The New Abila Youth Club....

Well, we finished our first week in Kisumu!!

We met with the new Abila Youth Club and discussed their current
projects and hopes for the future. They are interested in avoiding
becoming idle, which can lead to high risk behavior, and they want to
find avenues to bring in some income. They are working on a production of an
original play about the post election violence by one of the members.
They have been writing and practicing some original songs that they
performed at the meeting. We will have a follow up meeting on
Wednesday.

Giving voice to street kids...the beginnings of a possible collaboration...

We met with Pastor Johnson who works with street kids. He updated us on his project and we
discussed ways to collaborate. He also arranged for us to visit the
Kisumu Juvenile Remand Home, a place where children accused of crimes
are held while they await the resolution of their court proceedings
and where they put kids from the streets while they try to find their
families or other places for them to go.

Continuing ventures in fair trade self-sustaning micro-enterprise ventures...

We met with Caroline Agwanda, who previously trained the Opuk Jakinda members in making jewelry, paper products and baskets from the water hyacinth plant, and
discussed the progress of her new project, HOPE, which trains disabled
women to make crafts. Caroline then sells these crafts at her store
and around. We will be creating a stronger partnership with Caroline
by working on marketing her goods alongside the Opuk Jakinda products.

First meeting this trip with Okok Widows Group...

We met with Rose of the Okok Widows Group at her residence in the
rural area of Okok outside of Kisumu. Although the other members were
attending a funeral, she shared with us information about the products
they make. We will meet with the group again next week. We are taking the next and hopefully final steps in setting up distribution of fair trade avocado oil and other products made by the group with the American group Anti-Body.

What's new with VOICES....

We are currently on safari with Nelson of the Oldarpoi Maasai Safari
Camp, a safari camp run by Maasai that invests a great deal of its
funds back into the community. We will be visiting their projects
tomorrow before returning to Nairobi.