Dear all,
I'm aware that it has been a long time since I last wrote so I wanted to let you know what's going on for us at Turi Children's Project.
It has been so wonderful being able to visit TCP more regularly with children from St Andrew's School. We now have a 'TCP Impact Group,' who spend time during Scouts each Friday playing games, doing art work and providing activities for the TCP children. The term dates don't always match up perfectly (St Andrew's follows the British academic year whilst the local schools' year is January to December) so when the Impact Group can't go, they help to organise fundraisers and promote charity at school. It is my aim that all St Andrew's School children will go to TCP at least once this academic year, to interact with the children and understand the charity better.
So far, the St Andrew's children have been incredibly positive about the trips and it is wonderful to have many of the Kenyan children leading the activities and translating the instructions into Kiswahili for the TCP children. It's also been lovely to share the new play area with the children from the two schools. It really is a fantastic facility, that all children love to play on together.
As well as the improved link with St Andrew's school, we are looking forward to a couple of school visits from the UK later this academic year. Elizabeth College, Guernsey, hope to bring a group in July and possibly Bromley High School too. We hope that these connections will raise people's awareness and be a real encouragement to the volunteers and children here in Turi.
We are aware that times are tough around the world with the cost of living crisis affecting people in all areas. For TCP, we have concerns about the children in our care. The Micah Project, which provided a breakfast of uji porridge, for everyone at the children's school until July this year, had to close and so now these children go to school very hungry each day. The project was similar to Mary's Meals, which you may have heard of. Sadly, due to rising costs of ingredients and sponsorship drying up, the project has closed and is making the TCP children more vulnerable and poverty-stricken. Furthermore, the exchange rate is so poor at the moment that when we convert money from UK pounds at the moment, we are losing a lot of the money. As costs of ingredients increase in price, we do have concerns about the future of TCP. If you are able to commit to donating regularly, please do get in touch via email, Facebook or on the website. We truly want to provide these children with a hope and a future and would love more financial support to keep doing this.
We hope you enjoy looking through these pictures, which show what we've been doing over the past few weeks at TCP. Warm regards and God's richest blessings,
Rachel, Miriam and the TCP team
