Hello everyone
Hello everybody – we are having our best ever year at Friends of Kipkelion, thanks to the generosity of a wide range of supporters across the UK and beyond. Since we started eight years ago, we have raised over £700,000 to help people in Kipkelion, and as we are all volunteers our costs are extremely low, so that nearly all the money is spent on projects in Kenya. No charity gives you a bigger bang for your buck!
Michael Deriaz
Chairman, Friends of Kipkelion
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What's been happening so far in 2019?
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Saskia sings for Kipkelion
Acclaimed folk singer Saskia Griffiths-Moore will be performing a special concert for Friends of Kipkelion on Tuesday 30 April, 7.30pm at The Harrison pub in King’s Cross (WC1H 8JF). It’s the final gig of her current national tour. All proceeds of ticket sales will go to Friends of Kipkelion and will be spent on projects in Kenya. Please come and enjoy some great music, and bring a friend - buy tickets here.
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Big progress through The Big Give
Our Big Give Christmas Challenge campaign in November/December 2018 was very successful and raised over £9,000 for the smokeless stoves programme in Kipkelion. This included the maximum amount of match funding. We also received several generous one-off donations towards the end of the year, which means that in total we have raised £15,000 for smokeless stoves this year. Over the next two years, around 100 people in Kipkelion will be trained to build the stoves during week-long training courses, and hundreds of stoves will be installed in the homes of needy families. The stoves make an incredible difference – they stop people getting smoke-related illnesses, they save families money and time, and they save the environment by using much less fuel. Everybody wins.
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More latrines and water tanks
We’ve helped to build around 50 latrine blocks in schools in Kipkelion in the past seven years, and thousands of children have benefited. This year we will be building another 6 latrine blocks, thanks to a grant from Guernsey Overseas Aid and Development Commission. Each one is a collaboration with the school in question, who have to contribute half the cost, often by getting the parents to do the hard work of digging out the latrine pit themselves. We’re hoping that these latrines will be ready by the end of 2019. We are also building new water tanks at 10 schools – these tanks hold at least 32,000 litres of rainwater and ensure that the water which is available in the rainy season can be stored and used during the dry season (January to March) when many schools in Kipkelion have difficulty obtaining a safe supply of water.
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Maternal health project underway
The Maternal Health project, funded by the Department for International Development and other funders and supporters, is now in full swing. With our partners Brighter Communities Worldwide, we are training volunteers in sixteen different locations across Kipkelion to help pregnant women get the care and support they need for themselves and their babies. We are aiming for a reduction in maternal mortality and child mortality in Kipkelion, both of which are far too high.
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Fighting FGM
The fight against FGM is continuing in Kipkelion – and we believe we are winning. In 2018, the local facilitators working for our partners Brighter Communities Worldwide spoke to over 20,000 people at public gatherings in Kipkelion about the dangers of FGM, and with the support of donations received from Friends of Kipkelion and other donors they were able to hold 40 residential courses for girls who would otherwise have been at risk of FGM. These girls benefited from the “Alternative Rite of Passage” and were encouraged to continue with their education as long as possible. A total of 2,126 girls took part in these courses last November and December 2018, and they were a huge success. Big thanks are due to our corporate sponsors at Bumble, and to Nonsuch High School for Girls for their generous support – and to many individual donors who made it possible for us to carry on the fight against FGM.
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