The
SONshine Club started in August 2000, at the Church of God, Glenmachan, as a summer scheme for children lasting one
week in the month of August. Each year we have an action- packed programme for
the children. In 2006 as part of the programme, we emphasised the need to show
concern for other people, especially other children who were less fortunate than ourselves.
The children were encouraged to bring pencils, erasers, sharpeners, writing pads, notebooks, etc to help some children
in Kenya. We had been given the names
of a few schools in Kenya desperately
needing this equipment.
The
response from the children was phenomenal!
Many
local families also donated clothes – old and new – to be sent to Kenya. As we packaged everything for transport to Kenya
someone made a glib comment that it would be lovely to go and actually distribute these gifts to the children in Kenya. If we
could see the need first hand we would have a better idea of what was needed for future schemes. A few weeks later 3 white females were sitting on a plane bound for Kenya. Rather naively we thought we
would go, distribute the stationery, clothes & food, take a few pictures to show the kids back home and that would be
the end of it!
| Some of the boxes of stationary to be distributed |
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The
need in Kenya is so great – 65% of the population live below the poverty line. In the Turkana, Samburu & Tharaka regions which we visited this figure rises to
85% living in absolute poverty. These people realise that the only hope of escaping
this situation is to educate their children, but this is beyond the means of most families. This
is where we can make a difference! We agreed to start a Child Sponsorship Programme. Our contact in Kenya,
Rev Peter Kerangu, asked if they could adopt the name of the SONshine Club and so to keep things
simple, we decided to continue using the name for our charity. Hence the SONshine Club Kenya Project was established.
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Aims and Objectives
- Child Sponsorship –
- School / orphanage
assistance – existing schools need equipment; new schools need to be built; an orphange in Tunyai (Tharaka region) needs
finished (most of these children have been orphaned due to AIDS) and then financial support to feed, clothe & educate
the children..
- Water, irrigation & sanitation –
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Our Aim is to give
these children a Hope for the Future
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Our
long term Vision
We
realise that there is an entire nation in need. We are not in the position to
help everyone but we intend to help as many as we can. With the provision of
a clean and sustainable water source will come the establishment of a community, as people will naturally congregate around
this vital commodity. Within the community will be children needing education,
therefore schools will be essential. In addition to this, the adults will need
some form of work to generate income, so training in farming and irrigation of crops would provide employment and, very importantly,
food. As the children progress in education they can branch out to other occupations
and bring additional income and investment into their communities. The basic
health and well being of all the community will improve over time. This is a
long term project and we have committed ourselves to it. But it starts with the
provisions of the basics, namely water, food and education.
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| These children need our help |
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| water is a priority - food, houses, schools, clothes are all needed |
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| A new bore hole, give a whole comunity a hope |
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| tribes will settle near water, houses and schools etc will soon follow |
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