Posts tagged royal academy
Mosquito Nets

Another crucially important thing we did while out in Kenya this time was distribute mosquito nets to families in the area who had babies or children less than five years old. Ian Mata's family receiving a net

Malaria is one of the biggest killers of children and babies under five in Kenya, so it is crucially important for them to all be sleeping under nets at night. It really is a lifesaver and at just £5 each there is absolutely no reason why every single child should not have one. Last time we did a mosquito net distribution and we went around afterwards to visit the families we were told by one mother that she had been really worried about Malaria that year, because of all the heavy monsoon rains and huge prevalence of mosquitos in the village, but since receiving the net none of her children had contracted malaria at all. A huge achievement.

Joshua and Jerimiah Mugande collecting their net

The nets were donated mostly by students and staff at John Cleveland College, Hinckley who did lots of fundraising and raised £500 to buy 100 nets for families in Mtwapa and Mtomondoni. We also had 64 nets to distribute from our christmas packages programme - so if you bought a net at Christmas, this is what happened to it!

Purity receiving her net

We identified the families to receive nets through projects we already had links with and through some outreach work in a remote village. We came across the village while doing home visits as it is home to Musa, Ann and Mary who all attend Royal Academy, one of the schools we are linked with in Mtwapa.  We were shocked by the poor standard of living for almost everyone in this village. Every house was a dilapidated, single-roomed mud hut in a bad state of disrepair. Very few had any household objects to speak of and no mattress to sleep on. Whilst we are familiar with these types of houses as they are very common in Kenya, to see so many families living in these conditions all in one remote village was something of a shock. As a result we tried to stretch out the nets to include some of the poorest families in this village too and they were extremely popular and well received. There is clearly a very great need for mosquito nets in this area.

Kindergarten children at New Life school recieved a net each

Every family who received a net had at least one small child under the age of five (and many had more than one), none had a net that they were already using and we felt that none of them would have been unable to purchase a net of their own. I wanted to introduce some of the families who received nets to you and show you their photos.

If you bought a christmas mosquito net, or you are a student or a teacher at JCC and you raised the money or donated to help buy these nets, be truely proud of yourself. You really have saved lives.

Kindergarten children at New Life school recieved a net each

Rieder's Updates: February

Hello! Rieder Mwambanga - Our co-ordinator in Kenya

Welcome to our monthly updates. I would like to appreciate the good work you have been doing so far and making everything run well. A big thank you to all as you have been doing a really good work towards Milele programme. We managed to complete the classes at Royal Academy and also made 12 chairs and 2 big tables for the kindergarten pupils at the school - donated by the TEAMS group.

The director of the school really appreciated your effort of supporting the school as most of the pupils are not capable of paying school fees regularly. He also wished to thank everyone through Milele program and the good work Milele directors are doing.

We have been also giving out mosquito nets to a certain village around Royal Academy most of the families had no mosquito nets. Through your donations these needy families were able to receive a mosquito net each. Around 61 families got the nets.

We all know how the mosquito nets are important mostly to the infants and the younger kids below the age of 5yrs. As for the coming month we are expecting long rains thus you did save some lives and saved the next leader in the society. We really appreciate your effort towards this program.

Pendo, Faith and their mum in their new chicken house... Chickens settling in nicely!

We have been also monitoring our chicken project at Shanzu and charcoal business at Mtomondoni (new businesses for two of the families on the sponsorship program) and they are all doing well and they are looking forward to starting to make a living using the projects. We also say thanks a lot for making it happen.

We have our elder girl Josephine she managed to complete her primary education and secured a place at secondary school very soon she will be at school. All our sponsored kids are doing well and for now they have started their end of month exam. Thanks a lot for your support towards us may almighty bless you all.

Rieder

Old Mac-Donald and his very exotic farm….

Old Mac-Donald has been very busy in kindergartens in Mtomondoni and Mtwapa.  Kids at Victory Academy and Royal Academy aged between 18 months and 10 years have had a fantastic time singing about it all! Check out the video, it's well worth a watch if you think you can stand three million verses of this song!!! Popular animals at Victory include kangaroos and rabbits… basically anything that jumps! My personal favourite are the lions!

Next this brave farmer visited Royal Academy where his farm continued to be a huge success, they even decided to add in some extra spontaneous clapping too! I love the elephants (especially one tall elephant on the back row who got a bit carried away and nearly caused an elephant-related concussion!) Keep your eyes peeled for the little girl on the front row, far left who is looking around her at everyone like they are extremely strange… I’ll have no part in this chaos…!

A huge thank-you especially goes to one sponsor for the special ‘Old MacDonald’ hand puppet that we have donated to Victory Academy, it was so exciting for the kids.

[video width="426" height="240" mp4="http://milele.org.uk/news/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/royal-academy-old-mcdonald_small1.mp4"][/video]

Clothing and Shoes Distribution

On Saturday we distributed lots of clothes and shoes to the children at Royal Academy, their brothers and sisters and some of the local children in the area. We managed to give out to at least 100 children over the day, many of whom had very few clothes and were dressed just in rags or cloth tied around them. They were so excited to receive them and I hope you will enjoy looking at these photos just as much – see if you can spot your donation!

Trouble? Me? Never!

No, this top is definitely not too small... perfect for me!

Im a fairy princess!

drawing a crowd - people waiting outside the school

charity loves her cool new trainers!

bring on the monsoon!

When we went back to Royal the following day to hand out some of the food parcels and saw so many of the clothes being worn in the village - it was really lovely! Clearly they are favourite items already!

Thanks once again to everyone who has donated something!