College Time

Now that we are going steady working on the small businesses, its time to start applying for what they are working towards. The past few days have been filled with almost nothing but college research. The intake dates for colleges here are May, July, and September. They all know what the want to study and are so excited to start applying. Its a bit harder here because not all colleges have websites so a lot of the research has to be done by going to to the actual campuses. 

They all want to go to school so bad, so they are doing the very best they can to earn enough money to go to school. 

The competition here is very competitive when it comes to selling things without an actual store. 

There is a grocery store that has tables out front that people can sell their items. I am trying to work it out so that they can sell their items there. A lot of people go to that store so I am hoping that it will improve their sales. 

I fear that they won't be able to earn enough by the time school starts even with them saving half of their salary and small business profits. I'm hoping that we can do some kind of partial education fund for them. I want them to know that they have to work in order to pay for school but I would hate for them to miss out because they could not earn enough. I'm hoping that if people see how hard they are working to save enough to go to school it might give them some motivation to help them with school. We shall see.

Also.... Kate is going to school on Monday! There are a few sponsors that decided to pay for her school fees so she heads out next week! She is very excited and we are all so excited for her. We will miss her in the program so much, but its great that she has this opportunity to go. She will be going to school in Nairobi so I will be able to visit her and make sure that everything is going well. She will be studying business because she wants to open her own restaurant in the future. 

I am so excited to see the UBC team in two months even though it seems like they were just here last week. I know all the girls will be working so hard on their products to try and sell to everyone that comes so I hope they are ready!

Other than that, nothing else is new around here. Still working hard as ever and doing my best to make sure the girls are ready to take on the world!

More soon!

Selling Selling Selling!

We are now entering the third month of the program. I think we have made a lot of progress so far and am very happy with how things are going. I hope that this next month we can continue moving forward with the classes and small businesses. 

As of now, everyone has sold at least a handful of products to not only the staff here at Shelter, but volunteers, visitors and even people in town. It has been quite and experience going into town and trying to sell things. They have learned that its not easy to sell things to strangers. They found out that you need some tough skin because not everyone is going to respond nicely to them. Some people are very rude and will just ignore them as they try to talk/sell to them. But, there are also people who were friendly and even if they didn't buy something they wanted more information about the program. There have also been a few who said that they wanted to come to Shelter and see what our project is all about. We even had people who didn't want to buy anything but wanted to donate. It has been a very interesting process and I am learning a lot as well. 

We are doing the best we can without a vehicle. I didn't realize how hard it would be living so far from the city without our own car. By not having one it takes away from a lot of the socialization programs I wanted them to do, thus not giving them the full transition experience. I'm hoping that we can raise enough money soon to purchase something so that the girls can be fully prepared and aware of what to expect once they live out on their own. 

Other than that, all is well. I have been bad about posting blogs and videos and I'm sorry about that. I will try and force myself to sit down for two seconds each week and post something, even if it is short. Thanks for all the support, the girls and I really appreciate it!

Until next time!

Social Worker

Hello again!

I hope all is well in the States, everything is going great out here! All the girls are still working hard on their small businesses. We are currently looking for places to sell our products. We would love to get a shop of our own, but there are no places available. So, until we can get a place of our own, we are looking to see if we can share some space here. The big problem is that everyone and their mom has a non-profit/charity that they are trying to sell their items just like us. Hopefully we will find something soon! 

Last week we went out and got three of the girls that have ID's, saving accounts. Since they had worked  two and a half weeks for their jobs here at Shelter, they all got paid. They were all so excited to get money of their own that they earned. That day I had arranged for us to go to the bank and get saving accounts so that their money would be safe. The program requires them to put at least 50% of all earnings in to their saving accounts. Since only three of them had ID's, and you need an ID to get a bank account, they paired up with their small business partner for an account until the others get their ID's. 

I figured that they would all put the bare minimum 50% in the account but come to find out almost all put between 75%-90% in. It was so great! I keep reminding them that this program is for their future, so everything they do, they need to take that in consideration. I'm happy to see that speech is working!

In other news, Social Worker Mary is back! For those of you who don't know her, she has been the social worker here for quite a number of years. She has been gone these past few months on maternity leave. She is now back with her two month old son Jerry. He is so cute and I love him. 

So now that she is back, we have decided that she will help out with Karama House at least three days a week. This is very very good news! As much as I love doing all of this, I still need help. She is great and knows a lot more about all the girls than I do. It will be so nice to have a partner in all of this. I feel like things will move faster and smoother. We have a Social Worker!! YAY!! 

I think that is all the news for now. I will make sure and post some more next week. 

This post will be written with the help of one of the participants of Karama House. Deborah offered to help write this because its late and I'm too tired to remember what has happened so far. Lets get started:

These past few weeks have flown by and we have gotten a lot accomplished! Since the last post, we went on quite an adventure involving shopping for food (in bulk) in downtown Nairobi. Then, we had a meeting about choosing small businesses. After a few days, they had all decided on what they wanted to do. The girls decided to do their small businesses in pairs. Once everyone had a partner, they decided what business they wanted to do. They all had such good ideas that within the next few day

s we were out shopping for their supplies. 

The businesses are:

Jewelry Making- Ann and Gladys

Soap Making- Cate and Judith

Tie Dying- Debbie and Roline (we call her Volunteer)

They have all started working on them and are so excited to get their products to the market and selling to the volunteers here at Shelter. 

This week we ha

ve started our classes. We have done Finance and Sex Education. I wanted to start computers as well but the electricity is very inconsistent here.  They have all gone very well and I think everyone is learning a lot. 

I have been doing my best posting videos but like I said, the electricity is kind of a hit or miss right now. Hopefully there will be more soon!

Now, lets have a word from Deborah who has been helping me with my spelling this whole time... 

Hi guys, actually we are doing great here at Karama House by the help of our mum Larissa. Thanks also for your support, you really mean everything to us! May God bless you abundantly. love you big,

Debbie 

Last thing... today we had a great time taking pictures and thought that I would share some! 

January 12, 2009

 

Yesterday we had our first Karama House meeting with most of the girls. There were just five of them because the other two are coming to Shelter today.  I had Paul video most of it so that you all can see who was in the meeting and how it went.

We were missing Ann and Deborah but I had explained everything to them last week when I saw them in Nairobi.

Check out the video to see how it went:

http://www.vimeo.com/2899425 

After the meeting everyone went to the dorm and got their belongings to move into their new homes in the guesthouses. There were three rooms available so three girls had to share a room until one of the volunteers left. I told them that since the other two were not here yet, this would be a temporary roommate situation. Once the other two came, we would be switching roommates. I did this because I wanted them not to stay with their best friend. I want them to learn how to live with other people and get to know everyone better. When they go off to college and stay in hostels, they will be forced to live with at least six other girls that they don’t know. This will give them some practice on how to deal with other females their age that they may not know very well.  I know that they stayed in the dorms with about 80 other people but a lot of them were younger girls that they were helping to take care of. This time, they are with their peers the whole time and they need to learn how to get along without gossiping and complaining to their friends like most girls do. I think it will work out just fine but we will have to see!

Short Post

January 8th 2009

Today was a pretty chill day. Almost all of the kids have gone off to school so it its really quite around here. I forgot how uneventful this place can be when school is in session. The good thing though is that the UBC team came today and will stay till tomorrow.

It was nice to talk to Jamie and a few of the girls about the plans for KH. They gave me a lot of good advice and ideas about the financial situation. After all that, it was lunch time, then time to play with the little ones outside.

I did talk to Deborah today and she will be coming here with her guardian’s eldest son to talk about KH and whether or not she should come to stay. I think Anne’s guardian will be coming either tomorrow or Saturday. I am so ready to get this program started but I don’t want to start without everyone. So, they will have till Sunday to decide then we will start the program on Monday whether they are here or not.  I really hope they will agree. I think they will.

So all I have to do now is wait here at Shelter for them to come. I guess that will give me more time to get the contract finished and all the plans finished.  Better get back to work!

Attempt To Get The Girls Back

January 5th 2009

Today was a fantastic day!

Kate, Rhoda and I went into Nairobi today to meet up with Deborah and Anne (the two girls still out of Shelter). We went to see if they would come back to Shelter to participate in Karama House. We all decided to go to my good friends Otieno and Janet’s house to talk about everything. I was so happy to see Anne again. I think it has been well over a year since I had seen her. She looked good so I was happy. It was great to see Deborah again as well, even though I saw her a few days earlier.

I had missed them so much!

 When I first got there, we all talked for a while, then it was time to talk to the two girls in private about coming back to Shelter for Karama House. Janet, Otieno’s wife was there and talked to the girls first, then I came to answer some questions that they had for me.

 At first I thought they were going to say no about coming back, but Janet helped me explain why this would be a good thing for them. So finally after talking for about an hour, they agreed to come! I told them that I wasn’t’ trying to make them come because it is their decision but it would be a very good thing for them. I know that Janet wasn’t going to let them leave without saying yes haha. She is so great and is like a second mother to me out here.

 So now, all I have to do is go back into town on Sunday to stay the night with Anne so I can explain to her guardian the program and why she is coming back. Then, on Monday, I will go and stay at Deb’s house and do the same there. On Tuesday morning, the three of us will come back to Shelter together and finally start the program! I would have liked to start earlier but I don’t want to start without everyone here. Plus, I know that it must be hard for those girls to have to pick up and move their lives again. I want to give them some time to think about this and let it sink in so they are prepared to come back and work towards a better life.

I’m glad we met at their house because I got to see Otieno, Janet, their kids, and Janet’s brothers and sister. They are all so great!

Until I can bring the girls back on Tuesday, I’ll be here in my room working on the contracts and curriculum for the program. I have been doing some video and vlogs as well. I’m doing my best to keep everyone updated even though I don’t have the internet yet. I will have it soon!