Hi All, Charo (along with his brothers) was one of the first children to be sponsored by Milele. At the start of this year he reached a milestone in his education when he started at Chasimba High School. Like the vast majority of secondary schools in Kenya, Chasimba is a boarding school. This means Charo has also moved out of the children's home where he has lived for the past 8 years.

It has now been a few moths since Charo started at Chasimba and he has settled in well. He has made lots of friends, is liked by his teachers and has recently started leading prayers in assemblies which is a big responsibility.

We are very proud of Charo and hope that in a few years time he can follow in Emmanuel Kai's footprints by making it all the way to university. He definitely has the potential!

Hi everyone! Just to let you know, we are in Kenya. We don't have long here but lots of exciting things are happening.

We have visited Mtwapa  Elite Academy, which is the new school our sponsored children are now attending, and it is fantastic. All the children and parents are very happy with their new school and have settled in well.

We have visited most of our children at home including Tamira, Pendo, Umi, Edward, Saidi, Emmanuel Kai, Linet and Peris. Tomorrow we are due to visit our newest and youngest child, Isaac at his house too. Some of the families are facing some serious challenges at the moment, however we are well prepared to deal with them well and all the children are healthy and happy.

The really great news is that thanks to another generous donation from the Dorothy Holmes Trust we have been able to take on another child onto the programme. Her name is Amina, she is 11 years old and she lives in Mtomondoni with her mother, father and five brothers and sisters. Currently she has been walking for at least two hours to school each day, because that is the closest free government school which has space for her. More information and photos to follow!

If any of our sponsors or supporters out there have letters or messages that they would like to pass onto the kids, please let us know. We are accessing the Milele email daily, or you are welcome to post a comment below. We will be seeing all the children on Friday, so before Friday afternoon would be ideal.

Equally, if anyone out there works in healthcare and would like to volunteer in Mtwapa during August next year, get in touch we would love to hear from you. Already we are building a long list of healthcare-related projects which we can run with communities and schools - certainly much in demand!

Our love to all

Amy and Rich

Hello everyone! Our first few days in Mtwapa have been going well. We have been busy visiting schools and catching up with our sponsored kids.

Today we ran an activity day at 'New Life', one of the schools we work with. Despite an early rainstorm making Mtwapa into one huge river, we managed to make it to mtomondoni, absolutely soaked! Incredibly, the resources we had packaged up to take with us mostly survived! So the day went on as planned!

We had Rupert the Bear Art Sets from the Old Mill School PTA, butterfly toys to decorate, jigsaws, a few bubbles here and there and lots and lots of painting!

To finish the day off, every child came and chose a toy of their own to take home - just 225 small toys and games Tracey Hewitt happened to have hanging around spare in the garage!! They have been put to good use!

Enjoy the photos and keep checking the site for more news as the trip goes on!

Amy and Rich

Hello everyone! We have safely arrived in Kenya and are settling in and looking forward to seeing everyone again.

The first couple of days have been rather busy with visiting homes and settling in, and we are planning lots of exciting things of the next couple of weeks.

Keep your eyes peeled for news and photos!

Amy