Today we visited an impressive social enterprise known as "Alive and Kicking.". They produce soccer balls with messages about HIV and AIDS and employ about 150 people. We bought a bunch of balls to donate to the orphanages later in the trip and the group is brainstorming ways to get teams in Indianapolis to commit to purchasing their new soccer balls through this group to bring new employment opportunities to Kenya.
Then we went to a rotary lunch with the oldest club in all of East Africa and made some wonderful connections. A representative from the EU was the guest speaker and he had a pretty straight forward speech about the levels of corruption in Kenya - this obviously sparked a great deal of conversation.
After that we went to visit a school in the slum area of Nairobi. There is a group of people who traveled to Kenya in 2008 that fund-raise and support this school from Indianapolis. The school is basically a tin shack where the kids sleep on the floor. Pretty grim. We were able to visit the homes of some of the families and discuss ways that they could start sustainable projects to generate an income. The group will reconnect with those in Indianapolis upon return and talk about future plans for the school. One thing we want to do is provide mattresses for the children so that they are not forced to sleep on the floor.
Tomorrow we head to Nakuru to prepare for our service days with an orphanage and a women's village.
Picture of Alive & Kicking workshop, from Matt Steele's http://mtsteele.blogspot.com/2009/05/alive-kicking-workshop.html.
This was the speaker they heard at the Rotary Club. See Matt's evaluation of the meeting here.
Our guest speaker this Thursday is Mr. Eric van der Linden the Head of Delegation of the European Commission to Kenya, one of our largest development partners.
The Delegation of the European Commission in Kenya was opened in 1976 and is involved in the political coordination process with the EU Member States represented in Nairobi, and in political dialogue with the Government of Kenya.
Additionally, the Delegation also has a growing role in trade issues; this has increased considerably due to the ongoing negotiations between the EU and ACP States over future trade arrangements under Economic Partnership Agreements.
Since 1997 the Delegation in Nairobi has also taken over responsibility for the management of the relief and rehabilitation programme in Somalia, where the EC is the largest donor. It has taken an active role in the reconciliation process that culminated in election of the current transitional government.
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