FUNDRAISING FOR PEOPLE LIVING IN POVERTY IN KENYA

My name is Christine Campbell. I am a young New Zealander with a simple aim in life: to make the world a better place. I know I can’t change the whole world. But I have learned from my work volunteering in Africa from the age of 18, that I can make a difference to individual lives. This is my approach: to help – personally, directly, passionately – in Africa, working with children who have lost their parents through AIDS and supporting women in rural areas with HIV and AIDS.

We have two projects up and running:

Our Women’s Support Groups:

“On my first trip to Africa, I learnt an important lesson: I realised that if you can help build-up a person’s skills you can lift their confidence and give them hope. From hope, magic can truly happen.”

I first started a small motivational and support group for women who were HIV positive or terminally ill with AIDS in the slums of Mukuru, just outside Nairobi.

Many of these women live in the knowledge that they will soon pass on, leaving their young children to fight in a world of harsh poverty. My motivational group started with 10 women and expanded to 37 women in the space of six weeks.

I met with the women twice each week to talk about topics such as health, saving plans and even business opportunities.

The magic comes through giving women a path to a better future for their families by teaching them skills that can help generate an income. From this base the women can offer better support their children: they can provide nutritious meals, buy books and help their children attend schools. They become the role models – the mothers – they want to be. Equally importantly they learn to better understand the illness they live with and how to treat it, while passing the knowledge down to their children, helping to prevent the spread of HIV to future generations.

“When you’re with these women you feel the warmth of appreciation though small signs, and with those signs you know that these small steps are changing people’s lives. Then it makes every obstacle you come up against, every emotional challenge you face yourself, completely and utterly inconsequential”.

Three support groups have now been set up and are running in rural parts of Kenya: support groups that are a wonderful model for those women in Kenya fighting a harsh lonely battle with the twin curses of disease and poverty.

In the past many women fought these battles alone. Now they fight the battles together. The women are producing beautiful crafts like bags, jewellery and art. They are selling vegetables, fruit and other necessities within their communities and finally affording the things a family should have in their life.

These women are living with the pride and dignity they deserve.

The Boys Home:

I have helped with the opening of a small home for nine boys. All these boys have a background of poverty. Most of them are orphans. Our goal is to give them top education, shelter and a healthy lifestyle to provide them with the tools to achieve self-improvement and to be able to function in society as a citizen that can make a positive impact to himself and others.

This year I am returning back to Africa. We are fundraising for the projects I'm involved with. A single $1 goes a long way so any support would be greatly treasured.