Long-term Development Efforts In Kenya Need Temporary Relief For Hungry Children

Main Category: Aid / Disasters
Article Date: 11 Jan 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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New Yorkers visiting Kenya this week report hope amid the tragedy of the political unrest following controversial election results. As international efforts are underway to resolve the political crisis, there are individual crises happening to thousands of deprived children. Many children, their families and orphan care-givers, have been living on the edge of subsistence and now are in dire straits. Subsistence breadwinners have been unable to work and children are going hungry. The mission of Reach the Children is to help people develop self-reliance, but in the midst of learning "how to fish", there is still the need to eat and survive. Reach the Children is seeking donations to help feed the people as they learn "how to fish" for themselves. Please help provide food for hungry children and their families to tide them over during this current disaster.

Justus Suchi Obadiah, the Country Director for Reach the Children Kenya reports that the situation is critical for hundreds of children who participate in their orphan and vulnerable children programs. According to Suchi, "the situation has worsened for everyone except those who have previously stored food. Many of the children in the programs we support are suffering greatly. We need to provide them with basic necessities so they can get back to learning."

A family of five from Ithaca, NY has been in Kenya for the past two weeks. They traveled to visit some schools that they and others from Ithaca and Rochester had been part of raising funds for construction. The unrest was most extreme in Western Kenya where the schools are located. Their frustration grew as it was not possible to safely travel from Nairobi to Kisumu. Another volunteer from New York City is in Nairobi for three weeks on an enrichment program for street children. He reports that, "I have been teaching classes in a day school for boys off the streets (English, Math, how to tell time etc) and then developing a strong dance program in the afternoons. We have 25 to 30 teens coming to the class every day now. It was a small pocket of peace in a country torn with raging hatred, fear and violence. There are still a lot of military with bats and machine guns all over the city but life has returned to some semblance of normalcy. Lots of tension still in the air with 10's of thousands of families displaced. Whole neighborhoods burned. We see them as we drive by on the [buses] coming to or from Soweto."

100% of public donations to Reach the Children get to the children because the low overhead is covered by a private foundation. 100% of the donations to the Kenya Disaster Relief Fund is guaranteed to benefit orphans and vulnerable children of Kenya. Please go to http://www.reachthechildren.org/donate to make a tax-deductible donation right now! Click on "Where Needed Most," enter your secured credit card info, and help us provide urgent food and care for these children.

About Reach the Children

Reach the Children, Inc. is a not-for-profit humanitarian development organization that facilitates self-reliance in communities dedicated to the well-being of underprivileged children in 14 African countries. They accomplish this mission through a community empowerment approach, including primary areas of focus: AIDS Prevention, Education, Health, Micro-Enterprise, Orphan Care, and Water & Agriculture.

Reach the Children, Inc.
http://www.reachthechildren.org

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