Back in Kenya…the land we love! It’s so great to see our friends again. It was such a struggle to fit all the cases, full of what people have lovingly made or donated, into the transport….but we managed it. The hotel by African standards seems marvellous to us. There is electricity, hot water and a good shower...... well so far! The only thing missing is a regular wifi connection, but we can't have everything! Yesterday we went to look at the land we are hoping to buy. I fell in love with it. It’s so peaceful….right next to the big wire fence, beyond which is the national park. We are planning to buy two of the plots which are for sale; £9000.00 worth. It's amazing to know that with your we
PottersHeart training engages women and some of the older men, but it’s been especially challenging to engage young men. Especially unmarried ones. Wherever you go you see young people hanging around. With unemployment around 98% there is little else to do! Kenyan’s love football. But they have no money for any kit…not even a football! In the villages you often see young men aged from around 10 to their early 20’s…kicking around balls of tightly wound plastic bags…makeshift footballs. On one of our trips John had an idea. With a passion for football himself, he saw an opportunity of using the game to engage with the young men. Of giving them a sense of purpose…of using football to build a re
Meet Kenneth. Sadly, he is not unusual for the people we meet in Kenya. He’s seen a huge amount of tragedy in his life, even at 43. In the time we’ve known him he has already lost a son and buried his brother His wife recently gave birth to a baby girl…but they live apart. Also depending on him are his mentally retarded mother and two sisters; one a mental patient and the other ailing He lives in a settlement, and does own some land. But as the victim of a brutal machete attack during the post election violence of 2007…. Kenneths' hands have been severely weakened. That’s tough…especially when you are depending on working that land for your survival! Kenneths' life has been transformed by ou
When we first met John he was knocking wooden furniture with a lump of wood and a broken chisel. Struggling to make enough money to support his young family. Selling what he made - basic stools, tables, beds - for what little he could in the local village. Without the proper tools and woodworking knowledge, this was the best he could do. It was heart breaking to see the waste of potential. He was bright, enthusiastic and hard working… but just not able to improve his situation. The following trip we were able to take him a small kit of reconditioned hand tools - the sort of thing you might find at a car boot sale. A hammer, mallet, drill, screw driver, chisel… a plane. Traditional steel hand
As I sit here in Pottersbury, it is difficult to imagine how difficult life can be in rural Kenya. It can feel like the ‘land that time forgot’ in many ways. The $500 billion, plus, given to Africa in the last 60 years has in many ways only made things worse for the people - more are starving than ever before. In Kenya there is 90 % unemployment 78 % live in rural area’s, most on less than £1 a day. No harvest…no income! 70 % of food is produced through subsistence farming 1 in 3 are malnourished Life expectancy - 62 years As the saying goes if you ‘give a man a fish you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime’. Vast quantities of aid builds dependance rather
Meet Julia. At 69…a poor widow…even by Kenyan standards. The mother of 7…still caring for 3 orphans. Living day to day. Their survival dependent on subsistence farming the family land, her ‘Shamba’, and working for neighbours. When we met her, early in 2015, she had lost all hope of life getting any better. There was no food - the area was in drought, the crops had failed…. Julia and her family were literally starving. Living as a victim of ‘Climate Change’ - regular cycles of drought and floods. Eating whatever ‘seed’ they had today, with no thought for tomorrow. Perishing for a lack of knowledge. Knowledge that would have shown her how to use the land she had, her only real asset, more eff
We're so excited. It's less than a week to go until we'll be back in the Rift Valley with our precious team. And this is a really important trip because we are planning to buy the land we need to build the training centre we've been dreaming of since we first went out there. Thank you to everyone who has supported us on this journey. Thanks to you we now have the £9,000 we needed. We really do appreciate all your support. It melts my heart to know that you believe in what we are doing and that we're in this together. I'm planning to keep this Blog going while we're away so we can keep you up to date with the progress we're making, and the lives we're witnessing being transformed. So watch t
