we are delighted to announce that we'll be back at St Giles-in-the-Fields church this year, on Wednesday 13th December. Further details will be announced over the course of the year but for now please mark the date in your diaries!

RideLondon-Surrey 100
Sunday 30th July 2017

We're desperately looking for two keen cyclists to take on the 100-mile RideLondon bike ride this year. We have two guaranteed places which we are offering for free and with a negotiable minimum fundraising amount! If you or anyone you know may be interested please get in touch.

This month we celebrate the achievements of a group of students from Queen Elizabeth II High School on the Isle of Man who recently won £1,700 for African Promise by finishing joint second in the One World Charity Challenge. This competition brings together groups from secondary schools across the island who are tasked with choosing an international development charity to represent and then delivering a multi-media presentation about the charity’s work. We were delighted to be in the audience for the finals and to hear the group speak about our work - albeit in a rather unique fashion courtesy of a video featuring our Director as a superhero! In addition to the prize money, the group has also raised a further £600 from their own fundraising activities including a sponsored dip in the Irish Sea on New Years’ Day!