What We Do

We support individuals, families and small groups. We send cash to our representatives who then ensure its safe delivery. At times, individual trustees of the charity have personally taken funds with them and met up with the local link person(s) to deliver funds. Please note that the charity does not fund any of the travel or related costs of the trustees! Most of our help is small amounts of cash. However, we have also given bigger donations when there has been a specific need.

Examples of major help include:

  • The completion of a small family home where the main breadwinner had died from malaria, leaving his widow and two year old child with an unfinished building. Tom Nyangate was a soapstone carver in Western district of Kenya. We first met him in 1994 and sent £1,900 in 1998. The home is now lived in by Tom’s mother and extended family.
  • Contribution towards the building of a ‘lean to’ kitchen shelter and purchase of pots and pans for a vocational training centre for disabled young people in Tororo District, Uganda.
  • Payment of hospital bills for a mother and child who were caught up in a house fire. The mother, Rhoda, was hospitalised for two months but the 10 year old died. We paid for the funeral and all medical treatment (£1,700, Central Kenya).
  • Contribution of a school library in Malava near Kakamega, Western Kenya (£3,800, in July 1999).
  • Contribution towards peace and reconciliation work via a fruit tree nursery and vocational training for young adults in Eastern District Ampara prior to the December 2004 tsunami.

Examples of individual help include:

  • School fees and related costs for children, for example uniforms, books, board and lodging for residential pupils.
  • Payment for vocational training for individual young adults for example, computer classes, driving lessons and passing their tests to aid employability.
  • Payment to individual young people to attend a work placement/work experience to enhance chances of employment.
  • Payment towards medical treatment for some elders in Moshi Tanzania.
  • Support for an orphaned individual who is now reaching age to make the transition to independent living (Arusha 2008 Tanzania).
  • We paid for the release from prison of Ceciliah, a mother of 3 children aged 18 months, 4 and 7 years. She got into a quarrel with a neighbour which escalated. The neighbour had powerful friends and influence, and Ceciliah was arrested, charged and sentenced for a year in Langata Prison. She had served six weeks of her sentence by the time we paid her fine and reunited her with her children.

It would be fair to describe our contribution as a "drop in the ocean." However, it matters that some individuals are able to get a little help from us, and that we are able to share and contribute something to the lives of others.