Important Update from Uzima Trustees

Some encouraging news

Dear supporter,

This is just a brief but important update, to assure you we are still working hard on a solution to support the vulnerable children at Uzima after recent events and our planned exit. After much thought, prayer and discussion, we made the decision to implement a phased withdrawal to minimise any adverse affect on the children we care for. This phased withdrawal will take place over a period of approximately 2 years.

We are pleased to inform you the children are back at school after the long Easter holidays, and that we will now be providing funds direct to a food supplier to deliver sacks of beans, maize, rice, sugar and oil to the Uzima kitchen. We have also committed to pay a further 12 months salary for the teaching team, who of course rely on this to provide for their own families. We have also ensured we can support the special needs children Joy worked with on her visit and we are looking at ways to ensure their continued attendance at school. As a result, we really value the donations from those of you who have chosen to continue giving to our ongoing commitments. Please be assured residual funds, together with regular income, are all being used to fulfill our obligations to the most vulnerable.

Perhaps more importantly still - and it’s quite exciting - we are working with a local Kenyan child scholarship organisation, run by a remarkable Kenyan lady who was once a sponsored child herself. The charity is Kenyan run, and it is called Rise to Shine Education Foundation (RTSEF). We are delighted to share that they have agreed to take on the 15 Secondary School pupils we have been sponsoring throughout their education upon leaving Uzima (one proud Secondary School student pictured above). Some of the girls will now attend boarding school (which they are actually delighted about!) and this will keep them safe. This arrangement is in place for the full 4 years duration of their studies. Please have a look at their website www.rtsef.org we are hoping that as we develop our partnership with Rise to Shine over the next couple of years, that we may even be able to fund more children to attend Secondary, and over time some of you may even choose to move your donation to them to achieve this directly.

We would of course like to do the same with the most vulnerable primary school age children. This is somewhat more complicated due to complex welfare needs, but we are negotiating a solution, and there are first signs of hope that a good outcome can be achieved here too. We will of course keep you informed of all further developments.

In the meantime, we seek to build bridges with Uzima, and communicate with the Board in place there, who if willing, will receive help to structure their management to enable self sufficiency in running their own school. This would of course be a most excellent outcome, and one we may not have reached so soon had the dishonesty, which sadly was uncovered by Joy on her extended visit, not been made clear to us. We have been reminded of that encouraging verse in Romans, ‘God knows us far better than we know ourselves.. that’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God, is worked into something good’, Romans 8:28 from The Message Version. Recent events were desperately saddening and disappointing to say the least, but within days we began to see signs of hope for a long term, Kenya- run way forward.

Our savings group project with Five Talents, also continues to flourish. Please see the update and photos below.

We would all like to thank you sincerely for all your kind messages and letters of encouragement. Indeed much has been achieved over the years, and you so kindly reminded each of one of us of this in your personal communications - we are both humbled and grateful.

Onwards & upwards!
Love to you all,

Joy, Louise, Viv and Rachel

Trustees
Uzima in Our Hands