The Community Cooker Project

As part of Glad's House' mission to relieve poverty and suffering by any charitable means in Kenya we have an amazing opportunity to build a Community Cooker in Magongo Mwisho for the benefit of the local community operated and manned by reintegrated ‘street children’ from Glad’s House.

Invented by Nairobi architect Jim Archer, the cooker combines simplicity with the capacity to confront several environmental challenges simultaneously - a cooker that uses the trash as fuel to feed the poor, provide hot water and destroy toxic waste, as well as curbing the destruction of woodlands.

To further enhance this project we intend to build toilet and shower facilities on the site.We are also going to build a play area for younger children, including a ‘Play Pump’ to ensure that water is ‘lifted’ from a borehole into a water tower. The site will also harvest rainwater.

To read the full project brief please down load the community cooker pdf.

Funding Requirements

Glad’s House has already secured funds to build the ‘Community Cooker’, toilet and shower facilities plus digging the borehole and ‘Play Pump’ facilities.We now need to raise funds for a plot of land suitable for housing the above facilities. We anticipate that a suitable plot will cost between KES 2,000,000 – KES 3,000,000. Two possible plots of land have already been identified and we need your support to help raise this money for a project that we believe will make a huge difference to the lives of our kids in Magongo.

If you think you can help us with funding or you need any more information about this exciting opportunity please contact us at:

Telephone 01256 766262
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The centre for our work – a home for 60 70 ‘street children’ whilst we help them reintegrate back into the community. More info

£250,000

So far we have
raised £16,000

Donate via Virgin Money Giving

£20,000

So far we have
raised £1,000

£7,500

£5,000

£100,000

So far we have
raised £4,200

£50,000

So far we have
raised £1,000

The Refuge

Building on the existing programme that has developed between M.O.Y.O. and Glad’s House, we wish to provide residential support for street children in Mombasa, Kenya.

The children who will reside at the refuge will initially be identified through M.O.Y.O. This first phase is to construct the refuge and to fit the building out with basic living equipment.

Where feasible, children will be placed back in their homes. Home visits will be conducted to ensure the child’s story is correct and that it is the safest and the best option for them to return home. Before any children can go home they will talk to a trained counsellor to assist them to work through any issues they may have.

If this is not possible, children will be sponsored to enable them to attend local schools. For these children, local families will be found where they can stay so they will not go from one institution to another. This will also provide an extra income for local families.Two teachers will be employed providing basic life skills that street children may not have learnt during their time on the streets. The teachers will also provide traditional education that is taught in local schools (Kiswahili, Maths, English and Kenyan history). This will begin to reintegrate the children into the education system so they will feel more prepared when they go back to school full time. A qualified social worker will be also employed to work with the children on the streets and also within the refuge. Please contact us to discuss how you might help us build our refuge which is so desperately needed.

Telephone 01256 766262
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Sports Hall/Youth Centre

Our Partners, The Mombasa Olympic Youth Organisation (MOYO) was established by a former Kenyan Olympic athlete and social worker, Fred (Bokey) Achola to help street children. The organisation uses sport to reach this vulnerable group, to give them information, motivation and support to help them steer clear of drugs and crime and avoid HIV infection. It is registered with the Kenyan government ministry as a youth group and integrates with both government and private sector to attain its objectives. Sport is a key activity in making contact with street children and an excellent way of integrating them with the local children.

We currently have a very success football section (including ‘beach soccer), we also have basketball and volleyball facilities. There is a very active boxing club called The Havana Boxing Club but this has extremely limited equipment and facilities. We have recently shipped to Mombasa table tennis tables and a snooker table. We now need to have a suitable building to house all this equipment, as well as a centre for our library and computer centre. The Sports Hall/Youth Centre will also be available for the local community to use for meetings etc.
Please contact us to discuss how you might us provide this much needed facility.

Telephone 01256 766262
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Glad’s House Caddies

There is a new golf course being built - Vipingo Ridge which lies in the centre of a 2,500 acre former sisal estate. The property rises from just above sea level to a 140 metre high ridge before falling off again to the scenic lake and game conservation area to the west of the site. The development lies approximately 30 kilometres north of the historic coastal town of Mombasa and south of Lamu, a World Heritage site. Built to the most exacting international standards, both of these courses have spectacular panoramic views of the Indian Ocean to the east and the vast African interior with its stunning sunsets to the west. Vipingo Ridge brings an unparalleled new dimension to golf in East Africa.

We have been given the concession to provide the caddies for this exciting new development. Our aim is to provide the best caddy service in Africa. To achieve this we need to set high standards and train to meet or exceed these standards. We will be taking 60 young people out of the poverty trap and getting them into a worthwhile and healthy working project.

The Canadian charity “teaching kids business” is providing free access to their web based caddie program to help the young people involved understand the principles of both golf and caddying. In early 2009 three or four professional caddies from the European Tour Caddies Association and the Caddy Master from the prestigious Queenwood Golf Club are going to visit Mombasa and provide ‘hands-on’ training before the course opens. This inevitably has high costs – airfares, transport, hotel accommodation and food, as well as paying the caddies for their time. We will also be providing uniforms for the caddies, as well as supervision from two experience (local) caddy masters. We will also need to organize accommodation for everyone as commuting from Mombasa is not really practical.

We believe it will cost about £7,000 to set up the project. This will include forming a ‘not-for-profit’ company to run the operation. But once started it will then become selffunding, with any excess profits going to help run Glad’s House.

Please contact us to discuss how you might help these young people get into this exciting and worthwhile project.

Telephone 01256 766262
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Glad’s House Bikes

Re~Cycle is a UK charity committed to providing cheap, sustainable transport in Africa. They believe that bicycles offer poverty trapped people the best means to improve their lives, giving them opportunities to travel to work and school. They can also be adapted to carry goods and passengers giving small scale traders and farmers the opportunity to reach customers further afield. They are also an invaluable resource for traveling health workers coping with the AIDS epidemic.

Re~Cycle collect unwanted bikes from individuals and organisations such as the Royal Mail are reconditioned, then loaded into containers and sent to several locations in Africa. Once there, they are distributed by their African partners. We have been accepted as Re~Cycle’s agent for Kenya.

We are forming a ‘not-for-profit’ company Glad’s House Bikes to run the operation. The costs involved are for shipping (a 40 foot sea container containing around 350 bicycles, spares and necessary tools). We have decided to purchase our own container, as this will then act as a secure store for everything when it arrives. We will also need rent premises to work from. Once started it will then become self-funding, with any excess profits going to help run Glad’s House. We believe that this operation will support around 6 young workers plus 2 adult supervisors (with previous experience of the bicycle business). Added benefits will be the availability of bicycles to help develop local businesses (hopefully for some of our street children). We will be arranging micro finance to enable people to purchase their bikes abd use them rather than trying to save up for the purchase.

We believe we can fund this start-up for £7,000.

Please contact us to discuss how you might help these young people get into this exciting and worthwhile project.

Telephone 01256 766262
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Fund Schooling

Our Taaluma Program, literally translated as "study", seeks to provide education opportunities to the street children who would otherwise not be able to go to school. Glad’s House firmly believes that the best way to effect changes in the lives of these street children is through education. We aim to give full financial support to those children who can return to full time education, after they have been reintegrated into the community. Many street children have expressed their desire to go back to school and we are posed with the challenge of shouldering their expenses for tuition fees, transportation and food allowances, school supplies, uniforms, projects, and other needs.

There are many ways you can help send a child back to school.

You may choose to Sponsor a child (donate the amount for a full scholarship).
You may make a one-time donation to buy school supplies and uniforms. Any amount would be of help to these unfortunate street children.
You may also donate school supplies and uniforms in kind. You may donate books for the mini-library of Glad’s House.
Another way to help is to volunteer to be a tutor to help the children with their studies.

If you have contacts with bookstores, or manufacturers of school supplies, uniforms,
school bags/ shoes, or other schools needs, you can help us by soliciting and coordinating donations of their products. You may help us get donations from corporate sponsors.

In whatever way you help, you can make a difference in the lives of the street children.

Example of fees.

It will cost about 39,000 Kenyan shillings (about £350) a year to send a child to school.
These costs include tuition fees, uniforms, transport and ‘lodging’ with a local family.

Please contact us to discuss how you might help these children get an education they
desperately need to escape the abject poverty they are surrounded by.

Telephone 01256 766262
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Fund an Apprentice

Our youth apprenticeship programme offers life-changing opportunities to young people (aged 15-25) who are particularly disadvantaged because they are poor, uneducated or orphaned.

We equip them with a trade and valuable skills for a brighter, self-reliant future.

How you can help

Help raise funds for 100 young people to get trained and equipped.

£335 = all training costs, including equipment/tools and examination fee (nationally accredited qualification)

£150 = a start-up loan for a newly-qualified apprentice

The impact you’ll make:

You'll enable qualified apprentices to buy the tools and materials they need to start a
business

You'll give them a chance to break out of the poverty cycle

You'll encourage them to take responsibility for their own lives

They become trade masters to youth apprentices, investing their skills in others

You will be investing in Kenya's future

Because the loan will be repaid and lent out again, your gift will keep on giving!

Please contact us to discuss how you might help these children get into the vocational
training they desperately need to escape the abject poverty they are surrounded by.

Telephone 01256 766262
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