Hi All, A few years ago Amy went along to a meeting of the Rotary Club of Lutterworth to talk about Milele. Whilst there she met Elaine Turner who had recently started a group who were knitting teddies to send to children all over the world. Since that chance meeting Milele has happily helped to distribute several hundred teddy bears to vulnerable children in Kenya.

Whilst I have included some photos in blog posts over the years I thought it would be nice to include a small collection of photos all in one place and say a big thank you to Elaine and her band of happy knitters!

Richard

P.s. watch out for little Edward who is now sponsored by Milele

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Milele Christmas Gifts Donate to Milele this christmas and we will spend your donation on crucial, life-saving christmas gifts such as mosquito nets or food parcels. In return you will recieve a gift certificate explaining exactly how and why your gift was so important. These are perfect stocking fillers for those 'hard to buy for' families and will make christmas all the more special knowing you have helped a child this year.

To get involved in Milele Christmas Gifts this year simply send us an email or give me a call on 07950329398. Donations can be made of any sum (increments of £5 only please) and 100% of your donation will be spent on the children who need it most! Give us a call or drop us a line today to get yours started.

Mosquito Nets: £5 for one net With malaria being one of the biggest killers of children under 5 in Kenya they are a way to keep little ones safe during their first few years of life. They are specially treated to provide the most protection and last around 15 years so can be re-used by the extended family.

Food Parcels: £5 for one weeks worth of food Food parcels will provide basic, healthy and tasty sustinance to families who are struggling for food this christmas. They consist of basic staples such as flour, maize, rice and beans as well as vegetables and some meat, chicken and/or fish, so they will provide a healthy diet for an average sized family.

We have been busy organising and sorting all the clothes we have had donated to take out to Kenya. In the photo are some of the clothes part of our donations scheme, which takes your unused and unwanted clothes, shoes and toys and gives them to people in Kenya who need them. So far we have managed to touch more than 800 children with these donations, and they make a really valuable difference, so thank-you very much if your clothes are in this big pile!

The clothes and shoes are all catalogued so that when we hand them out we can send you a photo of your clothes being put to good use! We take out everything we possibly can, but it does not go all together. To avoid charges so we dont waste money we take it in our suitcase a few bags at a time, so please bear with us if you dont get your photo very quickly!

Thanks to MJ and Emily for helping us with the sorting, a good job well done!

Hello everyone Yesterday we went to a neighbouring shanty town; Mtopanga to visit a school there which has been set up by the manager of the children's home in partnership with an english sponsor. The sponsor pays the rent and Mr Samwel and his brother George (the headteacher there) have employed teachers in training as volunteers. This obviously means that learning is FREE! The 50 or so students who attend the school are all from very humble backgrounds and would not otherwise get any form of education. It was an inspiring day and serves as a wonderful testiment to Mr Samwel and to others like him who are working tirelessly to improve the lives of the local children and give them opportunities to learn that they could not have previously thought possible. The equipment and facilities at the school are modest, but are growing all the time and i am confident it will prove to be an asset to the community for years to come.

When we first arrived we did lots of singing and jumping around with some of the very excited children from the school and have lots of lovely photos to post up here!

Whilst there at Mtopanga we also distributed some of the clothes which have been donated by everyone over there at home! You would not believe the excitement! Within half an hour of opening the cases we had a crowd of more than 50 children crowding around outside who had heard of what was happening and run to see if there would be any clothes for them.

As we left we handed out some balloons and soaps to the village children which was a huge success. We left happy in the knowledge that a few more children would be walking around Mtopanga fully clothed with shoes on their feet.

Thank-you so much to everyone who donated. Every item was so valuable and will be loved and well used for many years to come by the children we gave them to, as well as all their family, friends and neighbours.

All in all a conservative estimate comes to 168 different individual children who received clothes or shoes, not including the other children who were outside and received balloons and soaps, and there were at left 100 of them! Congratulations to everyone back home for making such a difference to so many childrens' lives!