Dear Friends

Since it is thanks to your kindness and generosity that we Sisters here at Dagoretti Market, Nairobi are able to stretch out a hand to some of the most needy people around us, I felt it only fair that you should see all that is made possible thanks to the big or small offerings you send us from time to time. To that end, I want to explain here our major activities and the expenses incurred so that you can also feel part of a small but relevant outreach to people who struggle day by day under very difficult circumstances.

1. Learning Support Programme (45 children) 

For those of you who are involved in the teaching profession, you are well aware of the

difficulties faced by children who are slow to learn. In our schools in Europe, provision is

made for such children, but here in Kenya such provision is a luxury of the better off who can afford to send their children to private schools.   ,

Our community here in Dagoretti neighbours a local state-run government school the staff of which work hard but are very challenged by large class sizes and a scarcity of learning

resources, including something even as basic as desks.

The more intellectually challenged children in these large classes simply do not learn and many eventually drop out of the learning process early on, becoming beggars on the street where they easily fall victim to glue, alcohol, drugs and petty crime. A number of girls who drop out of school find themselves in early marriages which seldom last leaving the girl to raise one or more children alone on whatever casual work she may be able to find. In the worse cases, girls can even find themselves caught up in prostitution rings from which it is very difficult to come out.

As a small attempt to assist this situation we run, with the help of some of our young people who have completed secondary school but have not been able as yet to find work, a learning support programme where the local school sends us the most challenged children every afternoon and in small groups we try to give them intensive learning support to enable them to keep up with the rest of the children in the class. The thinking behind this intervention is that if the children can be enabled to keep up with the others, there is less risk of them dropping out of school early because of boredom or discouragement. 

We pay Ksh 50/- for an afternoon of teaching to the youth who volunteer to help us with this work and our total annual expenses for this in 2010 were Ksh 23,280/-

2. Bridging Programme for Youth (35 young people)

There are a good number of children in the area who complete Primary School education, now that it is virtually free (although there are costs in uniforms, books etc which the really destitute cannot afford. We also help some families with these expenses although they are not included here as they are ‘occasional'). In May, for the last four years, ‘our community has welcomed any young person. who has come in search of hip and 'offered a 'bridging programme' in which we revise the work of the Primary Sc ool and begin some work at Secondary level in order to assess the potential of the young people and at the same time visit their families to see their economic possibilities. In most of the cases so far, none of the families have been able to afford to send the young person ahead to Secondary/Technical School and so we have undertaken to try to see these young people through school.  Our expenses for this programme in 2010 were:

Uniforms and books: Ksh 7326/-

Transport: Ksh 28030/-

School Fees: Ksh 379017/-

Total expenses: Ksh 414373/-

3. Skills Training for Women  (60 women)

Since May 2010 we have also undertaken to run a programme especially intended for young single mothers, although we consider also other women who are much in neat So far we offer skills training in dressmaking, weaving, machine knitting, crochet and tie & dye. We hope to develop this programme but have yet to complete a full evaluation of this year's programme in order to see the way forward. Our intention with this programme is to enable these women to be self sufficient and be able to provide at least the essentials for themselves and their children.

Our expenses for this programme in 2010 were as follows:

Materials (wool, thread, cloth, dyes etc) : Ksh 63516/-

Salaries for instructors (3 ladies paid at a rate of Ksh 50/- per hour) : Ksh 115565/-

Equipment; Ksh 75609/-

Total expenses Ksh 254690/-

Our total running expenses for all these small initiatives (apart from many other occasional helps we offer when we find people in genuine need) in 2010 therefore have been Ksh 692,343/- and these have been met thanks to all your kindness and, I'm sure, sacrifices.

We hope you will continue to stand by us in any way you can in the certainty that any assistance you send benefits one or more of these groups mentioned above. The community remembers you daily In prayer and we are sure that God looks on any kindness done to any of these people need as done to Him .... and He has a good memory!

May He bless and reward you,

Sr Eleanor & community,

Dagoretti Market, Nairobi

Salesian Sisters of St John Bosco

PO Box 50

00502 Karen

Nairobi

Kenya

tel:        +254 20 2700 141

mob:     +254 723 681 366