Child Focus Africa
The Migwani Children's Dormitory Project

Project Updates

Check out the links below to learn about recent updates and milestones we have reached.

A story about a small village in Kenya

(This outline was put together by Jim Senka – 250-847-2597. from information provided by Child Focus Africa)

In the village of Migwani, in the Eastern Province of Kenya there are currently 42 children who are physically or mentally handicapped.  Some have Aides.

These children are considered cursed by their families and the local culture.  As a result they are abandoned and have no one to care for them (can you imagine that happening to children in Canada?).

 Kenya is a poor country and the Government’s and families’ limited funds are directed towards educating healthy children and there’s just not enough left over to look after these unfortunate children.

An organization called Child Focus Africa (CFA) has put together a proposal to build a dormitory for these children to live in.

CFA has volunteers who can build the dormitory, and volunteers to teach them life skills, so that when the turn 16 they will be able look after themselves.

Successful completion of this dormitory project will:

1. Provide a home and ensure supervised care for these 42 children.

2. Ease the burden of parents who cannot afford to provide the care the children need.

3. Enable the children to attend school and enhance their developmental needs (life skills).

4. Bring together the School management, local Government representatives and Community members as they share responsibilities in the project cycle.

5. Through this project, the community will be more sensitized of the plight of these children and a sense of ownership in the overall project will be achieved.

6. Bring some focus on the plight of the children and help to demonstrate to the local people that they are, in fact not cursed.

Our local group in Smithers under the name of " The Migwani Children Dormitory Project" is endeavoring to help Child Focus Africa raise the money for the material for the dormitory which would cost $19,000. We are currently working through an international Catholic emergency relief organization called Development & Peace (Caritas branch) to arrange a way to manage the building fund in a safe way.

We wish to stress that, unlike most charities, it is our intention that "100%" of the funds raised will go to the project (specifically for building materials). In addition, there will be no religious endeavors connected to the project.– we don’t want to force anything on these poor people – we just want to help them.  We have the support of Development and Peace and Child Focus Africa on these points.

There are many ways that people can help. Here are a few examples:

1. Become a member of our group socially empathetic folks meetings are minimal and a lot of the members who aren’t able to attend have started individual projects (such as producing concerts) and we are providing whatever help they need (such as PR, selling tickets, etc.)

2. We are going to be asking businesses to give a donation. Each $450 will provide the money for one child to have a place to live and to be taught life skills until they are 16 years old.

3. We are going to be asking groups (businesses, gov't offices, families etc.) to run payday pools (50/50 draws) for a few months to raise $450 per group (see above)

4. By telling others about our project, you might be surprised at people and groups who want to help in their own way or are able to come up with $450 (or any amount for that matter).

Each contributor of $450 will get some recognition – this will hopefully be in the form of having their name on a plaque mounted on the dormitory.

 Additional information (Conclusion from the Child Focus Africa Proposal)Key factors leading to rise in poverty levels in Kenya:

1. Lack of opportunities to The poor to improve their livelihoods,

2. access to basic social services,

3. unequal distribution of opportunities to the marginalized and

4. poor health and the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

School Management Committees feel that they are seriously constrained to improve the state of learning facilities due to the government’s ban on any additional school levies since the Free Primary Education (FPE) policy.

At the same time, conditions laid down to request for approvals to institute new levies are so cumbersome that they are reluctant to embark on the process. The current cost of FPE is way beyond the normal education budget allocation. The fact that the country’s economy had nor been performing as expected in recent years means that it cannot support the realization of the UPE goals without compromising certain sectors. Child Focus Africa believes that every child has a right to access education and should be supported in all aspects of their social development. By engaging the community in this project, the deteriorating rols of family supprt amoug the Kamba community will be re-established and these vulnerable children will have a better learning environment. The community’s understanding of the needs of the developmentally challenged will be enhanced.

Thank you to the above sponsors who's support has helped make this project a success!