Rent & Equip houses for 30 street connected youths

So we are now working with our 9th group of World of Work (WOW) members. Little did we know in October 2020 as we planned for WOW 1 that we would get this far. The past two years have been more challenging as we wondered would each WOW group be our last. Funding continues to be a major challenge. We are very happy to be on this GlobalGiving platform which has allowed us to connect with you and we are very grateful for the ongoing support we receive. 

We continue to support with rent the WOW 8 group as they carry out their small businesses or attend at their apprenticeships. We do this for 6 to 9 months following their graduation from the 6 months phase 1 of WOW. We shortly will be looking at renting accommodation for the WOW 9's. The risks of living on the streets are so many. Currently we are experiencing much rain and cold resulting in the street connected young people experiencing colds, flu and pneumonia. Also the local government regularly talks of "clearing the streets" of those who are street connected. Over the past week one of those "round ups" happened and 4 of our current WOW 9's were among the large group arrested. Over the next week we will look to see if we can get them released back to the programme. 

On a positive note we have been taking advantage of the rain and the WOW 9's have been doing a lot of cultivation. The photos show them preparing the seed beds and planting. They will shortly enjoy the fruits of their labour as they harvest and cook the vegetables they have grown themselves. 

Recently the WOW 9's enjoyed attending at the WOW 8's graduation day last month. This helped motivate them to keep putting in the effort to attend daily and look to see how life can be for them away from the streets and the many negative influences there. 

Once again Thanks for your continued support. 

Following the recent Little by Little Campaign we just wanted to say a Big Thank You to all who donated. At the end of the day our two projects - "Support to 80 street connected Kenyan youth" & "Rent and Equip Houses for 30 street connected youth" were high up on the leaderboard at positions 4 & 8. Position on the leaderboard is by number of donations rather than amount raised. We had lots of small donations from people here on the streets of Kitale so we were up at the top among projects receiving a lot of donations. At the end of the day our "Support to 80 street connected Kenyan youth" received 186 donations and raised a total of US$6,182. Our "Rent & Equip houses for 30 street connected youth" received 270 donations and raised a total of US$ 3,606. In total we received US$9,787 over the four days. Thanks to all of our team who "chased" after friend and family to donate! We really appreciate the effort. We are now in our 5th year working with older street connected youth and their children and this time is the most difficult for us financially. We are looking to see where possible we can cut corners without reducing the impact of the work. 

Your support during the campaign definitely boosted morale and motivation. The teams of WOW and Proud Moms are very grateful! Asanteni (Thank You).