Dusty Babies Can Now laugh again.

Thank you to all the GVN volunteers,International and local sponsors who participated in putting up the class for the dust babies at Baruku IDPs camp. The class has been completed and the furnitures are in place as you can see from the picture. The kids will be starting their education January next year as the schools are now breaking for December holidays until January,2010. Next week we are prepared to start a porridge progam for them as there has been a drought for the past 2 years in Kenya and the food in the shamaba is not yet ready. Baruku IDPs camp are also beneficiary of tomato project we are setting in 3 different IDPs camps, Jikaze,Pipeline and Baruku IDPs camps which are all located along Nairobi - Nakuru Highway.

Anyone interested in joining hands to change the lives of IDPs, you are always welcome.

"The time is always right to do what is right"

Progress Updates

It has been a while since you received my updates. I have been having very long days of work and we can only say we are pround for what we have achieved so far.
35 families at Jikaze IPDs camp are now enjoying the fruits of their hard work from the tomato project we sponsored them. Thank you for everyone who participated in this project and we have put another tomato project for them.

It is through your efforts this dream has come true to a group of IDPs family at Jiakze IDPs camp,Mai mahiu.

"The time is Always right to do what is right"

Mbaruku IDPs camp with Dusty Babies

We have been visitIng different IDPs camps but there is always one camp which has become everyone favourite. This camp has very dusty babies whom you may think they live underground and come out when they see visitors. I wonder whether they are miracle babies coz whether you like it or not you just love them. They have nothing and they are always happy and very dusty and they never notice how dusty they are but remember they are alway the most LOVABLE ones.

Two weeks ago we went for a visit with some local kenyans and two american guys Greg and Jmmie to take food donation since the last time i had visited this camp some of the families had gone for 2 days without food. When i went back to Nairobi, I started collecting donations in form of food and cash and everyone was very supportive to donate whatever they had. After asking people for donations, within 2 days i was able to load 2 trucks of food and took it to this IDPs camp. I asked a few of my collegues to accompany me which they did. It was their first time to visit this IDPs camp and the living situation for the families who live here is in a bad situation. After a few minutes my friends, Ruth,Josephine and Serah whom i have always known to be very strong women started getting sick one by one and they started asking me for pain killers since all of them were shocked of what they saw. After we went back to Nairobi one of them never ate for 3 days and the other one got sick for 2 days but as for now they are on transition and hope they will come in terms with the reality.

Community Projects updates

VICDA has been able to launch a Green House Tomato Project at Jikaze IDPs camp a month ago. The project was just a trial since the area is a semi arid and most of the time it is dry throughout the year. We are proud the Green House Tomato project has been very successful and the tomato harvest will be due in the next 2 weeks.

Our firts tomato project trial has motivated alot of us and we got another sponsor who sponsored for the 2nd tomato project. The garden for the next tomato project has already been prepared and we have sponsored for the matrials needed to set it. The minister for Special programs in kenya also promised to sponsor more tomato projects after her visit to this IDPs camp last week.

One of the attached photos has the beneficiaries of the sponsored tomato project. Our target is to put up 10 Green Houses tomato projects in this area to give hope to this group which was affected by violence and lost everything they had owned.

Thank you to our sponsors for your kind donations.

What a change!!

Hey everyone,
I am sure i have kept everyone behind the schedule. Things have been moving in a postive way.
As i usually update my blog at night after long day for the last few weeks i didnt manage as my computer in the house was somehow messed up by someone but it is ok coz it happened.

Lillian, thanks for your message this morning and i will keep you updated with everything down here but please remember it may not be always as there have been alot of power rationing due to the drought.......the next thing we may miss drinking water.

From where i left last time.....we made it to the IDPs camps with the Doctors and they did some training on how to deal with trauma. It was a short training but a good one since we had to go back to nairobi the same day.

They were oerwhelmed by everything at the camps since it was their first time at the IDPs camps. We then passed by Baruku camps which is just along Nairobi Nakuru highway and we did spend sometimes there before it got dark.

The kids there make everyone laugh....they come from nowhere and they are always dusty. Unless you see them you cannot understand why they make everyone laugh.


We went back to Baruku camp for a food drop off. We left Nairobi early in the morning and hoping we might be back to Nairobi early.

This never happen and i don't think it will never happen. When you have a program in any of the IDPs camp in a particular day, you end up leaving the camp when it start getting dark and the day look so short.

The doctors are also organising a group of doctors who will be coming on month of Janury next year to give medical support to the IDPs at different camps.

Micro finance for Internally Displaced Persons

Thank you to GVFoundation,Newzealand. The internally Displaced Persons in kenya who are still living in tents have something to smile about. They have come up in small groups where GVNFoundation,Newzealand has sent funds to VICDA for the IDPs to start small businesses to enable them to restart their lives again. Before these lovely people were displaced during the violence they used to be independent and some of them used to be farmers and business people.
The photo you see is for Irene handing over the funds from GVNFoundation to the 1st group of IDPs to enable them to start their own business.
GVNFoundation has already raised funds for 4 groups and one of the group have received the funds and the other 3 will be receiving the funds tomorrow.
You can join us to rebuild the lives of the IDPs and for more information please visit http://www.gvnfoundation.org.
The GVNFoundation also support other programs in kenya through Eat So They Can Funds such as child education sponsorship,feeding programs,furnishing schools and orphanages etc.
You can join the rest of the world through changing the lives of the needy by hosting a dinner in your house
For more details please visit the following link:
http://www.eatsotheycan.org/getinvolved/signup.php

Host a Dinner and change the world

Hey guys,

Our partner, GVN Foundation, is running their big annual fundraiser Eat So They Can this October and we’d love for you to be involved. Eat So They Can is a global dinner party where hosts around the world share a meal to raise money for projects in Africa. This year a portion of all funds raised from Eat So They Can will go to VICDA to help us with the different projects we support. Please consider hosting an event!

All you have to do is:

1. Contact Eliza from Eat So They Can if you have any questions: info@eatsotheycan.org

2. Sign up as a host by following this link: http://www.eatsotheycan.org/getinvolved/signup.php

3. Organise a meal

4. Invite your friends

5. Collect donations from your friends and submit these to GVN Foundation

Trip to the Internally Displaced Person's Camps

Thanks to everyone who participated in this food project. On behalf of the 2IDPs camps we do appreciate your kind donations and the hope you have given to our Kenyan people who are suffering.

Our journey started early in the morning on thursday heading to Jikaze and Pipeline IDPs camps to buy and distribute foods to the IDPs. Thursday was a very tiring day since we had two and half hours drive to the camps. It was also such a very emotional day for me since some of the kids asked me very sensitive questions and thank God i was able to answer them and give help where i could. I have never heard the kids sharing with me what they shared that day and they called me as i was walking out of their class. I asked myself a few questions and i lost it when i just walked away from them. When we visited the second camps(pipepline IDPs camp,it was another mind hit when some of the management members broke down due to the difficulties they have been going through recently. Since we started working with them i have never seen them crying and this also hit me hard but i tried to control myself until i got my space. We managed to buy food for IDPs at Jikaze camps and distrubuted it and then from there we headed to nakuru to order the food for Pipeline IDPs camp so that we could correct it the following day in the afternoon since it was getting late on our 1st day. After ordering the food we then went to the pipeline IDPs camp and had a meeting with the people there. Alot of families had gone for 2 or 3 days without food. Thanks so much to GVNFoundation.org,Newzealand for the porridge program for little babies.
We later headed to our accommodation and we were so tired and happy since we had made achievements for that day. On Firday we woke up early in the morning and we first visited the District Commissioner's office and later we headed to Baruku IDPs camps. This camp is in a very horrible state and i don't think there is any comparison with the other IDPs camps we are working with. We spent sometimes with the kids there and we later visited Division Officer office to give us the go ahead with the Baruku IDPs camps. After we left her office we headed to Nakuru town to collect the food for the pipeline camp and loaded it on the truck and we headed to the camp and distributed the food. My friend thought it was going to take us probably 2 hours being around there but it took us more than 5 hours. I have learnt one thing in these camps,never give your self time coz you are not going to make it. You remember you have another trip waiting for you when it start getting dark. After the food distribution i later gave out some funds which have been raised by GVNFoundation.org,Newzealand to help the IDPs to start small businesses so that they can be self-reliance.

Jikaze and Pipeline IDPs camp

I am catching up with everything here in nairobi since i have a very long week to go. Not yet....Am heading to Internally Displaced persons Camps on Thursday morning and i will be back on Friday. The two days are going to be so long since we have to buy food for 2 different IDPs camps. Food has been a main issue here in Kenya due to prolonged drought which is taking its course for the second year.

I will keep everyone updated with our mission and thank you to our Australian sponsors who sponsored for this food. VICDA do appreciate your kind donation and all your sacrifices.

9 persons have so far lost their lives at the internally Displaced Persons Camps.

For the last one year hunger has reamined as a natrual disaster in kenya where most of the kenyans are suffering. A number of kids have dropped out of school due to lack of food and water in different parts of Kenya. 9 Persons have lost their lives at the Internally Displaced Camps due to hunger which has hit the country.

We visited these camps on Thursday this week and the situation is bad. No food,medical conditions is bad,people still living in the tents which are worn out.
The emergency help needed at The moment is food. The hunger has stricken the whole of kenya but the IDPs have suffered a double tragedy. For more information you can email us on info@vicda.org or visit our website on http://www.vicda.org.

Save one life by skipping a meal a day.

Orphanage Construction Now Ready

The mama tunza orphanage construction is now ready for kids to move in.
From kibera slums to such a beautiful structure in a clean and fresh environment. No more open sewerage,flying toilets, gabbage smell for these kids.

It is a dream for them come true. Alot of thanks to paddy and his team.
Attached is orphanage construction,irene and paddy's photos.

Thank you to all the irish group for your wonderful work for kenya kids.

Thank you Tom for offering me lunch for 20 shillings......i will just passby butcher man and ask him to give me a cup of goat soup coz this is what available at the moment.

Mama Tunza orphanage construction for the first one week

The structure is now on the first week since the group from Ireland started working on it. The guys are really working very hard. Some of them are buildres,electrician,plumbers etc. The work is excellent. What a big sacrifice for these guys.

Construction of orphanage going on in Kenya

The group from ireland finally arrived and they went direct to start construction of mama tunza orphanage. Mama tunza orphanage is located in a slum area,Nairobi,Kenya which is the biggest slum in Africa. The sanitation,hygine,poverty had been a big challenge in this slum and it affects the orphans and vulnerable kids who are located inside this area. 3 years back we bought a piece of land in Ngong area for mama tunza children orphanage and late last year we got a donor from Irelenad who fully donated to this orphanage construction. The construction is now compelete and the kids will be moving to this new orphanage and good/clean environment any time from now. The orphanage has been put up in Ngong which is 25minutes drive from their former orphanage in the slum area. It is a very beautiful structure and located in a clean and fresh environment. Thank you for all the sponsors and donors who participated to change the lives of orphans and vulnerable children in Kenya. Visit our website on "http://www.vicda.org"

Kids Playing outside in one of Community School in kibera Slum

Above are kids from one of the project we support in Kibera through feeding program where we provide them with a meal a day to keep them in school. A lot of these kids cannot afford a meal a day. Since their families are unable to provide and when they are left out there, they go to the street to look for something to eat and this lead them to street life. We provide meals to children in slum areas as a way of protecting their lives and keeping them in school.
http//:www.vicda.org

Internally Displaced persons(kenyan refugees)

It has been a long way since Volunteer International Community Development Africa(vicda) joined hand in hand with other charity organisations in Kenya to attend to the emergency needs of the families who were displaced due to post election violence which occurred December,2007. 350,000 Kenyans were left homeless and thousands of them are still homeless until to-date living in the tents.

They have been hardly hit with alot of challenges such as lack of shelter,food,bad hygiene,medical problems,kids dropping out of school due to lack of school fees,uniforms,stationeries. The tents they have been living in are worn out.

. Please visit our website on http://www.vicda.org