Hilfe für Nyeri e.V.

I have always wanted to do this project but I didn’t know where to start or how to go about it. Growing up I have seen how some girls who came from humble backgrounds struggled to get sanitary towels.

So I sat down and gave this project a deep thought and I decided to visit a nearby public school on Monday and enquire some more about how the situation is like, on reaching there I talked to the Head teacher of the school and I told him about the project I wanted to do and that’s when he told me how much he struggles to get sanitary towels for the needy girls. He also mentioned that most of the kids come from very humble backgrounds.

He told me that most of these girls miss school when it’s that time of the month and they stay at home until their period is over and they end up missing a lot in school. The sad part is that some of these girls get really desperate to a point they end up looking for men who will buy them the sanitary towel and in exchange they sleep with them and this has contributed to early marriages and early teenage pregnancies.

He told me he has about fifty needy girls who need sanitary towels and the number keeps increasing as the young girls keep growing older. He said he mobilizes his collegues and they raise some money to buy the sanitary towels for the girls but it’s never enough, most are the times the girls are forced to stay at home.

He told me he needs at least fifty packets of sanitary towels every month to keep the girls in school. 

I later went to town to enquire more about the prices, one pack of the sanitary towels costs ksh. 65 but if bought in wholesale it’s cheaper. There is a bundle that has 24 packets inside and it costs ksh. 1,370, so roughly the school needs like three bundles every month for the girls. So roughly if we were to do this project it will be costing us ksh. 4,110.

So I told my bosses about this project and they liked and approved it. They also went ahead and looked for donors and fortunately they got one.

Today I went to town and bought the sanitary towels from the wholesaler and then later I went to the school to deliver them to the girls. Unfortunately some of the needy girls were not in school because they were sent home to go and bring money for school lunch, so I gave the sanitary to the needy girls who were present, and then when the other girls get back, the head teacher will call me to go and give them the remaining sanitary towels.

The girls were very happy to receive the sanitary towels because now, that was a problem solved, they don’t have to worry anymore about missing school when it’s that time of the month. The teachers were also very grateful to HFN for supporting their girls. 

Your support is much appreciated by everyone.

Thank you very much.

Wanja Migwi’s Tribute

Wanja Migwi was one of the people HFN started to support. She had lost three of her children through HIV/AIDS and they left behind three grandchildren who were now under the care of Wanja. She worked so hard on people’s farms just to make sure that her grandchildren have something to eat. When HFN took her in, life became easier for her because she did not have to worry anymore on where to get food. HFN provided her with assorted food items every month. She was able to raise her grandchildren until they finished school. 

She was always very cheerful and loved to laugh out loud. Her laughter was a source of joy mostly to her grandchildren and to the other people around her.  I loved it when I visited her every month to deliver her monthly food, she narrated so many funny stories and she was very hospitable, she made sure that  I at least I took a cup of tea before leaving her house. She also talked to me about life and whispered so many words of wisdom and one thing she kept saying is that we should never stop showing kindness to people because it really runs deep more than we can imagine. She was always grateful for the kindness she received from HFN, words were actually not enough to express how thankful she was, most are the times she wished she was in a position to give back TO HFN.

We have lost a beautiful soul and we will miss her. May she rest in peace. 

We received some donations during Christmas for the football project. When Dirk came to Kenya we had to come up with an idea on how and where to invest the donations and it happened that as Dirk was taking a walk in one of the slums in Nyeri he met a group of girls playing a local football made of polythene papers and immediately the idea of buying them a proper football came to his mind.

He had a chat with the girls and he promised to buy two footballs, one ball was to be given to the girls and then he organized a football tournament where the girls had to look for a group of boys whom they were going to compete with, then the winning team would get the second ball.

The next day Dirk went to town, bought two footballs, some water and local snacks for the players. He then went back to the slum, found the girls and the boys ready for the football tournament.  He first gifted the girls their ball then right after the match kicked off. There were a lot of spectators all around. The boys team won and they got the second ball.

The money was well spent and it was more fulfilling to see how happy the children were