TRLF Jumble Sale – May 21st & 22nd 2016, Nativity Church

Thank you for your support once again during the Mitumba collection drive in March. For the past 11 years, Tana River Life Foundation has been running theMitumba (or “recycled goods” in Kiswahili) Project where lightly used items that are in good saleable condition are collected and sorted by TRLF staff and volunteers over a period of a month. These items are sent to the Tana Delta to assist over 80 households earn additional income through the sale of these recycled goods, enabling marginalized families to continue educating their children.

Some of the high value items will not be shipped to Kenya. These include designer bags and shoes, almost new clothes, household goods, books and jewellery which will be available at a jumble sale. Funds raised will pay for the shipment of the goods to Kenya. Our aim is to make the Mitumba Project a self sustaining one.

Please join us on 21st & 22nd May 2016 at the Nativity Church, the collection venue.

Venue : Nativity Church Kindergarten

Date and Time :  
Saturday       21^st May 2016         : 1pm to 7pm
Sunday         22^nd May 2016        : 8am to 7pm

Once again thank you for your generous support, and we hope to see you on the 21st and 22nd of May.

Amin sorting through the Mitumba collections and getting ready for the Jumble Sale

 

Happy Jumble Sale Customers

 

TRLF Mitumba 2016

Dear friends

I hope this note finds you and your families well.

I am now tying up matters over here in Tana as I prepare to make my trip to Asia at the end of March. It has been extra hectic because of the on-going construction of the new school ( Emmaus Centre Project Phase 1) which restarted late last year and also because we expanded our bursary programme to assist students from Term 1, especially those who performed well in the primary school leaving exams and were not able to continue to secondary school because of financial limitations. Thank you very much once again for your support for our work here in Tana Delta.

I expect to be at my mum’s place in JB by 1st April and in Singapore by the evening of 3rd April. I hope we can meet up sometime in April or May. I will be in Singapore the whole of April and again in the last two weeks of May. I will be in Malaysia during the first two weeks of May as well as the first two weeks of June before returning to Kenya by mid-June.

We will have our Mitumba Project collections again this year from 8 – 16 April at Nativity Church Kindergarten, the same venue as last year. Collection details and wishlist are available for download here.

• Collection details : https://tanariverlife.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/mitumba-project-flyer-2016-short.pdf
• Wishlist : https://tanariverlife.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/2016-mtb-request-list.pdf

In the last year, together with a few volunteer friends from Singapore and Malaysia, we registered Tana River Life Foundation Pte Ltd. One of its activities is the sale of Kenyan handicrafts in Singapore & Malaysia, with all profits going to support TRLF projects in Kenya. Soapstone carvings featuring safari animals and Christmas figurines have been the first products. If you would like to view or find out more, please contact Iris Tay at tanariverlifefoundation@gmail.com.

When in Asia, I will be contactable at +65-98338401 (Singapore) / +6012-6237040 (Malaysia) or Whatsapp to +254723521774. I look forward to meeting you during our time in Asia.

Until then, may God bless you and your families.

5^th March 2016
‘Like’ us on Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/tanariverlifefoundation/
Follow our blog : https://tanariverlife.wordpress.com/

Happy New Year from the Tana Delta – a note from Gabriel

Dear Friends

I pray that you and your loved ones are well, and wish all of you a belated Christmas and a very Happy New Year 2016. May God bless you with grace, joy, peace and inner strength in the year ahead.

It has been really hot over here in Tana for the entire month of December, despite the heavy rains. Thankfully the weather has cooled down this week and we are hoping that the hottest period has passed. The river broke its banks as a result of the heavy rains upcountry and some villages along the Tana River were flooded. Our village was not affected though our farm and many others along the river were flooded causing some loss of crops. Nevertheless, it was not as bad as we were expecting with all the dire predictions of El Nino in the press since September.

We continued extending our reach to the most interior villages this year, giving a lot of students opportunities they would otherwise not have. We managed to organize the first Tana Delta Secondary School Debate sanctioned by the Ministry of Education. We held it at Kitere Secondary School, the most remote school in the Delta. The entire school comprises a single building with 3 classrooms, one of which is used as staff room cum principal’s room cum store.

Kitere Secondary School is situated in Ndera Location. It is the most remote secondary school in the Tana Delta

It takes two hours to get there during the dry season and even longer during the rains, if at all the roads are passable. Normally such events are held in schools situated closer to the tarmac road, and at most just a few student representatives from the interior schools are able to travel to attend such functions due to lack of means.

Every debate participant received a dictionary donated by St. Theresa’s Convent in Singapore

Holding the event at Kitere Secondary School gave that entire school population a truly unforgettable experience. It also enabled students from the less remote areas who participated in the debate to appreciate the challenges students in the remote areas face.

TRLF – improving Literacy Skills in the Tana Delta

Our school, Delta Mustard Seed Academy had an enrolment of over 150 students this year. Our children are able to read from the time they are 5 years old, whereas the norm in the Delta has always been that kids even as old as 9 struggle to read simple words. We would like to assist more children develop in this way and have identified 6 primary schools in the most outlying locations for special assistance. We are developing a program together with the school teachers from these schools for implementation in 2016.

School Building under construction; Community Centre in the background

Work restarted on construction of the school building of the Emmaus Centre Project (ECP) in late November. The delay was because the contractor Mr. Li was tying up another project in Ethiopia and was unable to release his site manager until mid-November. The site manager Mr Yang is a very skilled and dedicated builder and his service is worth the wait. He undertook the community centre construction and completed that with utmost professionalism and much passion. The school is expected to be completed by May 2016.

The community centre building is complete with the exception of the internet connection. We are working on getting the external works completed, i.e. waste disposal, water supply and storage etc. All such works are expected to be completed by mid-2016.

TRLF youth, Nancy and Esther explaining the use of reusable sanitary napkins to students from Kitere

We continue nurturing our youth, both at secondary school level as well as post-secondary level, helping them form and internalize moral values. We also involve them in all the community work we do so that they become more integrated in the real lives of their own communities and neighbours. Many of them mature to become more passionate and aware of the needs of others and of their responsibilities to assist.

TRLF donated desks, chairs and textbooks to Oda, Buyani and Kitere secondary schools in 2015

As we leave the gift of 2015 behind, and look forward in wonder and faith to 2016, I thank you very much for journeying with us as we build individual lives, and thereby entire communities. You are remembered in our prayers today and I ask that you too keep us in yours. Once again, Happy New Year 2016, be blessed.

Idsowe Village – Tana Delta, Kenya
1^st January 2016

Watch Our Latest Video

Watch a video of what the foundation has been up to lately. Gabriel Teo speaks about the work being done in Education, Sustainable Agriculture, Entrepreneuship, Youth Formation Program and the Emmaus Centre.

Thanks to Alen Nikolovski, Soh Lai Leng, and Sister Delphine for agreeing to be interviewed. Thank you Wally Tham and Esther Chan for producing this video !

Kenya through the eyes of a young Singaporean – by Lyanna Lim. Part 2 of 3

27 Sep 2014, Ndera, Tana Delta

The Road to Ndera -Traffic Jam Delta Style

The Road to Ndera -Goat Jam in the Delta

Driving to the interior – The trail to Ndera

The road to Ndera was bumpy and dusty. After one hour of travelling on mud roads and battling with the potholes, we finally reached Ndera village. Ndera is located in the interiors, north of Idsowe, where the Foundation is based.

Families from Ndera waiting for lunch at the PTA Meeting

Mothers at PTA Meeting

We were visiting another village with the foundation to conduct a bursary meeting . Students in these schools had high aspirations, as they shared their ambitions to be politicians, lawyers, doctors, clinical officers, engineers and early childhood educators. It was most heartening to hear them speak about their future with such fervor.

Lyanna and Sarah with the students at Ndera

 

The toilet at the school in Ndera

A tour of the school premises led us to the toilet. The pit toilet was supported by wooden branches and flanked by several corrugated steel sheets . As city dwellers this was a rude awakening to the privacy and hygiene issues these students faced.

Currently working in India, Lyanna Lim always had a soft spot for developing countries. Her trip to Nepal as part of her graduation trip motivated her to work in South Asia after she graduated. Inspired by her father who went to Kenya to lend his construction expertise to  TRLF’s Emmaus Centre Project in 2013, Lyanna decided that she wanted to volunteer for this organization. She spearheaded a Global Giving campaign in the beginning of 2014 to raise funds for a mobile library and subsequently visited the foundation for 2 weeks in September 2014 to implement a library software and to coach the youths on how to catalogue and maintain a proper bookkeeping system of the library using the software.

Together with two other volunteers, Iris and Sarah, they traveled to Kenya .  It was an hectic and exciting 2 weeks of implementing a library software system, speaking to student beneficiary and their parents, studying the feasibility of provide solar powered lighting to the students, exploring various reusable sanitary napkin solutions for schoolgirls  as well as sourcing for local soapstones and kitenge (African garment) for fundraising purposes

In her free time, Lyanna loves running, reading and experimenting with raw food recipes. She will be pursuing her MBA in Duke Fuqua School of Business in 2015 and hopes to leverage on her network and business skills and continue contributing meaningfully to TRLF.”

Kenya through the eyes of a young Singaporean – by Lyanna Lim. A 3 part series

26 Sep 2014, Chara Location, Tana Delta

As I alighted from the matatu, I spotted a blue tentage with the words ‘Holy Innocents’ High School’ . Parents were making their way towards the PTA meeting at the Chara location. Parents from the Christian Pokomo community were seated to the left, the parents of the Muslim Orma community on the right with the students from Buyani Secondary School in the middle. Buyani Secondary School was closed in 2012 and part of 2013 due to damage incurred during the violent ethnic clashes in the area. Thanks to the peace talks led by NGOs including Tana River Life Foundation peace has since prevailed.

Volunteers and foundation walking towards PTA meeting at Chara Location

Students in class at Buyani Secondary School

The foundation accepts applications for bursaries at the start of each school semester at PTA meetings . Students submit their academic transcripts to support their applications, while parents have a channel to appeal for financial support for their children based on extenuating family circumstances. The chiefs and headmen of the surrounding villages kicked off the meeting with rousing speeches in a mixture of English and Swahili, the national language of Kenya. Parents from both communities then took to the stage thanking the leaders and foundation and encouraging their children to do well in school. Finally, Student President Bahaiyesa Ali Batuo and Headgirl Mwanahamisi Jakofa of Buyani Secondary School addressed the crowd. A common theme ran through their speeches – that education was paramount, it equips students for their future and shapes their lives, and that all of them should continue to strive in the face of adversity. In spite of not understanding Swahili I could feel the burning aspirations of the community, and the passion and drive of the students . I felt guilty about having taken education for granted in my teenage years.

We then spoke to some parents as well as students to understand their lives and struggles to break out of their circumstances . Living in a community without electricity, the students needed lights to complete their homework and revision in the evenings, many did not have access to textbooks , girls skipped school one week every month as they could not afford sanitary napkins. Many of the students woke up before dawn to make it to school on foot, a walk that could take over an hour, braving the elements and wild animals in the bush. The walk could take over an hour. A woman in her 30s with 8 children told us about being recounted how she sold as a child bride so that her brothers could go to school.

Village women cooking a feast of goat stew and pilau for the PTA meeting with the foundation

Lyanna washing her hands before enjoying the feast prepared by the villagers at Chara

A lunch of roast goat and pilau cooked the traditional way over coal fires was lovingly prepared by members from both tribes. Food and hope for a better future bring communities together and help them to look beyond irrelevant differences. Having children of different ethnic backgrounds going to school together help cultivate mutual respect and promote racial harmony.

UPDATE : 

We are raising funds for Buyani Secondary School. It is a 3 room school house located in an area doesn’t have running water nor electricity and we are raising funds to bring solar energy into the classrooms, provide students with sports equipment, sponsor their participation in school events, build a multi-purpose room as well as provide shelves, tables and chairs for the room. Would be great if you and your friends could help spread a little Christmas cheer to the students. Thanks for your generosity and have a Merry Christmas !  Please click here to give : https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/rebuilding-buyani-secondary-school/

Lyanna’s Profile :

Lyanna, Sarah and Iris learning to use traditional bush toothbrushes

Currently working in India, Lyanna Lim always had a soft spot for developing countries. Her trip to Nepal as part of her graduation trip motivated her to work in South Asia after she graduated. Inspired by her father who went to Kenya to lend his construction expertise to  TRLF’s Emmaus Centre Project in 2013, Lyanna decided that she wanted to volunteer for this organization. She spearheaded a Global Giving campaign in the beginning of 2014 to raise funds for a mobile library and subsequently visited the foundation for 2 weeks in September 2014 to implement a library software and to coach the youths on how to catalogue and maintain a proper bookkeeping system of the library using the software.

Together with two other volunteers, Iris and Sarah, they traveled to Kenya .  It was an hectic and exciting 2 weeks of implementing a library software system, speaking to student beneficiary and their parents, studying the feasibility of provide solar powered lighting to the students, exploring various reusable sanitary napkin solutions for schoolgirls  as well as sourcing for local soapstones and kitenge (African garment) for fundraising purposes

In her free time, Lyanna loves running, reading and experimenting with raw food recipes. She will be pursuing her MBA in Duke Fuqua School of Business in 2015 and hopes to leverage on her network and business skills and continue contributing meaningfully to TRLF.”

Gabriel and Tana River Life Foundation featured in Millionaire Asia

Thanks to Brian Yim and the team at Millionaire Asia, Gabriel and Tana River Life Foundation were featured in the Issue 33 of Millionaire Asia. Here’s the article.

https://tanariverlife.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/millionaire-asia-second-nature-journey-to-the-tana-delta-2pp_r8-final.pdf