Charity

Amanda Lunn's fundraising page

* * * *  IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO DONATE   .....   TARGET RAISED TO £5,000 BEFORE 23.12.11 ... SEE BELOW FOR MORE DETAILS  * * * *

STEPS FOR STREET KIDS … SPONSORED WALK TO SUPPORT STREET KIDS OF NAIROBI

Dear All,

We made it!  Sam, Maureen, my son Matthew and I had hoped to walk over maybe three or four bridges, but we managed all seven!  We started on London Bridge, and walked over each bridge up to Westminster Bridge, and then walked back to London Bridge station via Blackfriars Bridge. 

Matthew did brilliantly.  We took it all at a leisurely pace, and had lots of stops for food and drink.  It took us just over six hours in all.  The hardest part of the walk were the many steps up and down from the bridges (for those of you who don't know, Matthew has special needs and some mobility limitations).  We managed to walk 6.5 miles in total.

Thank you so much  to all of you who have sponsored us!  I am so touched by your generousity, and am absolutely thrilled at the money raised so far.   The initial target we hoped to raise was £2000.  Thanks to the generousity of those who have donated, pledges we have received and Gift Aid, the current total is nearer £3000.  For this reason, I have decided to raise the target figure to £5000!!  

The money received will support the International Needs street kid project in Nairobi, which, as you know, is something close to my heart. During the years I lived with my family in Nairobi,  I got to know personally many of the kids and young people who are living on the streets.  The kids are desperately looking for help to get off the streets, into a safe place to live, and for the opportunity to receive education and training to help them acquire skills to get a job.   The project leader, Joshua Karani, is working with the street kids individually and in groups to help them through rehabilitation, training and into businesses.  With the so needed financial support in place, the project can expand to help more kids off the streets and living a dignified and independent life as part of society.

The money raised from the walk will be used for the following:

¯ Weekly visits to various groups of street kids around Nairobi, taking food, helping with medical needs, and building relationships to identify needs and ways of helping individuals. 

¯ Counselling and rehabilitation from drugs and glue sniffing.

¯ Obtaining ID cards for boys over 18 years.   Pastor Joshua Karani, who is running the project in Nairobi and assisting the boys, stands as their guardian legally in order to get ID cards issued, as many of the boys have no parents.  Without ID cards, the boys will be arrested as all people in Kenya are legally required to carry them.

¯ Arranging schooling for younger boys.

¯ Arranging vocational training for older boys such as mechanics, tailoring, carpentry and driving courses. 

¯ Setting up income-generating businesses to help the project to eventually become self-sustainable.

¯ Teaching the boys business skills and how to manage money.

¯ Renting rooms for boys to stay in, and helping them to become self-sufficient to pay for their rent.

¯ Setting individuals up with small businesses, eg, selling fruit or clothes.  Also arranging boys into small business groups, where they can do a business together, and have the accountability to each other of managing the money.  This has worked well to date with a group of boys that have a car-wash business, and also sell water to local market traders, as well as provide security services for the local traders at night.  Another group of boys have a business growing and selling vegetables, which makes enough money to rent rooms to keep them off the streets.

-Ultimately, yet ideally as soon as possible, what is needed is the money to buy a plot of land, to base a Centre to accommodate and rehabilitate the street kids, and to set up the training and businesses mentioned above.  It is hoped a fully fitted carpentry workshop can be set up to provide training for the street kids in carpentry, as well as making and selling furniture to support the project.  Low budget hand made furniture is in popular demand in Kenya.  A young man I know well called Simon who used to be a street boy has been through rehabilitation and has trained as a carpenter.  He is willing to head up this carpentry workshop if we are able to get the funds to set this up.

IT'S NOT TO LATE TO DONATE!! If you wish to donate to this project, you can do so on line through this site, and you can also Gift Aid your donation which makes a massive difference to your giving.

If you would like to support this project by standing order on a monthly basis, however small the amount, please contact International Needs on the telephone number or email address below.

If your organisation, work-place, or social group would like to support this project, please contact me, or contact Peter Staley, the International Needs UK Director, on the number or email address below.

For more details, you can call International Needs on 020 8688 3939. The International Needs web site for more information about the organisation and other projects they are supporting is www.ineeds.org.uk, and the email address is inuk@ineeds.org.uk.

Very many thanks to you all,

Amanda

Recent donors