I have 3 more days in Kenya and I am bursting with excitement to go home for Christmas to be with friends and family and my fiancée. It doesn’t feel like Christmas here in the plus 25 degree Celsius heat,which has seemed to kick the rainy season out of the way for my final week here. These past few weeks things have slowed down dramatically for me in the working world,and most of my focus was on fundraising from my friends and family back home to purchase 8 computers for MABWOK through an organization who refurbishes computers and sells them at an affordable rate to community groups and schools in Kenya,called Computers for Schools Kenya (CFSK) (www.cfsk.org).
It was a big surprise for the staff at MABWOK and it couldn’t have been a happier day or worked out any smoother- and I say this with utter surprise myself,as I thought that surely installing 8 new computers and configuring them to the system in the slum is not going to be an easy task…But alas,it was one of the smoothest things/operations that I have had during my 8 months in Kenya! Was I ever thankful and impressed. CFSK technicians had the computers up and running within half an hour,and people were using them in the afternoon as a Cyber café,and MABWOK started actually making money immediately.
That is something I am proud of. I am proud and happy to raise money for a sustainable initiative. Through these computers,MABWOK will be able to offer Internet in Mukuru slum,something that is not readily available,and charge affordable rates to customers which will still make them a profit,which in turn can help sustain their other programs and their staff. They will also be able to offer a more hands-on IT training,as they were using 3 computers to train approx. 20 students. They will be able to offer more training to more students in the slum,thus increasing their opportunity for employment and livelihood.
I’d like to encourage people to donate to projects that have sustainable outcomes,which enable organizations to operate on their own and fund their own programs. MABWOK would love to be completely sustainable on their own initiatives,and any funding they get would be to put towards new programs and initiatives and trainings.
And that is my pat on the back to myself,and my Christmas present not only to MABWOK but to myself. Thank you to everyone who helped make this possible.
Merry Christmas everyone,and from Nairobi,this is my final post.
(photos:first is me,Joshua (head of the board) and a beneficiary,second is me and Philip,ICT instructor in front of the new computers.)
Victoria
