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The latest news from Friends of Kipkelion
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Hello everybody

There’s been a lot going on at Friends of Kipkelion recently – we seem to be doing more than ever this year!  As always, all our projects are done in collaboration with the local community in Kipkelion and are implemented by our partner organisation, Brighter Communities Worldwide.


 

Michael Deriaz
Chairman, Friends of Kipkelion

What's been happening in 2018 so far?

World Toilet Day


Monday 19 November was World Toilet Day – the day designated by the United Nations for highlighting the fact that half the world’s population do not have a proper toilet.  This is fundamental to economic development, as without toilets, you cannot have a school, and without schools you cannot get anywhere.  

Friends of Kipkelion has completed 7 toilet blocks in the last year in schools in Kipkelion, benefitting over 1000 children, and we plan to build at least as many in 2019.  These new latrines are much cleaner, safer and more hygienic than the old toilets they are replacing – we find that, on average, sickness absences in schools are halved once the new toilets are installed.  

That’s a huge advantage.

Match Funding available through The Big Give for Smokeless Stoves


Once again, there will be an opportunity to have your donations to Friends of Kipkelion match funded at the end of November, thanks to corporate sponsorship arranged through The Big Give initiative.  If you donate between 27 November and 4 December, your gift will be doubled.  

For this year’s Big Give, we are raising money for our smokeless stoves campaign. We plan to train 200 people in Kipkelion to build smokeless stoves – these stoves prevent houses from filling with smoke during cooking.  By eliminating the smoke, we reduce the risk of all sorts of horrible lung diseases, and in addition the stoves use much less fuel, which saves money and also saves the environment.  

Each stove costs about £40 – so with the Big Give match funding, you can donate £20 and have your gift doubled to £40, funding an entire stove.

To get the match funding, you have to donate via this special Big Give link here. Remember that the match funding is only available from 27 November, for one week. Don't miss out!

UK Government Grant for Maternal Health

 
We are delighted to announce that we have received one of the very first grants awarded by the Department for International Development from the Small Charities Challenge Fund.  This is a new initiative designed specifically to help small charities like us.  We have been awarded £48,000 for our work improving maternal health in Kipkelion and the surrounding areas.  This will benefit 6,000 mothers and their babies over the next 2 years, ensuring that women can give birth safely and that babies are inoculated.  We are also very grateful to the Allan and Nesta Ferguson Trust and the Saracen Trust for supporting this project.

The Fight Against FGM Continues


November is the time that FGM has traditionally taken place in Kipkelion, and although the practice is beginning to die out, we still need to protect girls who are at risk in certain villages where the cutters remain active.  The funding from DFID for our “alternative rites of passage” project came to an end in July, after 3 very successful years.  To ensure that the work could continue, we asked some of our core supporters to sponsor an alternative rites of passage course in Kipkelion this November.  We raised over £12,000 – a big thank you to those who contributed!

And we were delighted in August to receive a generous corporate donation from Bumble, the online dating site, for our work combatting FGM. In total, these donations will ensure that over 2,000 girls in Kipkelion are protected from FGM this November.

Fundraising at Nonsuch School

Our partnership with Nonsuch High School for Girls in Cheam is continuing.  Last year, the Year 9 girls at the school raised over £3,000 for us.  This year’s Year 9 girls have accepted the challenge and have already raised nearly £1,700 by putting on a fair at the school, at which they sold home-made sweets and other goodies to the other pupils.  The girls are planning sponsored activities and many other kinds of fund raising for later in the year.  A terrific contribution from Nonsuch!
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