Hi All, Each time we visit Kenya we try to make some time to do something fun with the children; we have previously been to a Haller animal park, the public beach and on a day safari at Shimba Hills. Back in April when Amy and I were visiting Kenya we asked the children what they wanted to do and they suggested swimming. They have previously been swimming with some of our sponsors (Rodger, Sue, Helen and Craig) who had taken the children a few months earlier and this was obviously a hit!

When the children arrived it soon became clear we have some children who are very confidant in the water. Charo, Kaingu, Safari and Emmanuel all dived straight into the deep end of the pool. The boys grew up near to the sea and since living in the children's home they have been swimming a few times where they clearly learnt some expert diving skills!

Almost all of the other children were very cautious, staying at the shallow end having fun splashing, playing and giggling. Amy and I spent our time looking after the three young boys (Edward, Saidi and Issac) who were all too small to reach the bottom even in the shallow end.

Issac absolutely loved the water, he really enjoyed floating around on his tummy, splashing and being splashed. He became so confident towards then end that he decided to jump in from the side of the pool; as he came up he was laughing and smiling away!

After a couple of hours in the pool, everyone came out to have their chicken, chips &soda and receive their letters & gifts from their sponsors.

It's lovely to spend time with the children outside of school, it's always the highlight of our time in Kenya and shows just how much of a difference sponsorship can make.

Hello All, I'd like to introduce you all to our youngest sponsored child Isaac.

We met Isaac 2 years ago when Isaac's family received a donated food parcel. Isaac is a happy, confident and active little boy, who is very friendly and loves going to school & playing with the neighbour children.

Isaac lives with his younger brother Anthony and  incredibly hard working mother. They all stay in a small rented room which is quite close to Victory Academy where Isaac and Anthony both attend school.

Every time we have met Isaac's mother she has been working hard; either selling nuts, washing clothes or other casual labour. These jobs are often pay very little so Rieder is working with Isaac's mother to see if Milele can help her to start a more profitable business. I am sure that with her hard work she will make the business a huge success.

For thew time being, Isaac will continue to attend Victory Academy as it is very close to his home and he is receiving a good level of education. When he reaches Standard 1 he will move to Mtwapa Elite Academy to join the other primary aged children sponsored by Milele.

Hi All, When we first thought about starting Milele back in 2008 we were aiming to help children to access primary school. A few years later when we took Emmanuel Kai onto Milele we extended the programme to include secondary school. We have now reached another milestone as our first child starts university.

Emmanuel

Emmanuel Kai started studying Economics and Statistics at the University of Nairobi in September 2014. The University of Nairobi is the best university in Kenya and 7th in Africa. Emmanuel has performed really well in his first semester receiving A grades for some of his varied modules averaging a top B grade over his 8 modules.

We are so proud of Emmanuel and want all of the Milele children to be able to follow in his footsteps. To this end, we are currently in the process of developing a dedicated Milele University Fund which will allow us to ensure that any sponsored child will be able to attend university if they get the required grades.

If you would like to donate to the Milele University Fund on a one off or regular basis please get in touch here.

Hi All, As you may have seen in one of our earlier posts we recently moved our children who are attending primary school to Mtwapa Elite Academy. This is quite a change so I thought it would be good to tell you a bit more about it and show some more of our photos.

Mtwapa Elite is the best primary school in Kilifi county, their average mark for children graduating from Standard 8 is 368 out of 500 (over 73%).

The school and compound are amazing. The school is a three story building which is impeccably maintained and has lots of great facilities for the children to use including a computer room, library and sports field.

They also have a fleet of school buses (which Saidi and Pendo use daily) and offer both Swimming and Judo as extracurricular activities.

Whilst we were in Kenya we met with the head teacher of the primary school and the class teachers for all of our children. Despite our children having only been part of the school for a few weeks all of the teachers knew the children well and spoke of specific areas where they thought the children was performing well or could improve. This is really useful as Rieder can proactively monitor these areas and provide extra resources or tuition if needed.

This was a big change for the Milele children but I am glad to say they are all settling in well.

We really hope Mtwapa Elite is going to help the children to reach their full potential!