The children we work with are more often than not heavily burdened
from a very early age. As the adult population has been devastated
by Aids many of the children have taken on the role of parent, heading
up families, trying to feed and cloth other siblings as well as
trying to attend school.
The Footsteps Rafiki Programmes are aimed at broadening the experience
of the children in the communities we work with; bringing some fun
and play into their lives: introducing them to sports and arts and creating
the opportunity to meet new people and gain some understanding of the
world outside their village.
All our volunteers must raise the money to cover
the costs of their trip which includes all travel, accommodation, food and equipment
- we also ask each volunteer to raise an extra donation towards a chosen project at the schools we visit. If you want any details about the Rafiki programme please contact Suzanne@footstepsuk.org
Rafiki 2011
Next year our Rafiki Programme will provisionally run from 22nd to 31st July 2011. Volunteers need to raise a minimum
of £1150 to cover the costs of travel, accommodation and equipment
- we also ask each volunteer to raise an extra £300 each to pay for a chosen project at the schools we visit.
This is not an elaborate holiday for a bunch of Europeans with too much time on their hands, it’s an opportunity to see and experience a dose of Kenyan reality – the reality you don’t see on the beaches of Mombasa and in the Safari Parks. You get a chance to see what a huge kick you can get from the simple act of giving something of yourself to others with no expectation of receiving anything in return.
On the 23rd July this year 26 of us travelled to Kisumu on the edge of Lake Victoria to spend 10 days visiting and working with children and teachers of Magunga and Kanyalwal Primary Schools. It was great fun and hard work as we gave the kids a chance to enjoy a week-long programme of sport, solar cooking, tie-dye t-shirts, art and classroom painting among other things. This is our fifth programme but it doesn’t seem to lose its freshness for us or our volunteers. This year’s team raised enough money to build a much needed Nursery at Rae as well as giving the kids the time of their lives. Everyone threw themselves into the programme with relish and went home with some life changing experiences and some lifelong friends.
Click above to view the Rafiki 2010 video.
For full screen viewing click above
On the right, the team relaxing at Carnivore at the end of the trip
Rafiki 2009
This year our Rafiki Programme took 16 gap year students to Kenya, plus several more mature volunteers, to meet and work amongst the communities that Footsteps supports. As well as having a great time with the local children, the volunteers had already raised enough money to connect Kanyalwal Primary School to a clean supply of drinking water. The new fresh water supply will drastically improve the health of the children and allow the school to develop its own garden.
Click to view the Rafiki 2009 video
Rafiki 2007
This year we were joined by an enthusistic group of young volunteers from St. Edwards and Headington schools in Oxford. We worked with Magunga and Rae schools splitting our time between them - exhausting but hugely rewarding! Read a report of our Rafiki 2007 Programme.
Rafiki 2006
In 2006, our friends at the children's sports coaching company, futureproworked with us to send two trainers to the school, as the children were
very keen to play football, rugby and other ball sports. Read
the report of our Rafiki 2006 programme, Michael's diary and see the gallery of photos
See the video of last year's event (left) or
to see it in a bigger size click
here
above
