Eric Toll, Managing Director 123Telecom Limited first visited Kenya in April 2010, spending the first week on safari, taking in the beautiful sights and sounds of the wild life. The second week was a totally different experience.
Eric and his family visited Mombasa where they met a friend called Joseph, a resident of village near Mombasa. After a couple of days the family were invited to see Joseph’s village.
The village was mud huts with no electricity or mains water. There was no sewage system, and the "toilets" that were hand dug holes outside each hut that were just covered up when full.
Eric reports “Amongst this chaos were hundreds of children with the biggest smiles on their faces dressed in rags. All they wanted was to touch us, hug us and cling on to us. It was such a humbling experience to see how happy they all were despite the fact they have nothing. We couldn’t just walk away and pretend we had never seen this.”
It didn’t take long for Eric to decide to raise money to bring mains water into the village.
“We also want to provide a water tower and storage tank. There are 150 mud huts in the village, with a total of 550 people most of whom are children.”
The target set by Eric is £2,500. “This is a modest amount to raise for the difference it makes” say Eric. “100% of which will go directly to source.”
The money is being routed through the registered charity “Harambee for Kenya” and through the use of the Just Giving website with the added bonus of increasing donations with Gift Aid tax relief.
UK charity “Harambee for Kenya” help vulnerable street children in Kenya by building Safe Houses. Harambee for Kenya is equipped with voluntary staff and no significant overheads. They rely entirely on donations from individuals, clubs, schools, other charities and companies such as 123Telecom.
In 2008 Harambee for Kenya started work on their first safe house in the Nyakoe district of Kisii in south-west Kenya. The safe house provides accommodation for 50 - 60 boys typically between the ages of 12 and 17, although there were children as young as 7.
The construction work was done using a local builder and groups of volunteers from the UK.
Eric and 123Telecom are now raising £40,000 to build the next safe house in the city of Meru (170 miles north of Nairobi). They would like to hear from anyone interested in donating or helping to raise funds for this worthwhile project.
123Telecom cover many costs for the charity - including telecoms, web hosting & postage for fundraising mail shot. Other “Corporate Angels” have, or will be, donating cash or free services of a value of £500-£1000 and even more!
You can find out more about the charity and about 123 by clicking the following links:
www.buildasafehouse.org - www.123telecom.co.uk
Charity Contact Details
Roger and Lesley Dann
Harambee for Kenya
21 Cuckmere Rise
Heathfield
East Sussex
TN21 8PG
Email: info@harambeeforkenya.org
Tel: 01435 865502 or 07941041616
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