Mabadiliko Care International focuses on supporting the most vulnerable people in their society - orphans, disadvantaged children, widows, and the elderly. Their work is especially important since there is an increase in the number of orphans and underprivileged children in the area. These vulnerable people, mainly women and children, need to be provided with basics to survive; including food, shelter, clothing, education and access to proper heath care. They currently look after 146 children at the Destiny Gardens School.
The objectives of the Care Centre are:
- Offering educational programmes on HIV/AIDS and also care for those already infected by HIV/AIDS
- Offering training and counselling to the orphaned children, youth, and widows, and older persons
- Providing physical, spiritual and moral assistance to the society
- Investing in corporate social philanthropy and human development
- Investing in education so as to enhance the opportunities of children
Fundraiser/Teacher
- Assisting in financial and project management (maintaining donors' financial records)
- Proposal writing to find new donors
- Office administration
- Assisting those children who write monthly letters to their sponsors
- Updating the website
When I first arrived I was taken aback by how small the charity was - it was just the school. Matthew (the other volunteer) and I discussed the website with Jacob and we agreed it needed to be more realistic and up-to-date. This was our first job. We interviewed families of the children at the school, which was really interesting, and used this information to put some of their life stories on the new updated website with the hope of making it easier for donors and future volunteers to understand the lives of these children and their families.
The next thing we did was to add a basic resource cost list to the website, such as local costs of pencils and desks, so that people could see how even a small donation could buy necessary resources.
I worked to place Mabadiliko on www.ecoteer.co.uk to try to attract future volunteers to work within the charity. Daniel (who runs this website) was only too happy to place Mabadiliko as an option for volunteers interested in going out to Kenya. The constant flow of volunteers is a very important source of income for the charity as the money donated by Harambee Deutschland only covers certain costs, such as the teachers' salaries, the rent of the school and certain projects like the building of the new toilets.
The main section that needs funding is the feeding programme, so Matthew and I worked hard to generate funds for this. We visited a lot of the big tourist hotels on the north and south coasts to ask if we could place donation tins in their lobbies so that tourists could place any spare change they had in these tins. We had positive responses from a couple of hotels. Our idea was that we could also put information leaflets next to the tins so that if tourists were interested in learning more about the school or even visiting they could. I feel that once the school is up and running again this is something that could work really well and I hope this will be addressed by future volunteers.
It became more apparent as time went on that the charity was always in some sort of financial difficulty. I knew that this was not uncommon for charities like Mabadiliko but when Harambee Deutschland visited in late October certain things came to light and it was apparent that spending was rather haphazard. We discussed our concerns with Jacob highlighting the fact that it is very important
that donors and volunteers can see exactly where their money is going. I think the main thing that worried and frustrated us was the lack of transparency. We also realised that as volunteers a few of us were paying different amounts to live in the same house and eat the same food! We highlighted this fact to Jacob and he said that he would not do this in future.
It is a very difficult situation when Knite (director of the school) should in effect be making most of the decisions on how much money is spent on what, as she knows what is needed for the school (more so than Jacob as she is there every day and has the most contact with the Harambee now), however Jacob is still her boss. This is something that cannot be changed from outside as I do not think it appropriate to go in and try to change structures from the outside. This is why we thought it so important that accountability systems are put in place so that all the money can be traced. A volunteer with a background in financial accounting would be very helpful in assisting with this.
I look at my placement as a real learning curve. The children at the school are wonderful and the teachers are all dedicated. One thing that we did notice (and apparently others have in the past) was caning. Jacob said that two volunteers before us had held a meeting with the teachers and they held a vote on whether to ban the use of the cane in school or not. It was banned (only just) but it still occasionally happens. I know it is a cultural and social difference. This kind of punishment happens all the time in the government schools and many of the teachers have grown up with it and therefore see nothing abnormal about it. Of course for us it was quite shocking. We talked to Jacob and Knite about it and suggested other ways of punishment like detention. They seemed to be quite enthusiastic about it. I know one other volunteer who hopes to return to Mombasa at some point has developed a whole punishment strategy for them (his background is in education), so I know that it is something that will be looked at in the future.
I really believe that the placement of a couple of more-experienced volunteers could really benefit the charity and hopefully make it more sustainable for the future. If systems were put in place now that future volunteers could work with, the charity could really grow.