Aina Moja

One of Expanding Opportunties' projects is the Aina Moja artisan support program.  While she's in Kenya, Bev Stone buys African-themed crafts from local artists, giving them a fair price and a valuable market.  She then re-sells the crafts through her website: www.ainamoja.com. 

For the last few months, volunteer Jesse Rusak has been working to make the website much easier to use.  If you go to the website now, you'll notice some inconsistencies in the layout.  Jesse has now completed programming a tool that will make the website much easier to update, so volunteers in Maine will have a less onerous task when it comes to working with the catalogues.  As soon as volunteers are trained to use the new system, all of Aina Moja's catalogues will begin using it.  See if you can notice when we make the switch!

Two of Expanding Opportunities' volunteers, Saima Sidik and Jesse Rusak, have also been interviewing local artists who are supported by Aina Moja and writing biographies about them that can go along with their products.  These interviews will eventually be published on Aina Moja's site.  Here's an excerpt from an interview with a young artist named Dickson Inyanje Sore who supplies Aina Moja with hand painted bookmarks:
   
Dickson is still single, and lives in Nakuru, Kenya with his younger brother.  Since his career as an artist is still somewhat new, his cliental is small, and he works as a waiter to make ends meet.  He says that the Nakuru Sweetmart, where he waits, has been a good place for him to promote his artwork.  "I've met many people who encouraged me to be who I am; that is, an artist," he says. 
   
Within the next two years, Dickson would like to have his own shop selling bookmarks and other crafts.  He likes the Nakuru area, and thinks that its market for crafts is good since there's not much competition.  On the other hand, Dickson says he "can stay anywhere provided it has...people who can like my products."  Perhaps if he starts a shop in Nakuru that does well, he'll think of expanding to other cities and countries.  Dickson is excited that his work is being seen all the way in the United States, thanks to Aina Moja.  "Oh, I feel good!" he says.  He hopes his work will travel to other foreign countries, as well.  "I like adventure.  Visiting different countries, different cultures..." he trails off, thinking of all the places his artwork could take him. 

Mangu Primary

Mangu Primary School, the school that seven of the JWHS's nine boys attend, is in need of financial help.  The school has several projects that they'd like to raise money for.  The school's campus consists of a square with classrooms on three sides, offices on the fourth side and a courtyard in the middle.  Currently, everyone has to go outside to get from one classroom to another.  The school would like to build an overhang that extends the roofs in the middle of the block so that during the rainy season teachers and students can remain dry when moving from class to class. 
   
After building an overhang, the school would like to put windows in its classrooms.  The rooms currently have holes in the walls where windows can go, but they lack the metal frames and the glass.  Without windows, children have to squish their desks into the middle of their classroom during the rainy season to avoid getting wet.  The classrooms are also cold and clammy without windows.  Although it's an equatorial country, Kenya can be chilly when it rains. 
   
Third, Mangu Primary would like to do some repairs and renovations.  There's a wall dividing two classrooms that needs to be rebuilt as it currently has more holes than whole parts.  The school also owns a small building that was built in the 1946 by a POW camp.  The building is in disrepair, but a little renovation could turn it into several useful classrooms. 

Peter Mwangi, the headmaster of Mangu Primary school, has a list of several organizations he wants to approach in his search for money.  He's already raised money to put floors in the classrooms (they're currently dirt) and to plaster the walls, which are exposed stone right now.  The three above-mentioned projects will cost about $7,200.  The school's entire budget for one year is only about $8,600, so obviously this is a large project that the school cannot afford on its own.  Any donations would be quite welcome, no matter how small! 

Feeding Program

Sammy Waithaka, a volunteer who coordinates Expanding Opportunties' feeding program in Kericho, Kenya, has begun to know Kericho's street boys on a personal basis.  Sammy has been talking to the boys, learning their stories, and working individually with the boys to see what can be done about their plights. 
   
One street boy has already returned to his parents' home because of Sammy's encouragement.  This boy's parents are financially able to support him, but they often fought with the boy.  Eventually, the family situation was too much for the boy to handle, and he left for the streets.  Sammy has acted as a go-between between the boy and his parents, and convinced the parents that it's best for the boy to live with them.  Sammy will check in on the family sometime this month and make sure the boy is attending school.
   
Two other boys would like to go home, and Sammy hopes to soon meet with their parents and discuss the possibility.  One boy, Eugene Lugao, is from the town of Kisii--a couple of hours away from Kericho.  Eugene's parents accused him of stealing a hundred shillings (only about $1.50, but still a full day's salary for most people) that went missing.  Eugene was afraid that his parents would beat him, and felt that he had no choice but to leave.  He hopped on a freight train and ended up in Kericho. 
   
The other boy is David Onsare, from Mumias, Kenya.  David came to Kericho with his uncle, who works in the nearby tea estates.  But when the two arrived in the city, David's uncle disappeared, leaving David to fend for himself on the streets.  Sammy would like to take both these boys home, get them school uniforms, make sure they're enrolled in local schools and that their family situations are good, and then check in periodically to make sure that things are still going smoothly.
   
Some kids have been on the streets for too long to want to leave.  In these cases, forcing them into homes or orphanages will do no good.  Sammy's idea is to buy carts for these kids.  A cart can act as a portable store, and many people make a decent living selling fruit or other goods from them.  With time, Sammy thinks this small job would instil a sense of worth in these kids who've never had any reason to think of themselves as anything but useless.

We'll keep you up to date on Sammy's progress with implementing his ideas. 

The Boys

Four of our boys, Collins, Kamau, Vincent and Samwel, participated in a school track meet this month.  We went to watch and cheer them on.  They participated in several races, as well as the long jump, the high jump and javelin throwing.  Kamau came in fifth in the 100 m run, and Vincent came in third in javelin throwing.
   
Jesse and Saima have continued to tutor the boys after school, especially in math.  Four of our boys are in grades seven and eight, which means they're learning algebra.  They find this new branch of math much more challenging than the arithmetic they concentrated on for six years, so these volunteers have been helping with homework questions, and giving them some extra practice problems to help with areas where they're struggling.

One More!

The two of us (Jesse and Saima) have one more month here in Mangu, Kenya.  We've enjoyed our visit very much, and we're trying to make the most of our remaining time here.  Hopefully we'll have some more exciting news to present in our last newsletter, which we'll send out next month!

From,
Saima, Jesse, Mama, Pastor and The Boys!