Asante Sana: Highlighting "Little Hands Making Big Differences"

Little Hands Making Big Differences

When the Linemen of Rocky Mountain Power in Goshen, UT heard that Little Giants didn’t have electricity they took matters into their own hands.  This group of lovely individuals gathered together and raised funds out of the goodness  of their hearts – enough money was raised to allow Little Giants School to get electricity!!

Thank you to the Linemen of Rocky Mountain Power in Goshen. The students at Little Giants Primary School have a brighter future thanks to your efforts! Your hands came together to make a big difference in the lives of others. Asante Sana! 

For whom does the bell toll?

It tolls for thee!! Little Giants Primary School in Riore, Kenya needs your help in order to make sure the school bells will be able to ring next fall! 

That’s right. Thanks to donors and supporters like you Little Giants has grown so much in the last 3 years, that there are too many students for the amount of rooms. Next year, without an upward expansion, the third grade students won't have classrooms to learn in!

Little Giants has been saving up to build a second level, but just doesn’t have enough to complete the project by the time the school bell rings. Here is where you can be the hero, yet again! Every dollar donated goes 100% to funding the Little Giants Building Project, and every dollar donated helps get us one brick closer to adding rooms. Building a safe haven for more and more students to learn, grow, and explore in.

Click HERE to learn more about how you can be a hero today! 

About Geo Kenya Safari's - More of why we trust and love our in-country Director

Africa....Full of adventure, mystery, exploration, and nature. Where you can travel through the Maasai Mara and see elephants, giraffes, lions, buffalo, leopards, and more then return to a tented camp where you are greeted with amazing food and hospitality. You can then sit on your front porch, enjoy other travelers in the cafe or bar, or wake early for a balloon ride adventure.


You can see the Nairobi National park along with Karen Blixen's home and museum. Then stay at a bed and breakfast at the Giraffe Manor.





Travel to Lake Nakuru and boat with the Hippopotamus and catch a glance at a Fisher Eagle catching its dinner.


The most popular is to witness the annual migration of zebra and wildebeest coming across from Tanzania to Kenya. Or to safari in Amboselli reserve in view of the famou Mount Kilimanjaro.

Whichever you choose, Geo Kenya Safari's will make the perfect plan for your trip of a life time. If you're tight on a budget they will make sure it fits. From staying in clean, safe, and friendly budget camps or even participating in group events. Geo Kenya will plan it all for your budget. If it's your 50th anniversary or honeymoon and you want luxury, that can also be easily done. Luxury camps complete with spa's, pools, and champagne. From a tight budget to spare no expense your trip will be one you will always remember.

When Tabibu Africa travels we always stay with the budget camps when we must provide our own lodging. Even though they are classified as "budget" camps they are still very clean, safe, and just what we need. Geo Kenya makes sure all of our needs are met.

 For more information email: GeoKenyasafaris@gmail.com or check out www.geokenyasafaris.com

Be a Student Hero

School sponsorships is one of the many ways Tabibu Africa, Inc works to provide aid in the areas we work in. We believe that education is the key for true positive change for the future.

Our main school, Little Giants, in Ruiru Kenya currently has several students that cannot afford tuition. We have yet to witness the Director, George, turn any students away regardless of gender, financial status, or health. Doing this creates a deficit of funding; paying teacher wages, licensing, supplies, and more. Tabibu Africa, Little Giants, and our Director can only continue this valuable work of education through sponsors like you!

You could be the hero for Lewis, a 7-year old very bright young man who always smiles. His mum, Margaret, is a single mother who works as a construction laborer. She has also helped to start up the first PTA in all of Ruiru through the Little Giants School. It is always a joy to follow up with Lewis and interview him in person. He is always so helpful and smiling. He loves to play football (soccer) and he's an amazing artist.

There's also sweet, 5-year-old, John. We have seen him grow and learn to smile again. He first came to us so shy and wouldn't look anyone in the eye. You can now see his bright eyes when he looks up at you and his sweet toothless grin. He wants to become a pilot when he grows up and we know he can do it!



Jane is a seven year old student with amazing goals. She loves to play hide-and-seek and is very grateful at having a sponsor. She was very ill last year and with the help of our medical team she was able to get proper medical attention as well as sanitation education for her family. She is now very healthy and has plans to study and then go onto University to become a doctor. Jane's mother is very active at the school as well, helping to start the first PTA in Ruiru.
With your help you can help students just like this continue with their education and not worry about if or where they can go to school.

With your donation of $155.00 per year (that's just 42 cents per day) your donation will provide one student with a uniform, shoes, books for the year, supplies, 6 month medical screenings and appropriate treatment, and 1-2 field trips. YOU will receive biannual reports on your child; progress note, picture, and letter or drawing from your student. You are also welcome to write letters to your student as well. You will also have the knowledge that because of YOU one more student will succeed and know that someone on the other side of the earth cared enough about them. That makes them smile everyday!

for more information please visit www.tabibuafrica.org or email tabibuafrica@aol.com 
To start your sponsorship process now please click on this link - Student Sponsorship -You will then receive an email within 48 hours giving you more information and then within two weeks you will receive your student information packet in the mail.

Asante sana!

World Immunization Week

 For "World Immunization Week" Tabibu Africa, Inc solutes all persons and organizations on the ground, in the office, and those behind the scenes who are doing their part to bring immunizations to every child world wide. The World thanks you!

Photo Courtesy of WHO

According to WHO (The World Health Organization) progress towards global vaccination targets for 2015 is far off-track with 1 in 5 children still missing out on routine life-saving immunizations that could avert 1.5 million deaths each year from preventable diseases. 

 An estimated 21.8 million infants worldwide are still not being reached by routine immunization services. Close to 70% of these children live in ten countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Viet Nam and South Africa.

In 2013 nearly 22 million infants world wide missed out on the required three doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis-containing vaccines (DTP3), many of them living in the world’s poorest countries. The fatality rate for a person who contracts diphtheria and is given proper treatment is 10%, for infants it's 20%. If a person contracts diphtheria and it is not treated, which is the case for most individuals in developing countries, the fatality rate is greater than 50%. 
 

Worldwide, it is estimated that there are 16 million pertussis cases and about 195,000 pertussis deaths in children per year. Despite generally high coverage with childhood pertussis vaccines, pertussis is one of the leading causes of vaccine-preventable deaths worldwide. Most deaths occur in young infants who are either unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated.

Many countries worldwide have experienced large measles outbreaks in the past year, threatening efforts to achieve the GVAP (Global Vaccine Action Plan) target of eliminating measles in 3 WHO Regions by end-2015.  As many as one out of every 20 children with measles gets pneumonia, the most common cause of death from measles in young children. About one child out of every 1,000 who get measles will develop encephalitis (swelling of the brain) that can lead to convulsions and can leave the child deaf or with intellectual disability. For every 1,000 children who get measles, one or two will die from it.

A global collaborative drive for immunization, begun in the mid-1970s with the establishment of the "Expanded Program on Immunization" in all countries . This achieved dramatic results, raising vaccination levels from as low as 5% to more than 80% in many countries by 2013. WHO estimates that today immunizations prevent between 2 and 3 million deaths annually and protect many more people from illness and disability.

 

Photo courtesy of vaccineswork.org

Although progress has stalled in recent years, this early success demonstrates the potential of vaccines, which are increasingly being extended from children to adolescents and adults. The result is providing protection against diseases such as influenza, meningitis and cervical and liver cancers.

The GVAP recommends three key steps for closing the immunization gap:

• integrating immunization with other health services, such as postnatal care for mothers and babies;
• strengthening health systems so that vaccines continue to be given even in times of crisis; and
• ensuring that everyone can access vaccines and afford to pay for them.

Earlier this year, donor countries and institutions pledged to meet the funding needs of the Vaccine Alliance that brings together public and private sectors to create equal access to new and underused vaccines for children living in the world’s poorest countries

For "World Immunization Week" Tabibu Africa, Inc solutes all persons and organizations on the ground, in the office, and those behind the scenes who are doing their part to bring immunizations to every child world wide. The World thanks you! 

Photo courtesy of Gavi

 

What a Wonderful World-Earth Day.

I see trees of green, red roses, too.  I see them bloom for me and your and I think to myself what a wonderful world it is—April 22, 2015 Earth Day, as we observe this important day we must think about the trials facing Africa.  Africa is literally an enormous piece of the picture—one-fifth of the planet—that cannot be disregarded. Although the challenges are great, so is the prospective.

v  The continent of Africa represents 20 percent of the Earth’s land mass.

v  Two-thirds of Africa is arid or semi-arid, and 300 of the 800 million people in Sub Saharan Africa live in a water-scarce environment.

v  During the decade ending in 2010, Africa had the second highest rate of deforestation of any region in the world.

v  One-third of the known species threatened with extinction is found in Sub Saharan Africa.

v  Some 520 million Africans rely on agriculture for their livelihoods, most of them subsistence farmers.

When we think about Earth Day, many considerations should be addresses, Africa looms large, but its answers must start small.

Planting a living fence of  Jujube trees around a plot of eroded farmland, provides  a garden within protection from grazing animals and dry winds, as well as produces hundreds of pounds of fruit to eat and sell.

Many groups in Kenya have developed sustainable solutions for preserving endangered lions through community education and partnership. One being local men and women—many raised to be lion hunters—are educated, trained, and employed as lion monitors. They are part of a network of community informants who observe lion populations in order to reduce human-lion conflict. In just one year, they have successfully reduced human-lion conflict by 50 percent.

Throughout Africa, agriculture is key to economic growth.  Most farms are small plots of land, and most farmers are women who face obstacles including a lack of technology, increasingly variable rains, and crop-destroying diseases. But these women farmers are more adept at using mirco-loans to finance small agricultural businesses. Home and school vertical vegetable gardens, which supply dietary nutrients that are not available from staple crops, are increasing in number. These gardens offer diverse agricultural landscapes that incorporate ecosystems that preserve watersheds and wild biodiversity.

 

 

 

 

A Good Life

There are so many characterizations of "a good life"

     Financial stability—

Shall we squander and waste? Or give freely to those in need?

From dust we came and dust we will return—checking account are of no value after life.

     Traveling the world—

 Shall we lounge and linger? Or generously give our time to help our fellow man? After all, we are one family. 

     Material possessions—

Shall we have closets of clothes and belongings we rarely use? Or live a simple life.  A simple life of obedience can lead to more happiness than one can ever imagine, and the more you bless others, your blessings will in turn multiply by unimaginable proportions!

 

It is often said that the poorest people financially are often the happiest –and yet the most generous.  Generosity brought to a new meaning—a true meaning.

Everyone has their own thoughts about a good life, what is yours?

 

 

Happy Birthday, James!

We would like to take this time to congratulate Tabibu Africa's Secretary and co-founder, Corrie Wima Naishipai and her wonderful family, on the newest addition to their clan. 
We welcome James with loving arms and hearts!

Mungu akubariki (may God bless you)

   From little date seeds, great things are born. ~Namibian Proverb

 

"It had also been a childhood dream to travel to Africa, and the journey turned out to be much more rewarding than imagined. I found a place where my heart and soul had yearned to be, and they smiled. I may or may not have made a difference in a few lives, but it definitely changed mine. 

I had a difficult time adjusting at first, there was so much need and only so much we could do. I found myself frustrated and angry. Then the patients would walk into the clinic and smile with gratitude with whatever we gave them; vitamins, brufen, cream....but most important Love and a listening ear. Humanity at its purest..all Humans need Love and a listening ear. 

My time in Kenya rejuvenated my soul, while just beginning to slake my hearts desire of bringing help desired in "My Calcutta". While I am counting the days to return to my heart's home away from home I do hope to have brought back many lessons from the African people, but first and foremost the importance of a loving ear, and a kind mouth."
 ~Corrie Wima Naishipai

What is a Hippo Roller?

What is a Hippo Roller and Why is it so Great?

Every day, millions of women & children in developing countries are forced to carry heavy loads of water for long distances, typically in heavy 20L (44 pounds/20 Kg) containers on their heads or backs. In just one day, 152 million or more hours of their time is consumed for the most basic of human needs — collecting water.

Have you ever had to walk outside to a well to get clean water? Imagine how people feel in Kenya, for instance, who walk a round trip of up to 100 Km (62 miles) just to fetch water? Then also imagine doing this in temperatures up to 40˚C (104˚F) through dangerous areas of drought, wild animals, and human threats all with a giant container on your head or back - just for water.

Good news, there is a solution! Welcome the Hippo Roller. Designed in Africa for Africa the Hippo Water Roller enables women, children and the elderly to collect 5 times more water than a single bucket by simply rolling it along the ground. The savings in time, energy and reduced suffering are immense and the positive social-impact benefits are far reaching.

 An effective and efficient way to carry 90 liters (24 gallons) of water, much more easily and in less time by simply rolling along the ground. It was specifically designed to be maintenance-free and for use in tough rural conditions, with a long lifespan of 5 - 7 years, often much longer. It reduces long-term injuries caused by carrying heavy loads of water and gives women & children more time for education and economic activities.

The Hippo Roller is an appropriate technology widely accepted in many countries by undeveloped communities where there is no reliable water infrastructure. Approximately 44,000 Hippo Water Rollers have been distributed mostly in South Africa and at least 20 other African countries, directly benefiting in excess of 300,000 people (based on a typical household average of 7). To date, more than 7 Billion liters (nearly 2 million gallons) of water have already been ‘rolled’ over a combined distance of 500 Million km (310 Million miles!). Much more can and needs to be done!

Spring 2015 Tabibu Africa, Inc is proud to be taking over several Hippo Rollers for the first time. We will be introducing them to a Masai community in the Rift Valley that have never seen or experienced this marvelous invention. We are only able to do this because of the wonderful and selfless support from a few generous donors like you. Hero's are everywhere! 

Look for our post this summer when we write, share pictures, and stories of what the Hippo Roller did for women and children in one of the villages that Tabibu Africa, Inc serves.

To learn how you can help bring more Hippo Rollers to East Africa please click here. We can only bring these to those who need it the most because of people like you!

For more information about the Hippo Water Roller Project click here: www.hipporoller.org

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There's No Place Like Home

Dorothy, a young girl wearing glittery red shoes once proclaimed, "There's no place like home--there's no place like home."  Tabibu Africa could not agree more.  One's home is a gift, a place of affection, safety and comfort that brings harmony to your soul in just thinking of it.  A home is hard to come by, but well worth the effort to create.  Each Maasai women creates her own haven, an Inkajijik, ( Maasai for house) a small loaf-shaped huts made of mud, sticks, grass and cow dung.  Often the construction of a Inkajijik takes several months and each woman adds her special touch.  Making her house a home for herself and her children. 

Women throughout the world agree, there are two gifts that we all should give our children; one is roots and the other is wings. The only way to do this is by creating  and maintaining a sense of home throughout their development.  Maasai women are masters of both gifts for children.

Lucky Grace

Tabibu Africa works with leaders living and working in community Nkoilale, their help, knowledge and desire to improve the well-being of the Maasai tribe is admiral.  Grace, a teacher is a valuable part of our team. Grace is one of several teachers whose thirst for education cannot be quenched.  This is her story of who she is and why she does what does and how she cares for girls of all ages.  Her story was first published in the Lake Chelan Rotary News.

My name is Grace Namunuak  and this is my story.

My Maa name ‘Namunyak’ means ‘LUCKY’ I consider myself lucky in many ways. I was lucky to have been taken to school while other girls stayed at home looking after the cattle waiting to be married off. I was the only girl from my village going to school amongst many boys. Their insults did not make me change my mind. When I completed my primary school level, my luck was put into testing. A brother to my dad came back from exile and demanded that I should drop out of school to be married to a man whom already had two other wives.

 I had passed very well in national exam and definitely was going to be enrolled in a very good provincial school. He made this demand because my dad had sold their younger daughter in the absence of his elder brother. So I was to be sold to pay what my dad had taken.

I consulted my grandmother who was still alive at the time. She was against the deal and told me not to give in to his demands. My dad was against it too, but he had no option but to repay his brother. I used my grandmother to force my elder dad to let me go to high school with a promise that as soon as I completed high school, I would get married to whomever my father wanted. He agreed, but started negotiations with the man who was to marry me. This man was given what he asked and the man was to wait for four years for me to complete high school. I never showed any signs that I might change my mind and this gave my elder dad confidence that I will not let him down.

 

I did my high school national exam and did it well again. Now it was time to fulfill my promise. My granny was still alive so I went to her for advice. She advised not to allow him force me to the old man. She was becoming old and time wasted would lead me to conceding defeat. The only option left was for me to elope with anyone else to run away from this old man. I did it. I may have taken the wrong decision at that particular moment but later had good results. I went to college after three years. I became the teacher I am today.

My desire to help young girls comes from my story. If I had someone to tell what I was going through, maybe I could not have suffered the way I did. It is so heartbreaking to see young girls being married off at this tender age. Their stories make me cry every time I hear. It brings back the memories that I wouldn’t want to remember. I would like to extend my ‘LUCK’ to them. I would like for them to have something to tell others in the future.

 

7 Billion

There is approximately 7 Billion people on planet Earth. 

Out of those 7 Billion people, 805 million people do not have enough to eat. One out of nine people in the world do not have enough food just for the minimum daily caloric input needed to survive. 98% of the world's undernourished people live in developing countries.

Sub-Sahara Africa holds approximately 214 million malnourished or undernourished people. Undernourishment is the cause for 45% of deaths in children under the age of five. 

3.1 million children each year die from malnourishment. 

8,500 children die every day simply because they do not have food to eat. 

66 million primary school-age children attend classes hungry across the developing world with 23 million in just Africa alone. 

Every 10 seconds a child dies from hunger-related disease

Tabibu Africa, Inc believes that this is simply unacceptable. Through our education, saniation, hygiene, and empowerment programs we aim to help those in these impoverished area's to overcome their poverty and feed their families. With both schools that Tabibu Africa, Inc sponsor's no child will leave school hungry. They also are given 1-2 medical screenings per year along with an excellent education. These children will then go on to make positive change happen within their communities and the cycle of poverty and hunger will decrease with each generation. 

We can speed this process of necessary positive change up with help from you. Because of donors like you we can go into these impoverished villages and spread this movement of change. 

No more children need to go hungry. No more mothers need to choose which child is fed for the day. We can stop this cycle now. 

To be a donor now please click here. 

For more information please check out our website here or email us at: TabibuAfrica@aol.com

Asante Sana

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Nkoilale's Big 5

Nkoilale’s Big 5

There is a village of Maasai in the Rift Valley called Nkoilale. They saw a problem and they came together as a community to solve it. With strong leadership and a common goal they are making huge leaps and bounds for the benefit of their community.

Disease, malnutrition, water contaminated with cholera and Typhoid, lack of health care and lack of quality schools close by were their main issues. The community came together and came up with a plan, starting with an organization called The Nkoilale Community Development Organization (NCDO).  Then they molded their plan of the “Big 5”:

1-     Water (provide clean water to as many as possible in the community)

2-     Education (provide education for all children, no matter age or gender)

3-     Health Care(provide quality and affordable health care within close proximity)

4-     Security (safety for the community)

5-     Sanitation (take care of litter issue as well as possible sources of water contamination)

The Nkoilale Community wanted their home to go from what you see on the left to what you see on the right.

In order to make this plan a reality each head of household sold one cow (The Maasai’s entire wealth revolves around their cattle. To sell a cow is a huge commitment and sacrifice) and they soon had enough to build a main boarding school (now has over 1000 students) with several feeder schools, an up to date Health Center (the first of its kind in the Rift Valley) and a huge water project. The NCDO were able to cap a large, clean spring and ran a water line to a central point in town. There are also several water hydrants along the water line which provides fresh, clean water to the community as whole and surrounding communities.

 

I am absolutely amazed by what this community has been able to accomplish with some cows and the vision and drive of good leadership. They saw a problem and solved it on their own.

It is truly an honor to be able to work with this community, not just as the vice-president of Tabibu Africa, Inc but as an adopted member to the Nkoilale family.  I can say, without a doubt, that this community will be a great example to other communities for decades to come of what great vision, leadership, and focus for the common good can do.