Hear from our Harambee volunteers!

Mary_Stafford_with_staff_local_clinic

We asked the Harambee volunteer team currently in Kenya for a few words on how they are finding the experience.

The team of six are involved in facilitating business training courses as well as following up with those participants who did the course 12 months ago. They have facilitated courses in Rescue & Emergency Care (REC) to volunteers from the community who are health workers in their villages.  The course provides them with the skills necessary to manage accidents & illnesses initially before they are passed on to the clinics and local hospital. The team have also helped to install smokeless stoves as part of the roll out of these lifesaving cooking stoves across the county.  They walked the trekking route and camped on the community campsite that is under development as part of the sustainable tourism project in Ndubusat.  And they have shared their skills & knowledge with those working in local clinics especially in the area of maternal health.

Congratulations to all of our volunteers on another successful trip!

If you would like to be part of Harambee next year check out the details here – http://www.friendsoflondiani.com/en/get_involved/event/Harambee_2017.php

So a few lines on the volunteer experience!  It’s a brilliant and enlightening experience with some of the most amazing people!  I’m learning so much!  The people here are so inventive and resourceful and I’m so grateful to be part of this experience”. Susie Quinn

blog images/Harambee Nov 16/Rae making new friends on trekking route 

“Camping in beautiful Ndubusat this weekend was incredible (even if the creepie crawlies kept me up all night!)  In the heart of the Rift valley – the scenery was too vast and beautiful to be captured in a photo, not from lack of trying.

It’s truly a sight to behold and a very peaceful place to rest and relax after a hard week on the volunteer project. To anyone I told I was coming home I may have underestimated the pull this beautiful country would have on me”. Jessica Haydeblog images/Harambee Nov 16/Karen Lynch with Joyce on trekking routeblog images/Harambee Nov 16/Jessica Hayden on trekkng routen

 

“Just wanted to give you an update on my experience in Londiani so far. Firstly, I have been truly overwhelmed by the kindness and openess of the people we have met.  We have had a great time getting our hands dirty with putting in the smokeless stoves  and seeing how they have changed people’s quality of life. The Rescue & Emergency Care course was tiring but informative and a pleasure to help facilitate it.  Seeing the joy it brought to people when they achieved their goals and learned new skills.  And today we visited a remote health centre which was situated high up in the Kenyan hills and was run in an effective and organised manner which showed us how well people can manage with little supplies. This experience has shown me how innovative people can be by just using their imagination.  I feel truly thankful and blessed for this experience.” Rae Auton

 

blog images/Harambee Nov 16/Mary Stafford with staff local clinicblog images/Harambee Nov 16/project leader Anne Healy with craft produce Monica Wanyoikeblog images/Harambee Nov 16/Susie Quinn picking tea on the trekking route