I'm used to helping sort out other people's stuff.. so asking for help is NOT easy for me. I just spammed pretty much my entire contact list asking for donations/ financial support to help me get to Kenya. a bit of an odd feeling really. I figured I'd post a chunk of the email I spammed to everyone as this is the best description of why I want to go to Kenya now, with this group.
Africa and India are both on my list of places to visit in my 30’s, and an opportunity to go to Kenya with one of my friends from Austin came up and I had to seize it- in part because I really believe in the fundamentals of the group I will be traveling with, in part because I get to go with a friend, but mostly because OMG this is an opportunity of a lifetime!!
One of my closest friends in Austin, an amazing artist named Sara Hasslinger, has a community art program she has appropriately named Monsterlove®- check out her website for more details: www.sara-hasslinger.com I've been working with Sara over the last two years to help support her vision in any way possible- helping with planning, fundraising, organizing events, advocating for, etc. Over the last 6 months she’s been volunteering locally with a couple different organizations with a presence in Africa and about a month ago she decided to go with one of the groups to Kenya. Long story short.. I decided to join the group as a general volunteer with the intention of helping Sara with her project. The decision was made about three weeks ago, or 8 weeks before we leave for Kenya! The group we’ll be traveling with is called Comfort The Children International (or CTC). Yes, CTC is a 501c non-profit but it’s not really a charity so much as a group of people trying to help build community and provide an opportunity for self-sufficiency and self-reliance. I am part of the “community” team and I’ll be working to support two different (but related) initiatives while in Kenya - the first is Sara’s Monsterlove project, the other is helping with a soccer clinic for local kids.
I will be in Kenya for 2 weeks- leaving Austin on July 30th and returning on August 13th. We fly into Nairobi and will have one day in Kenya’s capital before heading into Mai Mahiu- a village about an hour west of Nairobi- where we’ll be spending the bulk of the 2 week trip. There is not a lot of economy in this town, and it sits on the main thoroughfare between Nairobi and Lake Victoria, attracting tourists going on Safari, as well as truckers, transients and foreigners. The highway has been dubbed the "AIDS highway" as most of the villages along the highway have been devastated by the disease . The % of people in Mai Mahiu with HIV or AIDS is astounding, as a result there are hundreds of AIDS orphans, no real economy to speak of, and not a lot of opportunity for kids born into this environment . CTC works to provide children (adolescents and teens) art and other skills to help them create opportunities to support themselves. I love the idea of traveling with this group because it’s not a handout, but a group that is trying to support sustainable opportunities for kids to help themselves for the present and the future:
Comfort the Children International is a non profit organization that helps Kenyans build and manage the sustainable infrastructure necessary to meet the challenges of everyday life. CTC’s initiatives, focused on educational, environmental, economic, health and community development, directly impacts the community as a whole. CTC’s programs are delivered through local relationships, providing the empowerment necessary to make those changes lasting while ensuring that your donations of time and money have a maximum positive effect.
So, thanks for reading this far!! If you are interested, here are a few links you can check out for more information:
Thanks in advance for any support (financial, moral or otherwise) that you can provide!! I will be posting pics and details on my blog (hopefully while I'm in Kenya, but I don’t know if I'll have internet access or not!) Otherwise I'll update when I return, August 14th with photos, details and stories.
thanks!!
Rach
