Back home in Africa

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I first started to feel like I was back home in Africa when I got on the Kenya Airways plane in London and was greeted by polished, professional, friendly flight attendants, all dressed in bright red blazers. They are just so welcoming and gentle and I knew I was in good hands.

The new Kenya Airways 787 Dreamliner.

The flight was a special one, unbeknownst to me. When I arrived at the departure gate there was cake and champagne to celebrate the inaugural flight of a brand new Boeing 787 Dreamliner added to the Kenya Airways fleet. There were even two lions in the hold, being transported back to Africa from a circus in Germany. (You can read about it here – http://travel.aol.co.uk/2015/01/21/two-lions-rescued-cruel-circus-germany-moved-south-africa-born-free/)

After 35 hours of travel, like the lions, I needed some rescuing so I was excited and pleased to be met at the Kisumu Airport by Mary Etuku, the manager of the ICIPE Guest House where I will stay for three weeks.

After a brief stop to get my mobile phone working properly, we drove to Mbita, about 2 1/2 hours from Kisumu.

I had come to Kenya to visit but also to check on some of the projects we have been doing in the last year and realized as we bumped along that we would pass one of our school projects near Kendu Bay. Our driver, Kennedy , kept his eyes peeled and found the sign for Kamser Primary School so we did a U-turn and headed back , unannounced.

Desks at the Kamser Elementary school provide in 2014 by CanAssist.

The students were away from the school on their lunch break but three teachers sat under a tree marking notebooks. They took me into the classrooms to show me the desks that CanAssist had funded last year. This was a bit of a win-win since the desks, rudimentary but functional, we’re all made by local carpenters, thereby providing some modest local employment as well as providing the desks for the students. CanAssist had also provided a rainwater catchment tank. The teachers told me that after a good rain, the tank fills and can supply drinking water for the 500 pupils at the school for several weeks. Prior to getting the desks, the students, usually 60-80 per classroom, were sitting on the floor to learn.

I was delighted to start my 2015 Africa trip this way. My Jet lag dissolved. I was pleased to see how these teachers were appreciative of our support and their report of how this contribution to the school had made a difference to the well-being of the students.

After a good rain, this tank will be full and provide clean drinking water at the Kamser school for several weeks.

I may have brought them something else – another blessing. About 10 last night there was a 2 hour torrential thunderstorm that dumped much-needed water on the community. There has been no rain for weeks. I smiled as I lay in bed, my screened patio door open, and listened to the rain pour down, knowing that around this community there were water tanks filling up.

The sunsets over Lake Victoria from the lawn in front of the ICIPE Guest House are wonderful.

Would you want your kids using these school toilets?

Posted on May 30, 2014 by johnageddes

Imagine this. You are a single mother of three children living in Kenya. You desperately want your children to get an education, hoping that will boost their chances of living more comfortably than you do now. You can barely afford food. The local school is about three kilometres away and has crowded classrooms.

The toilets at the school look like this.

Your kids are often sick with diarrhea and vomiting. Your thirteen year old daughter is in class seven. She as just stared menstruating. These toilets, with broken doors, are the only place she can tend to her monthly needs. So she stays home from school four or five days a month and subsequently gets behind with her studies.

At CanAssist we hear stories like this all the time. We see these deplorable sanitation facilities at schools. It startles us to find that in busy village markets there are no sanitation facilities at all. Adjacent fields and gutters turn into raw sewage minefields.

With the support of our donors, we try to help.

In the past couple of months we have been gratified to follow the construction of latrines at the Twiga school in Ruriru district of Kenya. For a cost of about $7500 we have been able to provide rainwater catchment, new latrines for students and teachers and hand-washing stations for the school. Hand washing has been shown to reduce the spread of many diseases but without the proper facilities this becomes impossible.

This week we received this report from Michael Gichia who works with the Murera Community Empowerment and Support Organization (MCESO) . It reads, in part:

Benefits realised from the project.

Inscription on the latrine wall reads ” Twiga Primary School water & Sanitation enhancement project. This project has been funded by CanAssist African Relief Trust in conjunction with the Grey Gates Foundation /Vancouver and the family of Ruth and Donald Redmond.”

“The project has brought about the following benefits to the school children in TWIGA PRIMARY SCHOOL;

o 555 school children and 15 teachers at TWIGA PRIMARY SCHOOL in Ruiru district have

safe sanitation and drinking water facilities.

o The school enrolment ahs gone up by 20 more children by the beginning of second term

thanks to the water and sanitation enhancement project

Hand washing station

o The project has improved access to water supply at TWIGA PRIMARY SCHOOL in Ruiru District

o The project has brought positive perception among the school children on sanitation and personal hygiene e.g. hand washing practices, proper disposal of wastes and economical use of water as well as improved knowledge about hygiene and environmental sanitation;

New CanAssist-funded teachers’ latrine at Twiga School.

o The project has brought about reduction in water shortages at TWIGA PRIMARY SCHOOL

and therefore more time for learning for the children.

o The project has reduced diseases associated with drinking dirty water and observing unclean hygienic behaviour among the school children.

o The school has functional hand wash facilities for the promotion of health and hygiene

o Preliminary training on sanitation and cleanliness has been conducted.”

Now, imagine again, as that poor African mother, how pleased you would be that your children had decent sanitation facilities at their school.

CanAssist has been happy to be able to improve the sanitation facilities for these 550 Kenyan pupils. We have had specific support for much if the cost of this project from the Grey Gates Foundation in Vancouver and from friends and family of Ruth and Don Redmond in celebration of their 65th wedding anniversary last year.

CanAssist has just taken on similar projects in other schools in Kenya and Uganda. If you or your family would like to help to bring smiles to the faces of African students and their teachers, you can give a tax-deductible donation to CanAssist by mail or online. Details about how to support a project like this a re available on our website www.canassistafrica.ca

Helping Women in Kenya

Posted on November 27, 2013 by johnageddes

In the week leading up to Giving Tuesday, CanAssist is happy to show some examples of infrastructure support work done by the CanAssist African Relief Trust in East Africa in the past several months with some short YouTube videos. Please share them with your Facebook friends. And on Giving Tuesday, December 3 (or any time, for that matter) please keep the CanAssist African Relief Trust in mind. Your support keeps us moving ahead and helping communities in Africa.

Today we highlight work that CanAssist has done in Nyatike District to help women and girls in that community be safer and more productive.

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A successful July for CanAssist

Posted on August 5, 2013 by johnageddes

Our July 2013 drive to fund two water projects in East Africa went over the top!

Students at the Nyandema Secondary School have to walk about 5 km every day to get water… and then it is from this muddy river. CanAssist will fund four rainwater catchment tanks at the school to provide a clean accessible water supply.

Earlier in the month, we were challenged by the Sasamat Foundation, a charitable organization in Vancouver B.C. with the offer that they would match donations received by CanAssist in July that were allocated to a rainwater collection projects at the Olimai Health Clinic and the Nyandema Secondary School in Nyatike District, Kenya.Well, our supporters rose to the occasion and as of July 31 we have collected $6708 in donations toward these projects through our 2013 Sasamat Challenge. Donors will be pleased that the first $5000 will be matched by Sasamat. Even better, Sasamat has offered another $10,000 toward these projects. Great news for CanAssist and the project partner communities in East Africa.

Putting guttering on this building and providing rainwater storage tanks will help the community to acquire clean water.

CanAssist will fund construction of guttering on this building and provide rainwater storage tanks to help the Nakiwaate community acquire clean water.

The good news doesn’t end there. With the money donated this month toward rainwater collection projects, we are able now to fund THREE of our approved 2013 water projects at the Olimai Clinic in rural Uganda, the Nyandema Secondary School in Nyatike District, Kenya and the T.A.Crusade Institute of Professional Studies in Nakiwaate Village, Uganda.

We are all excited.

We are in the process of signing the Memoranda of Understanding with the groups and will forward the money to them by mid-August so that the projects can be started as soon as possible (and before the anticipated rainy season in October and November).

CanAssist extends thanks to all who supported this effort and to the Sasamat Foundation for their generous funding and confidence in CanAssist to get this work done!

Here are some responses we have received from these groups when they were notified of this funding availability on August 1.

From Amuge Akol at Olimai Clinic : “I woke up to heart racing news. We are so hapi with the successful fund-raising drives. We shall write directly to supporters to express our our sincere grattitude. I will go to town tomorrow and
process the MOU and return it. Thx a million.”

From Ronald Lutaaya in Nakiwaate Village, Uganda: “We are so happy to hear this great news! Thanks so much for your effort in making this dream project come true. You have saved life in this poor community. I have just passed on the news to our Staff Members and some of our beneficiaries. They are all thankful and happy about this news.”

From Hellen Omollo, Nyandema Secondary School: “We are very happy indeed to hear from you.Once againwe do say THANK YOU for considering the life and health of our
Nyandema students and the local community a priority.
Good luck, good health and Gods peace and Mercy be part of you in yourdeserving work to East Africa.”

Canassist has had an ongoing relationship with the Olimai Clinic for the past three years. Here, some Canadian CanAssist supporters visit the clinic in 2012.