One Week Today

One week today and I will be en route to Kenya. The first leg of the journey will take us to Nairobi airport, from where we will hop on a 'matatu' to make the eight hour journey to Kisumu in Western Kenya. Kisumu is the half-way point between the two destinations (Kisii and Kakamega) and it is there that we will begin our in-country training, before continuing on in pairs to our villages.

In the midst of last minute preparation now and just 300 pounds away from reaching my fundraising total. If you would like to make a donation just click on the button in the right hand corner and follow the steps on the donation page. Any donations would be really appreciated.

The Girl Effect

Irise Reusable Sanitary Towel Training

A few weeks ago myself and several other KEP project workers teamed up with the people at Irise to learn how to make reusable sanitary towels. Irise is a student based organisation from Sheffield that was set up with the aim of 'contributing to the empowerment and education of girls and young women in East Africa so that they will have a voice that cannot be ignored and the ability to work towards solutions to the problems they face'.  This is primarily carried out through addressing the problem of menstrual hygiene management. Many young girls in lower income countries do not have access to proper menstruation resources and as a result face embarrassing situations at school and are more prone to infections. The knock-on effect of this can lead to girls falling behind in school and eventually dropping out, thus leading to less post education opportunities for women. Development and gender equality are inherently linked. By investing in opportunities for women you are directly aiding the development of a country.

Irise aim to tackle this issue through the simple method of making sanitary towels more accessible. They have been working in communities in Kenya to pass on the simple skill of fashioning reusable sanitary towels from readily accessible sanitary material. At our training session with Irise, we learned to make the reusable Mwezi sanitary towel and this is a skill I hope to pass on to the women in the community I will be staying with in Kenya. First things first though, I seriously need to work on my sewing skills. Those Kenyan women will put me to shame!

Choosing Schools

In preparation for our departure to Kenya we have recently had to choose the schools we would most like to be paired with. Myself and my project partner, Becky, opted for a very, very rural school about two hours from Kisii. The school is called Kerongeta, and has previously received project workers. Under the KEP model all schools are guaranteed an initial two-years of investment at which point their progress is reviewed and more investment is given if required. It will be Kerongeta's second year of KEP investment.

As I learn more about the school's profile, I will post it here. For the time being, all I know is that it is an incredibly poor school which struggles to collect school fees. Past investment saw many great initiatives launched, including: planting trees to increase revenue, organising a library and buying lab equipment. Myself and Becky hope to continue on in this vein, making sure that these initiatives have proved sustainable and identifying new areas where our investment is vital.

Bag Packing for Kenya

Fundraising has been put on the back burner for the time being as we all madly revise for exams. However, we made some great progress over the past few months and I am now half way to meeting my overall target. Thank you to all have supported us so far, you have been incredibly generous and your support is greatly appreciated. If you would like to donate to this cause, please click the donate button in the top right-hand corner and follow the directions.

Retro Sweet Sale Success

So the first of many sweet sale fundraisers got off to a flying start last week. In total we managed to raise £150 in four hours. Thank you very much to everyone who passed by and supported us. We are hoping to make this a weekly event, with special themed sweet packages in the run up to Valentine's Day and Easter - more about this later. We will be back in the same spot (outside the Print Room Café) at UCL this Wednesday from 11.30 am.

Myself and Rebecca (a fellow PW) at our first Sweet Sale

Retro Sweet Sale 11/01/12 @ UCL

Hi All,

Tomorrow I am hosting my first fundraising event of many. From 10.30 am there will be a retro sweet sale at UCL in front of the Print Room Café. Swing by and stock up on some goodies. Look forward to seeing you all there.