Donations
Donations enable the orphanage to provide daily care for the children and a little stability in their difficult lives.
please send any donations to
Phil and Chris Banks
17 ash lane,
monmouth,
monmouthshire
NP25 5FJ
Both Orphanage Director Christopher and ourselves want to do achieve something, if not life changing, then life shaping for the children. we want Shanzu Orphanage to be self sufficient, and not just a question of fund raising to directly put food on the table. Unfortunately we are still struggling to achieve this. On our last visit we found that donations had been so few, that the teachers had not been paid for three months, so we had no alternative, on our arrival, but to provide funds to pay them. This immediately accounted for half of the £2,000 that we had taken to Kenya for the children. Also they have had visits from Health Authority forcing us to upgrade kitchen/cooking area and dormatory, the alternative would have been closure. One of the biggest drain on funds was the upheaval in the country following the 2010 general election. There was much violence, although mercifully only one fatality in Shanzu area. therefore this resulted in a huge slump in tourism. As tourists provide most of the donations that are provided locally, this prooved a real blow to finances..
The above illustrates the difficulty in accumilating a substantial sum of money, to give the children the big change for the better, in their lives that we all want.
When we visited the orphanage in 2009 we took with us sufficient money to buy them a motorbike, At first this may seem like a strange purchase, but the idea is to use it as a taxi.
In such a poor country, where the vast majority walk everywhere, it is not such a bad idea. It has brought in a small regular income, but nothing like the amount required.
Now if we could raise enough to buy them a mini bus, that really could make an enormous difference.
In 2011 we sent £450 to refurbish the kitchen area and replacing all cutlery, plates dishes etc, and replacing some of the children's beds and all the bedding etc. This we were compelled to do on threat of closure, if we did not comply.
In 2012 we have just sent them £250 to provide seeds, fertilizer and labour to cultivate and plant vegetable garden as the rainy season has just begun in Mombasa. In 2009 we organized a sponsored walk. It was completed by myself and a great long term friend Steve. We found the public and neighbours very generous in their help. Also a special mention to all my friends and clients in the Whitebrook area, near Monmouth for the great generosity in sponsorship for the Orphanage. The total amount we gathered in was almost £1800. 2010 saw us doing a sponsored haircut. (As you can see from previous photographs it did not involve me, to my great relief!!) All who know me will realise what i mean....i am very, very attached to my hair....and not just in the literal sence! My very good and loyal friend Matt stepped into the breach, and it was his hair that suffered the dreaded fate of being cropped. However, Matt is not someone that ever does things by halves. To raise sponsorship he decided to have his head shaved, into a Mohicon style that was then dyed red and green. Also tattooed on one side of his scalp was 'Matty' whilst on the other side it read 'made in Wales'. A painful experience to say the least. I am very pleased to say it was not in vain. Once again sponsorship was very generous and the venture raised in access of £600.