Merry Christmas

Malaika Mums Project is moving on; Mums are working very hard. For now we are busy working on Green and Black canvas bags, as we wait to start a tender for shirts for Ngeya Primary School. They gave us to make 54 pieces. Though it will not make much but we love the challenge and the confidence to make items for the community out there. After learning how to make skirts, the mums are very happy coz they are now sewing for their daughters, themselves and friends too.
The Mums appreciated a discussion they held a week ago on how to cope with family issues, because despite all the difficulties and challeges they still want to hang on to their marriages.
On our tour to Naivasha we learnt a lot and witnessed that we are not the only one’s bearing kids with disabilities. We are thankful to CTC for making us enlightened and empowered women, so we can make a difference in Maai-Mahiu. Glory and honor to the Lord all days of our lives. We wish all our friends a Merry Christmas and Prosperous, Happy New Year.

By Liz Josiah

Sarakazi visit to CTC facility
The day started well and all the kids were eager and asking when sarakazi was coming, they intertained and drew with Malaika kids and everyone was fun of it including Dan.
George was so happy singing christmas song and all the others spent the day wishing everyone a happy christmas.
Sarakazi has been visiting us every first Wednesday of the month and they have been of great help to us and we greatly appreciate all their efforts towards our Malaika kids program. They made christamas cards with the kids and hanged them in their class rooms wishing them a merry christmast and a Happy new year.
By Rocky

Quick Video from the Austin CTC Christmas Party

If you are wondering why we are all dressed so foolishly it's because this party was an "Ugly Christmas Sweater Party". We invited all of those here in Austin that have been involved with CTC and wanted to share this with everyone back in Kenya.

We love you and miss you.

Merry Christmas Kenya.

Some exciting things that are happening in the West

As we get closer to closing up another amazing and successful year of work in Kenya, we are reminded of all of the great things that we have accomplished. It's been a busy year for CTC International in Kenya but we can't forget about all the work that has been done here in the west by our volunteers.Comfort the Children would literally be nowhere if it weren't for all of the volunteers that host fundraisers, awareness events and save up money to make the journey all the way over to Africa.

We just wanted to give you all a quick update on an exciting event that took place last month in Kansas.

In November, CTC joined K State for their Fairtrade Marketplace. CTC was invited to set up a booth and sell our L.I.F.E. bags.The marketplace, which was open to the public, is sponsored by UFM Community Learning Center and K-State Fair Trade Advocates. It features quality-made products from impoverished countries. Items available will include handmade jewelry, clothing, coffee, greeting cards, handbags, home decor and more.

We would like to thank all of the volunteers that worked for two days for hours straight at our booth. The ladies all volunteered to work at our booth and sold bags and educated people that stopped by about CTC and the L.I.F.E. bag project.

Special thanks to Courtney Held, Valarie Stull,Laura Banks,Sandra Proctor,Sarah Rajewski,Mary Higgins,Allison Mcmillan,Dena Bunnel and our volunteer of the month Alice Johnston.


Thanks to all of the volunteers that continue to spread the word for CTC.

Mindy

Njuguna Walks to the Lunch Room

We are celebtrating Njuguna's walking among other good things that have been going on in our programs. He takes himself to the lunch room without any support or the caretakers holding his back. Elizabeth Wambui, Njuguna's mom is overjoyed as she thought at one point that her son would never walk, but now he is happy to watch him walk himself to places. "Soon he will be an independent person" says his mom. We are thankful for this success in our Malaika kids program.
The shoshos have not been left behind in the share of joy. Their garden is doing great and they will soon be harvesting and enjoying the fruits of their labor. It is always good to see them beeming with joy and so hopeful as the things continue to work out.
We will be working on the Ngeya garden this month. This will be in preparation for the school opening so that they can continue to have some greens in their meals. Maai Mahiu has seen no good rain and so the need persists. This garden is a great resource of the so much needed nutrients by these kids. Our hope is to make it bigger so that we can supply enough and even more to make the garden self sustaining. We also need to rebuild the stand that supports the water tank as it is falling.
The trees planted during the ubuntu day continue to do good although they need more water due to the dryness. We are keeping up to keep them alive and keep the school beutiful. Lets stay connected and will update you on more good things hapenning.

By Rocky Muuri
Environment Coordinator

Ladies soccer team

At long last the girl’s soccer team is here with us, the team was launched by CTC Kenyan director where he presented some uniforms and also bought a soccer ball for them. The girls gathered at the office in the evening where they eagerly waited for the team to be launched and afterwards proceeded to the playing ground where the launching was done and later in the day they started their first training. The girls played soccer and they said that it was fun. Some of them never played soccer before and they could not tell the difference between the two teams even after being given some uniforms but we are hoping that they will get to learn how to play soccer as they continue practicing.

CTC soccer team launching

CTC soccer team was officially started by CTC Kenyan director where he presented the team with two pairs of soccer uniforms (they could play without their T-shirts on as you can see in the photos). The purpose of the team is to empower the youths in Maai-Mahiu through sports,to nature their talents and also keep them busy after graduating from schools since they stay idol in town doing nothing. We are soon launching ladies soccer team so that we can also empower ladies in our society where they believe ladies cannot play soccer.

Town Clean Up Mobilization accelerates

We are just about to close the month and we are thankful that CTC is still encouraging the community to step up and do the things that we can do without outside support. The Town clean has caught the momentum after C.T.C. has done that for two consecutive months. Now the County Council have launched a clean up that will go for one hundred days from from 16th of this month. CTC was invited to partner with the Town council during the launching ceremony and was highlighted as great role model of what needs to be happening in our Town. That day we collected 10 tons of trash with a few volunteers who came up.
Last Saturday was another ubuntu day for CTC in Maai Mahiu. It turned out to be more successful that all the rest. The turn out was better than the previous ones. We targeted about 150 volunteers and we had 120. Thank you friends for coming out to support us. More organized groups are coming up to partner with us and we thank each one of them for their efforts.
We created a positive stir in the town as we walked through from our offices to Ngeya primary school where we helped collect trash and planted 100 trees. We only have lost 16 trees out of the 220 trees we planted before. That is 92% success in the dry Maai Mahiu. What a joy! We are trusting that the trees will do even better as the environment club has been so proactive in taking care of their school.
This month we also encountered an incident that have been very challenging. As the World AIDS Day approaches, we have been visiting those that have been benefiting from our HIV/AIDS program, during the visit we identified a case of one woman who is not only ailing from HIV but also has a broken leg and four kids to take care of. One of her daughters who is 13 years old is also HIV positive and not able to go to school. Hunger is the number one need for this family. We were able to give them a weeks worth of food but we concluded that we still need to do a lot in our program and we are hoping to create a way that these families could do activities that can help them feed their families.
Finally we can say we have put a soccer team together of young men who share the vision of CTC. They have been joining us in our Ubuntu days and have been working hard to give back to the community. We gave them some soccer Jerseys that we received from Free State High school and have been so excited about the newly found adventure. All we need is more equipment to keep them going and keep them practicing together. Very soon we are trusting the girls will come out too so that we can have an active youth program.
Thanks again for your interest in what we are doing and the passion to help us develop our community. Keep us in your thoughts as continue to see other possibilities of the things that we can do together to uplift lives.

Jeremiah Kuria

Ubuntu day photos