DECEMBER 2008

Hello All!
I just returned from my stay in Kenya/Tanzania with my volunteer partner and friend Cynthia at the end of November. As many of you know we've spent this past summer raising money to build a girl's dormitory at Terry's Child Support Center in Machakos, Kenya. It was so wonderful to return to Kenya! I got to see almost all the children that were originally with the project since I was last there in 2006/2007. The children continue to do very well. They seem happy and healthy. I can't express how much I love them and have missed their beautiful, smiling faces. Leah Ambwaya (the owner of the orphanage) is also doing well. It was equally wonderful to visit with her. I'm happy to report that we reached our fundraising goal of $15,000. If you would like to contribute, your money will help to continue the efforts of the orphanage as well as the dormitory that is being built. I can't thank you all enough for your support and generosity. It is because of you, we have been able to help Terry's. Although my site: http://volunteerwithrenee.com is no longer in service, I'm leaving the information on how you can help at the bottom of this email. I'm honored, proud and so very thankful for all of you that have contributed to making a change in other's lives! I promise I'll be back in 2009 for another exciting volunteer opportunity! Who knows.... maybe you'll want to join me on the adventure of wherever this may be!
Blessings,
Renee

TO HELP send a check to:

1. OneKid OneWorld
1109 S. Clark Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90035
(Please put "Machakos Project" in the subject line of the check)

2. Visit OneKid OneWorld's web site to donate online
http://onekidoneworld.org/donate.htm

3. Visit me on facebook to donate to a cause

My last blog post for awhile

Hello everyone!

I'm hoping I can "re-train" your internet browsing habits to visit my NEW WEB SITE: http://volunteerwithrenee.com

I know I'll be using my blog again to communicate important information and stories to you about my volunteer experiences. However, as I continue my efforts with OneKid OneWorld, it is much easier to effectively communicate through a web site rather than a blog.

This blog has become a GREAT archive for journaling all of my experiences while I lived in Kenya. I encourage anyone that has not read my story to start from December 2006.

I promise you that when I go back in November, 2008, to build the girls dormitory, I'll be sure to tell many more stories on this blog. But for the time being, please check my web site for updates!

Much love you all!
Renee

Building a girl's dormitory

GOAL: To raise $15,000 for Terry's Orphanage - Girl's Dormitory

Sunday, July 20th @ 3pm -8pm
Harmony Bar & Grill
Madison, WI

Live Music

- A Catapult Western (ACW)
- Brown Derby
- Dear August

Raffle Ticket Prizes (including beautiful spa package worth over $500).

Come help us raise money for a girl's dormitory at Terry's Orphanage in Machakos Kenya.
Visit http://volunteerwithrenee.com

See Renee for a ticket to this event!
Email: MachakosProject@gmail.com
Donate online: http://onekidoneworld.org/donate.htm

Please, help us reach our goal!

Summer Schedule & Your Help!

If you haven't read my blog lately, there's been some really exciting news! With the help of my friend Cynthia Sweet & OneKid OneWorld (OKOW) it's possible for us to donate money to a non-profit organization (OKOW) AND raise money for Leah and Terry's Orphanage. There are some big projects I'd like to go back to Machakos to work on!




GOAL #1:
Raising money for school fees for 2009;
COST: $500/per child x 10 children for 1 year = $5000
x 4 years = $20,000

I will also take this opportunity to once again introduce my great partner JESSE KECA from Canada who is helping with this effort of helping to raise money for school fees!

GOAL #2:
Re-building (expanding and fixing) the girl's dormitory (which is in desperate need of repairs).
COST: $7000

GOAL #3:
This goal is BIG & far-out, but very do-able! I'd like to help Terry's build a school right on the property! Of course this goal would be a very long-term goal, but I do believe it could be achievable. Do you remember reading my posts about how difficult it is for the kids to go to school. They would get such great care and education if it could be housed AT Terry's. I don't have cost projections for this...yet! I'll work with my first two goals before I launch into this last one!


There are a lot of exciting things planned for this summer to help achieve these goals. Please read on for details and how YOU can help!

KICK-OFF Machakos Project
Date & Time: Sunday, July 20, 2008, 3-8 p.m.

Place: Harmony Bar & Grill, Madison WI
Goal: Announce OKOW, Machakos Project and fund-raising event to raise money for SCHOOL FEES for Machakos children (Terry's Orphanage).
Details: $10 ticket/donation charge with ticket sales starting in June thru July 20th; We'll be selling $5.00 raffle tickets for final drawing in October (so far grand prize includes a day at the spa and diamond jewelry - we're working on adding to it); This event will host three local bands and include a few door prizes (donations given by the local community); We'll also have a table at which we'd like to have information and photographs on OKOW and Terry's Orphanage and a slide show running in the background of the photos and most importantly an opportunity to make additional donations.


WINE & GOLD Machakos Project
Date: August 2008 (date tba by the sponsor although this may be a kick off event followed by a month long promotion in the stores)

Goal: Continuation of raising money for school fees (although IF we meet our goal on July 20th, we'll begin our goal of raising money for the girls dormitory)
Details: Sponsor (most likely The Diamond Center) will buy back unwanted gold jewelry and other items to be melted down; The event is shaping up to be a marketing promotion for the jewelry company and possibly a high-end wine boutique will be the site host - so a wine tasting will most likely be included as part of this; proceeds will be donated to OKOW Machakos Project; tba end of the month gathering; door prizes included


GOLF Machakos Project
Date & Time: September 13, 2008, 8 a.m.

Place: Bridges Golf Course, Madison WI
Goal: Continuation of raising money for school fees (although IF we meet our goal on July 20th or August's Wine & Gold, we'll begin our goal of raising money for the girls dormitory)
Details: Standard 18-hole shotgun scramble; $75/ticket ($25 per golfer goes to OKOW-Machakos Project); door prizes included


TAILGATE PARTY (Save the date!)
Date: Oct 3 or 4, 2008
Place: TBA
Goal: Announce our door prize winner/s, celebrate our summer fundraising efforts!
Details: TBA


HOW YOU CAN HELP!
All proceeds are tax deductible! 95% of your donation will go to Terry's Orphanage. I'll be working with OKOW to use our donations in January 2009 when I go back to the orphanage!

1. Donate: Make checks payable to OneKid OneWorld (Write MACHAKOS PROJECT) on the subject line of the check
Send to:
Renee Schuh
2538 Chamberlain Ave.
Madison, WI 53705

OR send directly to OKOW

OneKid OneWorld
1109 S. Clark Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90035

2. Go to OneKid OneWorld's web site and donate
http://onekidoneworld.org/donate.htm
You may want to send me an email once you donate in case there is not a place on the online donation form to put MACHAKOS PROJECT

3. Show up! Come to one some or all of these events if your schedule allows for it! It would mean the world to me to have your support!

I'm pretty excited about all this news and I look forward to hearing from all of you!
Love,
Renee

KenyaKids2School!

Greetings!

I have so much exciting news to share! First of all, please view the logo above. Thanks to Jesse Keca, my seventh grade friend from Canada, we have a nice promotional logo for our fundraising efforts!

Second, I must announce that I feel blessed to have a GREAT friend and AWESOME fundraising partner! Cynthia Sweet is helping to organize the newest events for our fundraising efforts! THANK YOU CYN! Get ready to be bombarded with promotions for our scheduled event on SUNDAY, JULY 20th. KenyanKids2School is a promotion to pay for Terry's Orphange kids to go to secondary school. Stay tuned for details. We'll have bands, door prizes, food and lots of fun! Please put this date on your calendar!

I've saved the best news for last! I'd like to announce that Cynthia and I have joined forces with OneKid OneWorld http://onekidoneworld.org/home.htm. We met with the founder Josh Bycel who is completely excited about our mission to help children in Machakos. He is so excited that he's agreed to help us to raise money for our children at Terry's Orphanage. Of course, when I told Leah, she was elated! Read her words,

"This is the most exciting news i have recieved this year. Am truly humbled to hear that you are working endlessly to support your sisters and brothers at Terry's. May the almight God bless you greatly. Every opportunity and avenue for raising funds is just as important and we can not afford to loose on it... My darling, my house is your house and you know that too well, so feel free to come home anytime you feel like being here... About your July fundrasing, please feel free to continue, I will work on detailed case histories for the children and send you the same... Our minds work at the same speed, Just yesterday, I was mourning over the girls dorm, It has a big gapping crack and am so afraid the children are not safe at all in that house. I am so depressed, something bad could happen to the kids, please pray for me and the kids, that the Lord may touch someones heart to assist us. You are my baby and l love you..."

What this means is that OneKid One World will help us to make sure that our money is tax deductible and that the majority of it will go directly to the kids. If our July fundraiser is a success, our next effort will be to raise enough money to build that girls dormitory that is so badly needed for Terry's children.

I ask two favors of you:
1. Please plan on helping July 20th. I'll have plenty of details on how you can either donate towards this effort and/or come to this event.
2. Please tell everyone you know! I am so excited and we all know that connections matter. Spread the word! And as a side note, I'm on facebook, please add me as your friend to spread the word!

Much love to you all! And once again, thank you for taking the time to read this!

Renee

Kenyan Kids2School!

Hi everyone!

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted something. Admittedly, I’ve been in a bit of “funk” in terms of how to move forward with my efforts for helping our children in Kenya. I want so much to continue to send support to all of the children that I lived with for six months. I want to continue to support the community of educators that believe in children’s education. I want to help those that need support for going to school. I want to give them as much as I can. I’ve been talking with Leah over the past month and I have some information on helping children with their school fees for secondary school (what we call high school). Leah tries to place all of her children with a full-board (school fees, room and board all included) high school in some of the best places around the Machakos/Nairobi area. I’ve listed the fee structure here so you can get an idea of how much it costs to send a child to high school in Kenya. It costs approximately US$550/year to sponsor a child for school. I will continue to ask for support from you and from anyone that would like to contribute towards this effort. I’ve highlighted three girls that I was in contact with much of the time I was there. It sure would be wonderful to help them with their school fees!

Purity: Purity lived at Terry’s while I was there. You may remember a story I told when she first came to the orphanage. She cried the whole first day and kept her head on my shoulder while doing so. I was so sad for her. But I now get to report how proud I am that her exam scores are high enough to go to secondary school! Although, she won’t be able to go to school without support.

Florence: And you may remember a story about Florence. Florence is part of Leah’s outreach (day) program. She visits Terry’s for meals on weekdays and weekends. She receives support from Leah for school. In the evenings, she returns to her extended family’s home to sleep. You may remember me telling you a story about how Florence cried and cried because she was sent away from school one day. The school made her leave because her hair wasn’t shaved. There was no money at the orphanage (that day) for her to have her hair cut and she couldn’t afford 10KSH (yes, about 15 cents) to have her hair cut so she could return to school. This girl is also very bright and I’m proud that her exam scores will get her into high school. However she cannot go without support.

Maureen: I have less experience with Maureen. She lived at Terry’s before I was there. I remember Leah taking Maureen into her home in Nairobi for weeks, trying to find placement for her to go to school. I don’t know how Leah did it, but Maureen did go to school last year. Once again, she needs help to continue her schooling.


My dilemma in all of this is that any money that is sent privately is not tax deductible. Each time I wire money to Kenya, I pay approximately $25 for every $100 I wire. This gets costly. Not to mention that this is not tax deductible. I’m not concerned about the money I spend to help. But I understand that people that make large donations need for this to be tax deductible. I struggle so much with this dilemma. For this reason, my “funk” remains. I could use anyone’s help, insight or words of wisdom on how I might be able to help more…to be able to provide more to these children. I’ve looked into becoming a Non Profit Organization (NPO) or a Non Governmental Organization (NGO). There are many hoops to go through to do this! Please get in contact with me if you could provide me with any information about doing this more effectively.

In the meantime, I will continue to raise money. And I’m very excited to report a few things to help with this effort! I’m really looking forward to this spring! On the horizon:

1. ACW: Jason has agreed to have his band A Catapult Western (ACW) (acatapultwestern.com) sponsor a charity fundraising event. Stay tuned for details!
2. Kenyan Kids2 School! I’ve been giving some presentations on my experiences these past couple of months. I’ve recently talked with a school in Canada that learns Social Studies online. These 7 & 8 grade boys and girls were so wonderful to talk with. They had so many questions to ask and were very interested in what I had to say about my experiences with working with orphaned kids. One of the students wrote to me after the presentation saying:

Hey Renee-My name is Jesse… I really liked your presentation. I was wondering if there was anything I could do to support Terry's Orphanage? …There is a giant arena a few blocks away with rinks, soccer fields, gyms and soon pools. I'm going to see if I can set up donation boxes there. I can check out some of the stores in the mall too (the Bay, Zellers, Costco) to see if they'd like to donate, and if they do maybe you could advertise that they did on your blog. Also I'd like to have a destination goal - amount I'm trying to raise in a certain amount of time, but I have no idea what your expectation is. Please reply w/ more info, I'm really looking forward.

*~ Jesse ~*

I can’t begin to express my gratitude for getting emails from Jesse. She's already done so much! She's been talking with local stores to get backpacks, gathering collection boxes to collect money and currently she's getting local stores to send socks and shoes! Her efforts are ENORMOUS! Jesse and I are setting our goals to raise money so that these children can continue to go to school. We are calling our fundraising effort "Kenyan Kids2School!" Perhaps you’d like to help? Maybe you'd like to sponsor Purity, Florence or Maureen? Or maybe you would like to give some money to give one of the children a new backpack, a pair of socks or shoes? No amount is too small!

FUTURE: In thinking into the future, I thought I would provide a few pictures of some of the kids that are getting ready for high school in 2009. I know that my friend Wanja (who currently lives in Nairobi) will be traveling to the US in July or August of this year. I look forward to seeing her and talking with her more about how I can get money and donation items to these children in a less expensive way. I’m also planning my NEXT trip to Kenya to visit. I’m not sure when this will be but it’s on the horizon.

Please remember that every penny counts. If you’d like to help in any way, please contact me.

To contribute, you can make checks payable to:

Renee Schuh
2538 Chamberlain Ave.
Madison WI 53705

Or call me: 608.513.0703
Or email me: renee_schuh@hotmail.com

I’m genuinely interested in learning more and providing as much help as I can.

Thanks for reading my blog! And thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers for all of OUR children!

Much love,
Renee

More news from Kenya

I think it's really neat that many of you tell me you still read my blog. I have some really great news to share with you despite all the hardships that many parts of Kenya are facing right now. I want you to know that your contributions to our effort while I was at the orphanage has made direct impacts to the children. I received a note from the teacher at one of the schools. He writes:

"Our part of the country is safe (Machakos, Kathiani & Kaviani). Life is normal. {My comment: I felt that what we see & read about in the news is mostly happening in the larger cities like Nairobi. It is comforting to know that the community that I lived in is safe and doing OK}. Elizabeth Nduku cleared her exams and she did perform very well. Actually she scored 363 out of 500 marks and just today we've received her letter of admission to high school (She's been admitted at a Senior Provincial High School).I talked with Leah and yes, the girl is going to school. Anyway I shall keep you updated on the same. Remember Mathew Muthini? He's not performing badly , actually he topped his class at the end of the year. But he still the same fee problem and the school is threatening to send him away unless he pays his fees. Please assist this boy once more."

I know for a fact that these children continue to strive and study hard because they have the motivation. They do not take for granted that they are in school. They are proud and are trying hard. If it wasn't for YOUR assistance, these teacher's words would not have crossed my inbox this week. I'm so proud of our efforts. Even today, we see the effects it's having on the children. YOU are the one's that helped these children go to school. On behalf of them, I thank you.

On a somewhat related note, the organization that I did my volunteer work through (Global Volunteers Network -GVN) sent this note to me:

Dear Renee,

The unrest in Kenya after the 27 December presidential and parliamentary elections has had a terrible effect on Kenya's impoverished population. Thousands of homes and small businesses have been destroyed, 600 lives have been claimed already and the UN reports that some 255,000 more are believed to be displaced by the disruption.

What can you do to help?

We need your help to raise funds for supplies and other relief efforts that will be organised as the situation progresses. GVN's partner organization has planned relief efforts.

Volunteers will be dropping off food and clothing for refugees, and will also help with cooking and watching over children. But they need more funding in order to meet the needs of those they are trying to assist.

As 100% of your donation will go to our partner organization in Kenya to help with the relief efforts, every cent counts.

To donate please go to:

http://www.gvnfoundation.org/whatyoucando/donate/kenya.php

Thanks for your support!

Kind Regards Colin Salisbury GVN CEO and GVNF Chairman

Please pass my words along to others. I'd like to continue to help in this effort that we started over one year ago. I have asked Leah to send me more information about children that may need assistance for school. Please contact me if you have any ideas of how we can help or if you'd like to contribute in some way.

Namaste.

Troubles in Kenya

My heart has been so heavy this past month. It's taken much energy for me to write a blog message. It was a year ago that I was celebrating Christmas with the children. My emotions over this past month have felt bittersweet. I am absolutely happy to be back in my country. I'm happy to be with my family, my friends and my little furry friends. I'm elated that Jason has a new band and made a new album. I had a wonderful Christmas and New Year with my family and friends. But I think about the kids at Terry's Orphanage every day. I truly believe that I miss them more now than when I left Kenya. I think about all the suffering that others endure on a daily, hourly, and moment by moment basis. I'm counting the days I'll be able to return to see their bright faces (I'm hoping to return for a few weeks during our summer-maybe July or August). And if it's not enough that a developing country like Kenya has suffering, it's been exasperated by the violence from the most recent political events.

Today's news reads: January 3, 2008

"This warden message is being issued to alert American citizens in Kenya to an ongoing political rally. The rally is being organized by the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and is attracting large crowds and a significant police presence in and around Uhuru Park in central Nairobi. The rally is disrupting transportation and commerce. Currently, the main thoroughfare to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport is blocked and not passable. Similar rallies and other large-scale gatherings may also occur in other cities throughout Kenya."

Leah wrote me on January 2, 2008. She said, "My darling, we miss you too. Right now Kenya is at war, I have sneaked to the office to read mail, the best thing for now would be to send me a text. My number is still the same. We are all safe for now but we dont know what will happen tomorrow. I love you my darling. Leah."

And my friend Wanja wrote to me this morning, saying "Thanks renee for your concern. I am fine and safe but am worried. our country is no longer the good country.No going to downtown no nothing. banks are closed, food stores etc. soon people are going to die of hunger...sad....talk to you later. wanja"

As a memory, I'd like to show a picture of my dear friend Wanja that visited her fiance & her family (and me) in November. And a couple of other pictures to remind us all of the children in Africa.

Much love to you all.