A New Year and New Projects
After
a well deserved Christmas holiday, followed by a hectic January due to several
deadlines for college, we are back. And we are back with more energy than 2015,
and with new plans and projects for this new exciting year.
2016 is going to
be an special year for many reasons, but the main one is our wedding. We literally
cannot wait to get married in July and celebrate it with our friends and
family.
Also, this year
is going to be very eventful with big races coming up such as the first sprint
triathlon for Jenna and the first half-Iroman and the first 80km run for me in
the Lake District. In addition to this, in February I will be doing my first
FUNDRAISING event to raise money for our African Project.
I like to call it
that way because it is not just a fundraising event or a few of them, it is
something else. Jenna and I really want to help children with parents who
cannot pay the school fees and therefore have no choice but to miss out on
formal education. People in Africa do
not have the same resources as us, and with a little bit of help from us, many
children and their families will hopefully have access to education.
After having
talked to many people about this project, the main questions I have been asked
by people is- what village in Kenya are you going to help with the funds? Where
is it in Kenya? So during the past few weeks I have been collecting information
about this little village in Southern Kenya, and I have also been reading about
what TECDI has been doing in this small community to help children and parents
by promoting different types of projects.
So this post is
going to be all about Kasaala, its
community and TECDI, the charity that has been on ground since 2005, helping
children and adults, and also developing the whole community.
Kaasala- Tsavo East
National Park, the largest protected area in Kenya
Kasaala is
situated within the East Tsavo National Park in Kenya. This national park is
the largest protected area in Kenya and has 13,747 square kilometers. It is situated
in a semi-arid area previously known as the Taru Desert. This national park was
opened in April 1948 and it is located near the town of Voi in the Taita-Taveta County, of the former Coast
Province. Named for the Tsavo River, which flows west to east through the national
park, it borders the Chyulu Hills National Park, and the Mkomazi Game Reserve in Tanzania.
Tsavo national park map - (Lencer, 2016)
Kasaala, on the door step of the Tsavo
East National Park is a small village with little resources. A survey produced
in 2003 showed that almost 75% of the population who live in the northern part
of the national park live in poverty. This is caused by a number of reasons such
as the dry and semi-arid conditions of the area, characterised by frequent and prolonged
droughts, severe famines and acute water shortages, which are exacerbated by
the recent effects of climate change. In addition to this, poaching of wildlife
in the park has been also a serious problem since the park was established,
creating conflicts between park residents, wildlife and park authorities.
Typical Kenyan Adove Building - Simon Musila
What is TECDI and how are
they helping the comunity?
The Tsavo East Community Development Initiative (TECDI)
is a community based organization founded in Kasaala and registered with the
Government of Kenya. This small organisation is helping the community with
different projects which are funded with donations from people and others
charities.
One of the main projects that TECDI runs ic called
KNET. This project tries to assists orphans and other vulnerable children in
Kasaala by helping them get into the Kenyan education system. Even though the primary
and secondary education systems in Kenya are free, the goverment only
contributes 10% of the total fees required. The rest of the fees have to be
provided by parents and children´s guardians. This means that the mayority of
children are normally excluded from the education system as their parents
cannot afford to pay.
Students from Kasaala - Simon Musila
Another project run
by TEDCI is the Tsavo Kamba Community Museum (TKCM). This museum shows the traditional Kamba lifestyle
which is in danger of desaparition due to the pressure from current human
civilization. The museum tries to preserve and show the traditional Kamba
lifestyle. Without projects like the Tsavo Kamba Community
Museum, valuable information about the region and the community itself would be
lost.
The museum is located
in Kasaala and it is co-founded with Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), Kitui County Council and
community members from this locality.
Finally, another project which TECDI is promoting is
the Dream Pad Community Library (DPCL).
This initiative promotes the reading of books within the comunity. This small library
is helping the comunity to expand their knowledge and especially it is encouraging
both children and adults to read in kiswahili and also to learn other languages,
providing more chances to fight poverty. This project is in part sustained with
the donation of books by other organisations,
as well as by donations.
Dream Pad Community Library (DPCL)
I hope this post helps to have a wider view of what is
happening in this region of Kenia, where Jenna and I want to help out with the
extension of an existing school, which will improve the quality of life of both
children and adults.
WE MAKE A LIVING BY WHAT WE GET,
WE MAKE A LIFE BY WHAT WE GIVE
Winston Churchill
