During the September 2007 holidays, my husband and I had the great privilege of delivering goods purchased with money we had raised through the sale of greeting cards to Emukhuwa Primary School and St. Theresa’s Emukhuwa Girls School and distributing the many baby clothes and toys which were donated to local mothers and a medical centre in the Bukaya region of Western Kenya.

Emukhuwa Primary School had approximately 700 boys and girls and the inaugural secondary class of St Theresa's Girls Secondary School had 15 girls. In 2010 these girls will be in the equivalent of Year 10 and there are three more classes beneath them with a total of 133 students.

The schools are currently supported by the KISUNYA Self Help Welfare Group which consists of approximately 20 generous, local men who are lucky enough to have found work.  At the end of each month these men put “what they can afford” back into the community (keep in mind that the average weekly wage is about the equivalent of $35 - $40 Australian dollars).

  For example, KISUNYA purchased the uniforms for the secondary girls who are orphans so that they would be able to access an education. KISUNYA also supports the development of local health care.

In 2007, Emukhuwa Primary School and St Theresa’s Emukhuwa Girls School gratefully received 8 boxes of workbooks, 100 rulers, 400 pens and pencils, 100 erasers, 50 sharpeners, a number of educational posters, 20 readers for the younger children, 5 netballs, 5 soccer balls, 2 Australian Rules footballs, 30 tennis balls and a calculator for the secondary teachers. We also donated the equivalent of $300 cash to the Kisunya Self Help Group to distribute to the teachers, who were at the time all voluntary.

Once we reached the Bukaya region, we had great joy in ‘spotting’ mothers with babies strapped to their backs as we drove along.  We then pulled over to offer them a selection of the many baby clothes that were generously donated to the cause.  This resulted in much bewilderment in many of the women – because a car is an unusual sight in the area, let alone one containing two white people who spoke atrocious Swahili trying to glean information about their child!! Fortunately, our driver and friend, Steve, is a local and was able to translate for us.  The look of excitement and thanks on the faces of these women was wonderful.

A large amount of the clothing was donated to the Bukaya Medical Centre.  This centre is run by a nurse, Margaret, and provides a much needed service to the community.  Margaret employs a couple of locals who help her run the clinic and she was most proud in displaying the anaesthetic machine that they had recently acquired for when operations were undertaken!

The patient rooms are quite small and just fit three beds, all of which were full when we visited. There were a couple of pregnant women who were being monitored due to having had previous issues while pregnant – one poor lady had miscarried three times previously, another lady had a small son who was born with only one, malformed arm. There were also two ladies with brand new babies which were promptly dressed in brand new, clean outfits from our bag of goodies!

The whole experience of visiting these people was life changing and is only the beginning of what I hope will be a long and rewarding relationship between us and the people of Kenya!  Kevin and I were most honoured to be made members of KISUNYA and fundraising is continuing under the banner of ‘KISUNYA Australia’. 

We are now a registered fundraiser under the 'Fundraising Appeals Act 1998' with the Department of Justice, Consumer Affairs Victoria.  Our Registration Number for 2010 - 2012 is 10895.