During the past few days in Nairobi, despite the distractions of the protests, I’ve been blessed to have some really good conversations with Kenyanito and team about the two projects that CRED is involved in.
Here I’d just like to share with you some of the achievements of IDAK Foundation which is now celebrating its first anniversary. IDAK stands for I Dream Again Kenyanito, and its focus is to enable others to start to dream again, and be empowered to realise those dreams. There are 7 pillars to IDAK’s work, and already they have transformed lives, and reignited dreams in each of the areas.
25 students are now receiving bursaries to enable them to continue from primary school to secondary school. 13 of those students are Nairobi based, predominantly ex-Spurgeons students, and 12 are from the rural area of Kisumu district which is where Kenyanito, Val and some of the other board members have links. As well as receiving bursaries to cover school fees, the IDAK team also have plans for running mentoring programs in the school holidays, which will give the students access to wider life knowledge and skills than just related to formal education.
At the primary level, IDAK is funding a feeding programme at two different schools – one in Muthari informal settlement in Nairobi, and the other in rural Kisumu. The Kisumu school has enough land to start a small vegetable garden, and so the team have initiated a school feeding committee to grow crops. In so doing they can supplement the feeding programme and move towards sustainability and increased food security.
Five women have been given start up capital to set up their own income generating activities, and there are plans to expand this programme to some of the parents of the bursary students so that slowly the parents can pay more of the school fees and reduce the reliance on external support.
3 elderly widows have been rehoused into their own homes, rather than living in very poor conditions as a result of patriarchal traditions relating to house-building and land ownership.
2,000 trees have been planted as part of the environmental arm of IDAK, and humanitarian support has been given to those who were affected by the recent floods in Muthari settlement.
As I chatted with Kenyanito, and two other IDAK board members (Val and George), we took a moment to rejoice in what has been achieved already. But we also recognised very much the size of the need still to be reached. We took time to review the activities that have taken place under each pillar, and consider what are the learning points to take away, and how to improve in the future. IDAK is still very much in its infancy, but if the first year is anything to go by, it will be exciting to see what God has in store for the coming years.
NB You can read more about the background of IDAK and see photos relating to some of the above at www.idakfoundation.org
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