Letter beneath from Mary McMahon:
I am off to Kenya at the start of June for 6 weeks of volunteering in Thigio with the Daughters of Charity mission. Thigio, is a rural village about an hour away from Nairobi and the Daughters of Charity are the main service providers in this under-developed village organising nursery schools, classes for children with disabilities, women’s development programmes and services for the elderly, as well as hospice care for those suffering from HIV/AIDS, as 1 in 5 people in this region are infected with the virus.
My aim is to raise as much as I can to bring over with me. All of the money will go straight to the Daughters of Charity Mission in Thigio to help the women, children and men of this village with HIV/AIDS. The money donated will be used to provide food and nourishment to malnourished children, education for Kenya’s future generations, Women’s empowerment, and healthcare for the entire community.
Previous fundraising and charity has allowed the Sister’s to do fantastic work in this region. Over the years they have set up…
- · A Clinic/Dispensary providing general medical care to people in the immediate locality of Thigio and screening, treatment and immunisation of children in local schools/church programmes.
- · A nursery which provides employment for local women.
- · A Women’s Centre where women come together to discuss their needs as they struggle with the consequences of AIDS and HIV.
- · A training centre has also been set-up which has allowed these women to take part in small income-generating projects.
- · In order to provide a service for handicapped children of the area a Physiotherapy Unit was established.
- · An Agricultural Project which started in December 2002. The main work of this project is setting up kitchen gardens for poor families to provide better nutrition and opportunities to become self sufficient.
So as you can see the Sister’s have already done amazing work for these people but their progress is slow and the work is tough, it has taken over 10 years to establish these centres. A small donation can go a lot further over there and will help these fantastic individuals continue to do their great work and to improve their facilities. The ultimate goal is to help the people of Thigio to become self sufficent but until then they need as much help as they can get.
Mary
