Academic Camps Begin in Nairobi

This week in Nairobi we are running academic camps for our students who are on their one month school holiday.
The purpose of the camps is to address the need many of our students have to receive extra instruction in English and mathematics. Teachers from the finest private schools in Nairobi have been hired to teach the classes which are held in our office just outside the city center.
A total of three one week sessions will be conducted during the school vacation.
We are hoping to see a big improvement in our students' academic performance by mid year.
The camps are another example of our commitment to give our sixty three students the best possible opportunity for success.

Exciting News from Down Under!

blog story by

Merrill Petersen (seen here in Kenya with a friend)

Sarah Reidel, from Melbourne Australia, has been the significant force behind a recent generous donation to African Kids In Need.
Thanks to her quilting club, affectionately known as "The Angels", and their desire to help send Kenyan children to school, Sarah has made a difference in this world.

Sarah (pictured in the green top in the photo on the left), her mum, three aunts, and a few friends meet every six weeks to work on one another's quilts. After visiting Nairobi about a year ago and meeting some of the children in the A.K.I.N. program, Sarah returned home and decided to get the Angels involved in helping. Shortly thereafter a beautiful, special quilt was created. The ladies enthusuastically pursuaded family and friends to buy "lucky tickets" to raffle it off. About $600 was raised through this effort. A few weeks later, at her grandfather Basil's 80th birthday party, he encouraged guests to match the money that had been raised through the raffle. As a result of both gallant efforts, A.K.I.N. has just received a total of $1200 which is enough money to send a Kenyan child to high school for one year.



Thank you to Sarah, the Angels, Basil and all their friends and family for this generous gift.


Happy (belated) Birthday, Basil!





The quilt that was auctioned.

Welcome to the new African Kids In Need blog site. Hopefully you have come here because you are interested in the work we are doing in Kenya. For those of you who are familiar with our program, we are very excited to announce that A.K.I.N. has received tax exempt status that is retroactive to March 2007. So any donations received since then will qualify as a tax deductible contribution. Naturally, all donations received from now on will be exempt, and I will happily provide anyone who makes a contribution a receipt that will list our federal tax ID number. Donations can be made via check, credit card or through Pay Pal-which is also a feature of this blog.

In addition, we have applied for registration in Kenya and hope to have that process finalized in the coming weeks. This will make it possible to open a bank account in the country, and that will make it easier for us to do our work.

Finally, the pages that follow talk about the retreat that was held at Thika Variety Village in early August. It was a three day event that was attended by all 25 of our sponsored students.
My wife, Shelley, daughter, Tess, and I were able to attend as well. It was a wonderful experience on many levels. First it gave these wonderful children a chance to come together and see each other for the first time in many months. Secondly, they had the opportunity to share their experiences with each other and talk about their schools. It is heartwarming to see the beginnings of a family of children coming together as a result of our program.They were very articulate in expressing their appreciation to all those who have given them the opportunity to attend secondary and vocational schools. We were pleased to represent all the donors.

The current school year will end in November and it is important that we raise the funds to send these 25 Kenyan children back to school in January. In addition, 25 new students will be eligible to enter our program and we are hoping to make that possible. The cost of a year of secondary school education is approximately $750. We are not asking for contributions to underwrite the operational costs of the program. All money collected will be applied to tuition and school expenses. Please help us help these wonderful children. In the coming weeks, I will post profiles of each of our students so you can get to know them individually. You may even wish to direct your donation to help a specific student.

Thank you for your continued support.

Paul Miller

DAY FIVE (6TH AUG 07)

DAY FIVE (6TH AUG 07)
The day started very early in the morning given the distance from Nairobi to the homes of the two girls in Kinangop. We first dropped Virginia Njeri then continued to the home of Anne but before reaching to her home we had a mechanical break down that took almost half of our day. After fixing the vehicle we went on to try and take Anne home but this time we experienced even worse problems because the roads were impassable due to heavy rains that had pounded the area. We managed to drop Anne but unfortunately got stuck a few kilometers away which forced us to spend a night in the forest.

The next morning we struggled to get the car out of the mud and managed to get back to Nairobi at around twelve noon.