Entering Nyumbani Village
Soccer Field
Standard 8 classroom--the classroom is made with their home-made bricks and the desks and chairs are built in their woodworking building.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Nyumbani Village pics 2
Entering Nyumbani Village
Soccer Field
Standard 8 classroom--the classroom is made with their home-made bricks and the desks and chairs are built in their woodworking building.
Nyumbani Village Pics
Nyumbani Village:
Some of the grandma's of the village.
A garden growing food for the village
Some of the grandma's of the village.
A garden growing food for the village
Nyumbani Village
NYUMBANI VILLAGE: Tuesday, March 30th
Kuiti District, Kenya
On Tuesday, Grant and I traveled with two visitors from Washington, DC (father and daughter who donate money to Nyumbani) to Nyumbani Village, about a 3 hr drive East of Nairobi.
Nyumbani Village was the vision of the late Fr. Angelo D’Agostino (founder of Nyumbani Children's Home) to create a self-sustaining community to serve orphans and elders who have been left behind by the “lost generation” of the HIV pandemic. The Village provides a family-like setting for orphaned children under the stewardship of elderly adults.
Nyumbani Village stands on one thousand acres of land donated by the Kitui District County Council. The site is within the poorest division in the Kitui District and has a high incidence of HIV and a high number of HIV orphans. When complete, the Village will accommodate approximately 1000 orphans and 100 grandparents living in 100 dwelling units each with a grandparent and 8- 10 children.
The criteria for children to be admitted into this village is that they must have been orphaned by both parents (not necessarily by HIV/AIDs) and that there are no other relatives to support them. Thus far, there are 600 kids living in this village (only 30 of them with HIV+ status) and they are admitting 70 more this coming month. There are currently 58 grandparents, 4 of which are grandpas, that look after the children.
Through group homes and community services, the Village seeks to harness the energy of youth and the maturity of elders to create new blended families that foster healing, hope and opportunity. Some of the projects on site include:
・ education: primary and seconary school plus a polytechnic school that offers wood-working, tailoring, and they are in the process of building a machine shop
・ growing sustainable agriculture: tomatoes, maize, peppers, eggplant, passion fruit, and kale. The crops are irrigated by solar powered water pumps from wells on site.
-make their own bricks to build their buildings and cottages
・ Rapidly maturing trees for lumber: they are planting 50 acres of indiginous trees every year as a source of sustainable lumber. They make all their desks, tables, and furniture with this lumber.
・ The Village has extended their HIV testing to the surrounding community and are providing ARV meds to about 20 people so far, provided by PEPFAR funding.
We were blown away by this Village and its self-sustainabilty!!! There are amazing people running this project to make it so successful.
See pics below. This weekend we are staying at the orphanage as it is Easter weekend and there are going to be big festivities: like an Easter Egg Hunt put on by 20 volunteer British Airway staff. I guess one of the BA crew dresses up as a rabbit! We will let you know how it goes.
We miss you all. Please keep us in your prayers.
Claire and Grant
Kuiti District, Kenya
On Tuesday, Grant and I traveled with two visitors from Washington, DC (father and daughter who donate money to Nyumbani) to Nyumbani Village, about a 3 hr drive East of Nairobi.
Nyumbani Village was the vision of the late Fr. Angelo D’Agostino (founder of Nyumbani Children's Home) to create a self-sustaining community to serve orphans and elders who have been left behind by the “lost generation” of the HIV pandemic. The Village provides a family-like setting for orphaned children under the stewardship of elderly adults.
Nyumbani Village stands on one thousand acres of land donated by the Kitui District County Council. The site is within the poorest division in the Kitui District and has a high incidence of HIV and a high number of HIV orphans. When complete, the Village will accommodate approximately 1000 orphans and 100 grandparents living in 100 dwelling units each with a grandparent and 8- 10 children.
The criteria for children to be admitted into this village is that they must have been orphaned by both parents (not necessarily by HIV/AIDs) and that there are no other relatives to support them. Thus far, there are 600 kids living in this village (only 30 of them with HIV+ status) and they are admitting 70 more this coming month. There are currently 58 grandparents, 4 of which are grandpas, that look after the children.
Through group homes and community services, the Village seeks to harness the energy of youth and the maturity of elders to create new blended families that foster healing, hope and opportunity. Some of the projects on site include:
・ education: primary and seconary school plus a polytechnic school that offers wood-working, tailoring, and they are in the process of building a machine shop
・ growing sustainable agriculture: tomatoes, maize, peppers, eggplant, passion fruit, and kale. The crops are irrigated by solar powered water pumps from wells on site.
-make their own bricks to build their buildings and cottages
・ Rapidly maturing trees for lumber: they are planting 50 acres of indiginous trees every year as a source of sustainable lumber. They make all their desks, tables, and furniture with this lumber.
・ The Village has extended their HIV testing to the surrounding community and are providing ARV meds to about 20 people so far, provided by PEPFAR funding.
We were blown away by this Village and its self-sustainabilty!!! There are amazing people running this project to make it so successful.
See pics below. This weekend we are staying at the orphanage as it is Easter weekend and there are going to be big festivities: like an Easter Egg Hunt put on by 20 volunteer British Airway staff. I guess one of the BA crew dresses up as a rabbit! We will let you know how it goes.
We miss you all. Please keep us in your prayers.
Claire and Grant
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Grant and the Shamba Man
GRANT AND THE SHAMBA MAN:
Grant has been working with the Shamba Man (gardener), Maina, every morning this past week. Below are pics of a tree that fell on the roof of a guest house during heavy rain (the rainy season has arrived!!). Grant and Maina are using panga machettes (sp?) to cut up the tree. Talk about some tough work!!
Grant has been working with the Shamba Man (gardener), Maina, every morning this past week. Below are pics of a tree that fell on the roof of a guest house during heavy rain (the rainy season has arrived!!). Grant and Maina are using panga machettes (sp?) to cut up the tree. Talk about some tough work!!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Quick Update
Claire is currently working with the nurses and has gone with them to take a young girl to the hospital. When she gets back this evening we will work together on an official update. We have now been in Kenya for over a week and are starting to find our place at Nyumbani. Claire continues to spend her mornings working with the nurses (mainly working on the distribution of medication) as well as working at the respite (sp?) center where sick children from the local slums are brought in by Nymbani's sister program Lea Toto. Lea Toto are medical centers established in the major slums around Niarobi where they are assisting families with medication for their chilcren with HIV as well as helping them ensure that they can create a stable and healthy environment for their child to grow up in. There are times that the family is not able to do this and when a child becomes too undernourished they are brought into Nyumbani for medical care and food. It is one of these children that Claire has gone with to admit into the hospital.
I have been spending my mournings working with the Shamba Man (gardener). Last night during the rains a large tree fell one of the guest houses (no serious damage, but the roof will have to be mended). Today the Shamba Man and I used Pangas (machettes) to cut the tree into smaller pieces so it could be removed from the roof and then delimbed.
Monday is a Holiday due to Easter so Claire and I will begin our Math teaching on Tuesday. We will be mostly working on multiplication with them, but are not sure yet how advanced the 6th and 7th graders will be. We will also most likely be doing addition with the 1st and 2nd graders.
The curriculum in Kenya is very difficult but I have beent told that the teaching methods are where the teachers says something and the children sit in their seats, listen, and then repeat. This method tends to leave slower learners behind.
Over that past week we have slowly started to meet and talk with the 100+ children that live at Nyumbani. Between them and the staff I have already learned so much about Kenya, the culture, and people.
Anyway, I will wrap this up so Claire and I will have a few things to talk about together when we update later this evening.
Ta Ta from Kenya,
Grant and Claire
I have been spending my mournings working with the Shamba Man (gardener). Last night during the rains a large tree fell one of the guest houses (no serious damage, but the roof will have to be mended). Today the Shamba Man and I used Pangas (machettes) to cut the tree into smaller pieces so it could be removed from the roof and then delimbed.
Monday is a Holiday due to Easter so Claire and I will begin our Math teaching on Tuesday. We will be mostly working on multiplication with them, but are not sure yet how advanced the 6th and 7th graders will be. We will also most likely be doing addition with the 1st and 2nd graders.
The curriculum in Kenya is very difficult but I have beent told that the teaching methods are where the teachers says something and the children sit in their seats, listen, and then repeat. This method tends to leave slower learners behind.
Over that past week we have slowly started to meet and talk with the 100+ children that live at Nyumbani. Between them and the staff I have already learned so much about Kenya, the culture, and people.
Anyway, I will wrap this up so Claire and I will have a few things to talk about together when we update later this evening.
Ta Ta from Kenya,
Grant and Claire
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Greetings from Kenya
Last night we arrived in Nairobi without any complications. Both of our checked bags arrived with us, and Sister Julie was waiting outside the gate with a sign ready to take us to Nymbani (about a 30 min. drive from the Airport).
The weather here is actually very pleasant. At night it cools off to a comfortable temperature making sleeping easy while during the day it is around 70 degrees with clouds moving in and out. No rain yet, but it did rain before be landed, and the clouds moving by look like they have rain in them.
Claire and I have a room together. It is in a complex called the Noel House named after a family that had it built. It is a two story building, similar to a motel with about 8-10 rooms. Out room is set up with a small fridge, sink, and gas stove in the front room, a bedroom with two twin beds that we have pushed together and a dresser, and a bathroom with a shower/sink/toilet. The water for drinking it taken from an underground river that they have checked constantly to ensure that it is safe for everyone to drink (we are have a pen to sterilize water, so we can make doubly sure that it is safe to drink). As long as it is sunny we will have hot water for showers as there are solar water heaters on the top of the buildings.
The children are in school for another week or more, so Claire and I will not start our teaching duties until that point. Once the program starts our duties will be to help the children with their math. Currently we are spending our mornings helping out around the village. I will the the Assistant to the Shamba Man (Gardner) and Claire is helping the nurses out with medications for the children. We have not had the opportunity to take the 10 minute walk into town to do any shopping, but we will be sure to write about that within the nest couple of days when we can do our shopping.
We have wireless Internet access in our rooms, we have been told that it can be less than reliable, but it seems to be working fine for now.
So far we have been very impressed with Nyumbani and the people who are a part of it. In the next few days I have to take some pictures so people can a a feel for where we are living.
Talk to you soon,
Grant and Claire
The weather here is actually very pleasant. At night it cools off to a comfortable temperature making sleeping easy while during the day it is around 70 degrees with clouds moving in and out. No rain yet, but it did rain before be landed, and the clouds moving by look like they have rain in them.
Claire and I have a room together. It is in a complex called the Noel House named after a family that had it built. It is a two story building, similar to a motel with about 8-10 rooms. Out room is set up with a small fridge, sink, and gas stove in the front room, a bedroom with two twin beds that we have pushed together and a dresser, and a bathroom with a shower/sink/toilet. The water for drinking it taken from an underground river that they have checked constantly to ensure that it is safe for everyone to drink (we are have a pen to sterilize water, so we can make doubly sure that it is safe to drink). As long as it is sunny we will have hot water for showers as there are solar water heaters on the top of the buildings.
The children are in school for another week or more, so Claire and I will not start our teaching duties until that point. Once the program starts our duties will be to help the children with their math. Currently we are spending our mornings helping out around the village. I will the the Assistant to the Shamba Man (Gardner) and Claire is helping the nurses out with medications for the children. We have not had the opportunity to take the 10 minute walk into town to do any shopping, but we will be sure to write about that within the nest couple of days when we can do our shopping.
We have wireless Internet access in our rooms, we have been told that it can be less than reliable, but it seems to be working fine for now.
So far we have been very impressed with Nyumbani and the people who are a part of it. In the next few days I have to take some pictures so people can a a feel for where we are living.
Talk to you soon,
Grant and Claire
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