Hello All, Thanks to all the fantastic hardwork of people helping us to fundraise, we have managed to raise the funds needed to take on another child to the Milele Sponsorship Programme!

Emmanuel is around 16 years old, and is now attending secondary school. Ordinarially Milele sponsors young children beginning at their primary education, however we made an exception here for an exceptional boy.

Over the last two years we have worked with Emmanuel at his primary school, with Rich in particular developing a great relationship with Emmanuel after teaching some maths lessons at the school. Emmanuel would arrive before everyone else in the morning, and leave after them at night. He came to study on weekends and holidays, even when the school was officially closed! He repeatedly asked Rich to set him extra homework questions after he had completed the entire textbook worth of practice questions!!

Despite being exceptionally hardworking, Emmanuel and his family had some very bad news recently. After loosing his two year old sister in a fire accident, his mother was also diagnosed with advanced breast cancer. Despite receiving treatment, she unfortunately passed away 3 weeks ago.

Emmanuel and his family value education above all else, and indeed his mother sacrificed the money saved for her operation in order to enable Emmanuel to attend secondary school and continue achieving. We feel it is crucial this does indeed happen.

Emmanuel is now sponsored as part of Milele, and we now need four new sponsors to support him!

Sponsorship costs £75 per year and allows us to provide Emmanuel with everything he needs for school including uniform, textbooks, school fees, exam fees as well as a daily school lunch. Not only this, Emmanuel will also receive heathcare through Milele.

We need four individuals, couples, families or organisations to sponsor Emmanuel. These sponsors will have the opportunity to write to him, and recieve letters back.

If you think you might be able to assist us in providing this young man with everything he needs to take control of his life and begin following his dreams of becoming a pilot or a lawyer, please please do get in touch with us at info@milele.org.uk. Feel free to give us a call for a chat or to ask any questions on 07950329398, or check out the sponsorship section of our website under 'Get Involved'

Thank-you!

Hi again,

Whilst here we have visited the Mbazi project, giving out some of the smaller girls clothes and shoes as well as the remaining mosquito nets. The children were really excited to see us and we were pleased to see lots of familiar faces since the last time we were here.

Billy has also been working on this project teaching some basic maths and social studies to a small group of children, and is clearly a firm favourite, happy to co-ordinate regular games of football!!

Despite unfortunately loosing a member of their team to a heart attack a couple of months ago, the group have managed to make some progress with the building, having secured the first classroom and begun to make a blackboard for it, and started a second classroom. A large area has also been cleared of the long grass and weeds to make space for a playground for the children.

Once again, enjoy the pictures!

Hi Everyone,

We have spent a bit more time at the Bethel project during our visit this time, and have been really pleased to see them under the care of their founder Elizabeth blossoming into a fantastically successful school providing quality education to many of the areas poorest families.

Bethel now have 85 children who attend regularly in the babyclass, kindergartens 1, 2 and 3.

For the youngest children, Bethel provides the opportunity for parents to go out and find work during the day, meaning they can try to put food on the table at home.Before Bethel, this service was normally very expensive, making it unaccessible to the parents who need to use it most. Elizabeth's solution is to run the care scheme herself, and ask for only 100 shillings (around 80p) contribution per child per month, a sum which is achievable when paid in very small installments throughout the year.

For those in the kindergarten classes the school is providing an invaluable foundation before they enter the government school system. They are acheiving among the highest nursery school marks in the area, a huge achievement for an essentially free community school. This preparation for school will mean children from Bethel have the best possible chance of absorbing as much information as possible within the government school environment.

Upon joining the government school, Elizabeth still provides support for the children who have outgrown the programme, through after school hours tuition at the project.

Our volunteer, Billy, has spent a lot of time there and has really enjoyed working with the project. Elizabeth said that at first the parents were doubtful that their children would understand Billy's english accent, but dramatically changed their minds after seeing Billy's class achieiving the highest positions in the area in their entry to government school assessment! Billy is now considered a real part of the team at Bethel, he will be sorely missed when his time in Kenya draws to a close in January.

During our trip here we have been able to give out some of your donated clothes and shoes at to the children attending the Bethel project, and thanks to a donation from Micheal Wright have managed to buy 100 exercise books; 109 pencils; 10 sharpeners and 200 peices of chalk for use in the school, as well as some additional mosquito nets for the youngest babies!

We hope you enjoy the photos!

Amy and Rich

Hello everyone, We have now arrived and settled in once again, we have been busy paying lots of visits to everyone in the run up to christmas.

This week we have lots and lots planned so watch this space and keep checking back for more details!

See you soon!