My Final Thoughts - Jim

Hi All.
I have once again taken over Gem's blog to put virtual pen to paper and record my thoughts via the media of blogging!

As I type, I am back home with my family having just enjoyed a lovely roast dinner and looking forward to an afternoon of snuggles and games, a far cry from the week that has just past.

Let me just finish off the experience of the week. On Friday morning we headed out to the other side of Eldoret to visit the last school that the Solomon Project feeds, Atnas Kandie. Whilst we were over that side of town Able, our driver/interpreter/tour guide from Mary's Meals, had arranged a visit to an orphanage close to the school called Huruma Children's Home.

This orphanage had been set up to take in children who were living on the streets. It only takes children passed on to them by the local authority and they house about 80 young people ageing from 3-25. Their goal is to get the children off any drugs or glue that they may be on and into school. The home then hopefully become's a safe environment where they are encouraged as they grow up. The home was pretty much empty when we arrived, as most of the children were in the local school. But there were about 4-5 kids playing out in the yard.

We were shown around by the manager of the house, Livingstone, and were told about the state of the children when they take them in. He introduced us to the children who were around, Jospeh...

Isaac...

and Joy.

There was one more lad, but he moved too fast for me to get a photo. His name was Rooney Eric. We laughed and joked at first as I am a Man Utd fan and it had become a common way of engaging with the kids in the school as many of them are football fans! Some even commented that I looked like Van-Percie, something that I embraced! We enquired as to if Rooney had been named after the United player and the answer completely floored me. Livingstone told us that a number of the children who are found on the streets are orphaned or abandoned at a very young age, some therefore turn up without a name. The local authority workers then give the child a name and in Rooney's case they were a United fan. This broke my heart.

Livingstone then told us the background to a number of their cases and how the children end up living on the streets and some of these reasons were due to family break down, the families being too big to sustain or parents/guardians dying. The striking thing here was that for some of these children their parents are still alive and living close by, but the children living on the streets can sometimes have a better chance of survival working as a group than if they stayed at home. They look to make money by selling plastic bottles and bags for recycling. They find food by approaching local hotels and restaurants  for left overs, or looking through rubbish. They also beg on the streets in the town centre. When they don't have enough they would look to drugs or glue to suppress their hunger.

The orphanage were doing a great job at looking after these boys and girls and getting them back on their feet and in to school. Just before we left something very unexpected happen, Livingstone started thanking us for all the work that the Solomon Project does. At first we didn't understand. The Solomon Project doesn't fund the orphanage or fund their food. He then went on to tell us that because the Solomon Project has put food in the local school 70 of his 80 kids are fed at lunchtime. This is food that he would normally have to buy as they would return for lunch. His food bills have halved and indirectly this is because of the Solomon Project.

We then went to visit the school.

This is the second of the schools taken on last September, so the feeding program has only been working here for the last year. The deputy head met us and showed us round the school, which has just over 2000 pupils. We were introduced to a number of classrooms and even a couple of classes that had hard of hearing pupils.

We then meet the kitchen team,

And then watch as they fed 2000 pupils in under 10 mins! It was crazy. They were lovely kids as well, I went around with my camera to film some of the feeding in progress and every single one of them wanted to be on film or have their picture taken. They all asked me "How are you?" and waited for my reply.

The joy in this school was tangible and they were clearly very grateful for the food that was provided, all the way from the senior leadership right down to the youngest child.

They were also little superstars when it came to video footage, only too willing to sing all together when I pointed the camera at them or to show me their dances moves!

From there we waved our goodbyes and shouted "Tuanami" (goodbye/see you later in Swahili) and headed back to get our bags packed in time for flying home!

So my final thoughts... Oh what to say...! How do I put across to you everything that I've seen, heard and experience in the last week in a couple of sentences? Where's Gem when you need her? She'd know what to say!

I think for me, the thing that really hit home is just what a difference the Solomon Project is making to the lives of not just the children it feeds, but the community in which they live. We heard stories of numbers increasing in the schools, in one case from 1300 to over 1800 within just one month of the feeding program starting up. We saw exam results that rose drastically in the year that the food was introduced in to the school. But not just that, we saw how the Solomon Project's presence reduced a children's home's food bill. We saw how the feeding program being in the school made it more appealing to funders for new buildings, classrooms & toilets. And we definitely saw how these beautiful children had boundless energy, enthusiasm and character.

One of the comments that we had made to us before we left was "how can my giving £17 really make a difference" and the answers we clearly all around us during our visit. By supporting this amazing project you are changing these young people's lives. They do not need to go begging on the streets to find food, they do not need to be addicted to glue to suppress their hungry, they do not need to be fainting in school because of their hunger, their families do not need to find that extra bit of money to be able to send their children to school with some sort of meal. They can get their education, they can concentrate during school time, they can have energy to play sports and they can respect themselves and have the chance to better themselves. You can make a difference.

What I am not saying is that this project will sort all of the problems in Kenya, but it's a start!

I'd like to thank the people that made this trip possible and I hope that we do you proud with the footage that we've gathered. I'd also like to thank all of my work colleagues for their support whilst we've been away. And I'd like to thank you for reading this and the past entries too and I would encourage you to get involved in the Solomon Project. That doesn't just mean giving money, there's loads of ways to get involved, even just sending someone the link to this page is helping spread the word, or looking out for innovative fundraising events like the supper club that my friends Al and Rachel (Who visited the Solomon Project a couple of years ago) have set up - the link is below. But in any case get involved!

Anyway I've got to go... Tonnes of video footage to start editing!

Jim

Solomonsupperclub
www.justgiving.com/Gem-Vaughan-Heys