We send this brief report to you of what has happened within the first 3 months of the year with warm greetings to you all.
We hope you are enjoying the beginning of the warm weather while we enjoy the results of the rains that came after a long spell of very dry of weather.
Most of the country suffered hunger and lack of water both the livestock and the people. The Nenkashe children without exception come from the dry areas of Kenya, Maasailand and North West of Kenya.
As the children resumed school in January, the schools struggled to buy water for basic needs. Drinking water was even more scarce. So water was a top priority besides the home made food and the ´goodies´ during the visiting days.
The first term (January to April, there are 3 terms in a year, of ca. 3 months each with 4-5 weeks break) of school was busy for the Nenkashe members.
The beginning of the term is always hectic, it starts a week before school term begins with 2 members of Nenkashe filling forms at the bank and standing for hours in long ques at the bank waiting with other parents to get to the counter to pay school fees. Then the receipts are taken to the school´s basar. This activity has become more time consuming since the children are in 5 different schools. The majority are at the A.I.C. school.
As the children arrive to school, the members have to find out what the children might need such as replacing worn out shoes, uniforms, exercise books or toiletries to be bought.
The 1st term has been a term where several planned activities postponed from the end of the year term have been carried out.
Visiting homes was carried out and this was successful. 5 homes which were far apart were visited. Parents, guardians and Nenkashe were able to discuss about the importance of education even despite the disagreement when the girl had to flee FGM( Female Genital Mutilation) og forced marriage. All the parents/guardian welcomed back the girls, promised to let the daughter continue with schooling and will not force the girls to undergo FGM. Most parents/ guardian promised to cost share the girls expenses to the best of their abilities and visit the girls during visiting days, collect the girls from school at the closing time and accompany them back to school and attend parents meetings when necessary.
Nenkashe was very grateful that Else Marie came to Kenya at the beginning of the year bringing with her the beautifully labeled towels. She managed to outwit the customs people at the airport. It was an honour for us that Else Marie was abled to meet the girls at the A.I.C. and present the towels herself which the girls loved. She also gave the girls a word of encouragement at their level.
It was a fantastic initiative to donate the towels and personalise them. Thank you.
Else Marie was able to accompany the members to visit a couple of homes during the reconciliation visits. We were grateful that she could come with us to these very time consuming visits and at long distances on bad roads. Else Marie also accompanied us when taking one of the girls to a new school. Thank you else Marie for your solidarity.
Preparing the annual report and the accounts was quite a learning experience for the members involved. Although we record everything whenever we deposit, withdraw money and every expenditure, the accountant that we engaged was not amused to see our records and made us re do it several times before he would look at them and take them to the auditor!
The accountant was good at guiding us in the right direction of keeping account records. One of the members has the experience of keeping account records and has volunteered to keep the records in the future.
It was useful to have to sit and look at future plans and to have to make a budget. This exercise has made us wake up to the fact that the organization has grown and needs streamlining,such as record keeping, accounting and the importance of the allocating tasks according to the members´ ability and qualification.
The Team Building Seminar was finally held in April. It was a one day seminar facilitated by an experienced consultant who has helped Nenkashe at the beginning of the NEC develop the concept paper. The participants learnt a lot such as workforce partnership, running office, allocation of tasks, how to partner with the parents and guardians and all the participants felt they have renewed motivation and confidence in NEC.
Some of our girls come from Pokot, the north western part of Kenya, from very poor families. That part of Kenya was very dry and the families struggled to keep alive. So it was suggested that the girls should stay with one of the members. Zippie the co-founder offered to house the girls all 11 of them for the whole 4 weeks of the school holiday!!!! Zippie, NEC says THANK YOU.
Nenkashe other achievement is managing to find a company which was selling sanitary pads cheaply to NGOs. So we were able to buy them in bulk, enough for the girls through out the year, we hope.
We have gotten the plans for the vocational centre from the architect. This is a huge help from the architect Thomas Groenlykke, we are aware of that it has been time consuming and the fee not has been withheld!
The members say THANK YOU. We like the plans, they are very appropriate to our vision.
Our Short Term Future Plans will be to continue making sure that the girls´ and boys´ basic needs are met, pay school fees, attend to the logistics of children going home at the end of term and their coming back to school at the beginning of term, attend parents meetings, take up discussions with the teachers about how best to help the children socially and academicaly. To continue visiting the children on open days and encourage the parents/guardians to do the same.
We shall continue to support the children socially and academically and encourage the parents to do the same during school holidays.
We have planned a whole day meeting to revisit the contents of the seminar and discuss how we can use the acquired knowledge and awareness to improve the administration of the NEC particularly review the tasks of the office bearers. Discuss the future of NEC and how to get more sponsors. Find an alternative holiday home for the girls.
We plan to review the NEC brochure. We think it should be brought up to date to include all our activities and vision.
Discuss and act on how to start work on the NEC plot and look at the architects plans of the vocational centre.
Continue to follow the application to the authorities for NGO status.
Continue to interact with concerned and relevant partners.
The organisation is facing some constraints such as;
-our children are now spread to 5 different schools and 3 children´s homes.
-The AIC boarding school´s new policy of not keeping the rescue girls in school owing to lack of funds, therefore cannot afford to feed the children nor afford to have a matron nor a teacher to look after them, makes it necessary for us to look for a an alternative `holiday home`for the girls who cannot go home.
-The AIC school where 96% of the girls are, have raised the school fees per term by ca. 200dkk from next term, August!
-The school insists that shoes should be bought from a `Bata` shoe shop which costs about Kr. 200. We can usually get good quality 2nd hand shoes for half the price!
The above are subjects for discussion and find solutions for during our next meeting.
ALL THE ABOVE ACTIVITIES HAVE BEEN FUNDED BY NENKASHE DENMARK.
THANK YOU.
We wish you a warm spring and summer and a productive period in your
work for NEC.P