Spring 2011

Volume 8

The Ronnie Fund

RONNIE REPORTS FROM THE VILLAGE

February 2011

Dear Papa and Mum, Again it was good talking to you. Thanks for the email lots of love from the village and tons of greetings. I had a great time. It was very, very well spent ,learned a lot and every time I am out there its like we discover or invent a solution for something or someone. We have good progress and some challenges that we have to address to maximize the impact of the projects.

The brick machine has been doing very well. I think the demand for bricks is really high the only problem has been dishonesty in financial dealings. I am trying to put up more tight and better procedures this is happening from both the groups and contractors. Sometimes the boys make the bricks and em-ployers don't pay them or they lie to them about payments and take them in circles. We have now put up contracts that these people have to sign upfront and also we sign how many bricks are be-ing made and how much each costs . All in all it

has really improved lives. Micro finance group is go-ing on well, Kinandi paid back her loan. Most people pay in May but I have two people who have delayed their payments for one month -they were saying its cause of school fees so they will pay by mid June.

The Water Filters were all done and being used very well we had no incident this time. I actually visited a woman who said the Biosand Water Filter is helping her 200%. She col-lects water from a pond as she is not connected to any water pipe. There will be need to add more wa-ter filters, mostly for or-phans who have not got-ten them yet and can’t afford them (they’re get-ting them for free). The bananas are doing su-per well both our farm and Lukundo Group’s farm. It’s amazing - everyone wants to plant bananas now. We should be harvesting at least 60 to 80 plants in the next few weeks. Monkeys are the biggest problem if you have ideas on dealing with these vermins kindly let me know. I think we

Inside this issue:

Sere Girls Club

Mentoring Program

2

Educational

Scholarships

2

Workshops Unite Youth

Groups

2

Village Challenges 3

Update on Sylvia’s

Cancer treatment

3

Working on a

Partnership

4

The Ronnie Fund Supporting One Man’s Dream for Quality Village Life in

Kenya

need more water irriga-tion pumps as loans, right now the dry season has come and with the french beans being planted by everyone sharing is be-coming hard everyday but those which are working are doing amaz-ing well. I am hoping the agricultural test plots will really give people insight and farmers can learn different techniques on farming. Most of the har-vest failed this time round, true effects of climate change, the weather patterns have really changed so the seeds were distributed to the serious farmers only as I heard some people don't plant them well.

Thanks a lot for every-thing I am so so so so ssso proud of you all.

Love

Ronnie

* Stefan Bartsch, a vol-unteer from Germany has produced a video of Ronnie speaking about his dream for the village and the ongoing pro-jects, go to our website for a link to the video—it is very inspiring to hear Ronnie speak.

A member of Lukundo

Self-Help Group

harvests the banana

crop.

Sere Girls Club Starts Mentoring Program

Educational Scholarships Make A Difference!

older ones and so this gives

me hope that it will not al-

ways be bad. All in all it was

a success and I hope to do

this as often as possible dis-

cussing different topics that

would affect the girls. I will

conduct an evaluation soon

probably 4 months from the

training date to see the out-put/outcome of the train-

ing.”

Serah also plans on taking a

small select group of girls to

Nairobi to visit colleges and

universities in the near fu-

ture. We know this pro-

gram will mean a brighter

future for these girls!

On February 18th—21st,

the Sere Girls Club held its

first Mentoring Program

Workshops. Serah first met

with students at the pri-

mary school and then with

22 girls from Sere Girls

Club at the home of Mama

Ruth, our girls club patron.

Facilitiators Pasomi Mucha

and Mrs. Elizabeth Kuto

were brought from Nairobi

to lead the girls through the

program including life skills,

study habits, time manage-

ment, goal setting, and self

awareness (identifying their

personal skills and limita-

tions) Girls also learned

assertiveness (how to say

NO respectfully to boys

and men asking sexual fa-

vours) and the importance

of valuing positive relation-

ships.

Serah reports, “It was a

success and did help us iden-

tify what could be the prob-

lems the girls could be fac-

ing. The turn out was amaz-

ing especially at the primary

school where there were

about 100 children from

Wongonyi and also from

Mrangi. What was interest-

ing is the younger girls were

more receptive than the

including books, school

uniforms and if a boarding

student even their own

mattress. There are so

many needy students that

Ronnie has devised a qualifi-

cation process to determine

priority for those most

needy. Keeping students is

school is the best way to

fight the cycle of poverty.

Asante—sana (Thanks )

for the gift of education.

In November we

screened the film “a small

act” a story about a young

Kenyan Chris who like

Ronnie wanted to make a

difference in his village by

starting an educational

scholarship program. Al-

though we have already

been paying children’s

school fees when needed

this fundraiser kick started

a more deliberate educa-

tional scholarship program

for The Ronnie Fund. As a

result of that evening, we

now have 4 students who

have been sponsored for 4

years of their education. As

well several students have

been sponsored for one

year. Unlike Canada, Kenya

only provides free educa-

tion for primary school. A

student must fund their

own secondary education

Workshops to Unite Youth Groups

be great if they learn about each others suc-cesses & challenges.” Programming for youth is extremely important as many youth have not been able to access sec-ondary education due to lack of fees and with low skills find attaining jobs difficult.

While Ronnie was in the village he held a few workshops and hopes to do more in the future. He aims to help join differ-ent groups from differ-ent villages together so there will be one huge youth organization across the division with more than 200 youths.

Already he managed stage one in mobilizing the youth. Ronnie says, “I believe by bringing them all together there will be room to learn more from each other, more wisdom can be shared as one group can-not make enough mis-takes on its own. It will

Sere Girls Club and students

at Wongonyi Primary School

participating in the Mentorship

Program in February 2011.

Page 2 The Ronnie Fund

“You don’t have to be

a prime minister to change someone’s life. You just have to be present, care and do your best.” Justin Trudeau

Thanks to an educational spon-

sorship Constance Mwanjum-

wak is able to remain in school

for another year.

The Village’s Continuing Challenges

(a continuation of Ronnie ’ s report )

An Update on Sylvia

Unfortunately people keep losing their lives due to lack of proper medical facilities and the orphans problem is not getting any better. We have no resource mate-rial for HIV but I am hopeful to get someone who can talk on the issue

The chief also is con-cerned about drugs and alcohol. It’s really really messing people up. I am looking for volunteers who can help me on this. The biggest challenge is that the law enforcers are also involved hence making it very hard to control or stop it.

Something I noticed at the village is there is a lot of talent. Most people had their dreams shat-tered cause of domestic violence, others lack of resources.

Mombassa (boarding stu-dent) in May as the school in the village cannot ac-commodate her special needs. Sylvia has risen above this challenge and now plans on being a doc-tor so that she can help others. Sylvia—you are an inspiration to all youth!

Last fall we learned that

Sylvia Mlalwe (16), one of

our Sere Girls Club

members, had an aggres-

sive form of cancer in

her leg. Despite recom-

mendation for ourselves

and Ronnie, Sylvia’s fam-

ily chose to try alterna-

tive therapy for the can-

cer. The treatment did

not work and in January

Sylvia had to have her leg

amputated. Ronnie and

Serah were with her at

the hospital along with

Sylvia’s mother. Sylvia has

made great progress with

her chemo treatments

funded by a group from

Germany. Sylvia hopes to

resume her schooling in

Page 3 Volume 8

Ronnie and Serah visit with

Sylvia after her surgery to am-

putate her leg, a result of an

aggressive form of cancer.

Jeremy, Ronnie & Peter check out

the poor selection of tools with

the instructor at the Polytechnic

for carpentry classes. Below (at

left) a student learns how to

make Mama Pads.

There was a young man who is multi talented gospel singer/ actor, he writes scripts and skits, he even performed at Serah’s workshop. Eve-ryone was amazed but he lacks support. He would love to produce a music album but can’t. The dad has been abusing him for over 3 years, so many others also but this one stood out. He is looking for an organization or church to sponsor him and from his first album he wants 50% of his pro-ceeds go to charity. An-other girl also almost clearing her degree is stuck. What gets me is people have zero sense of exposing all these is-sues and the advice being given is pathetic.

“Set your heart on doing good. Do it over and over again, and you will be filled with joy.”

Buddha

The polytechnic is still struggling, more students are leaving, some are ac-tually walking 10 km away from Wongonyi to go to neighboring ones since they're more equipped. They were thinking they need some funding to kickstart the Mama Pad project (reusable sanitary napkins) and move ahead. The polytechnic is still in its pathetic state as you left it. One thing I ob-served is people have very negative attitude towards it and students who go there are considered fail-ures, we need to change that.

Working on a Partnership In our last newsletter we

explained our dilemma about

seeking our own charity

status , an issue we have

researched for two years. Our

decision has been not to seek

registration but rather look for

a partner organization that

might be able to give tax re-

ceipts on our behalf. We are

still working on this issue but

at this time, we are accepting

donations but NOT able to

give tax receipts. You will be

the first to know if and when a

partnership has been made.

In the meantime, our work in

Wongonyi continues. Ronnie

has been spending more time

in the village overseeing the

many ongoing programs and

projects. It is hard for us to be

here in Bracebridge with so

many positive changes being

made in Wongonyi. As with

all things, there are still chal-

lenges that are being faced

and researched, such as care

homes for orphans, much

needed medical facilities, and

initiatives for both male and

female youth. We are pleased

with the success of our new

scholarship program helping

students to stay in school and

have even branched out to

help villagers now attending

universities with loans in their

final years to ensure they can

graduate. Your financial and

OUR MISSION STATEMENT

We are a humanitarian organization dedicated to improving the

quality of life of Kenyan people. Our mission is to assist our Kenyan

friend Ronnie Mdawida achieve his dream of empowering the peo-

ple of his village of Wongonyi and Kenya to a better quality of life,

moving people from poverty to prosperity.

OUR MANDATE

Our mandate is to alleviate poverty, improve the standard of living

and strengthen the social fabric by empowering Kenyans through:

cultivating compassion and intelligence

encouraging confidence and skilful means

helping women and people decrease hunger and eliminate

global poverty

empowering citizens through education, economic opportunity

combating the spread of HIV/AIDS and other preventable

diseases like TB, malaria

building a network of mentors and world partners

in-kind gifts are helping to pro-

vide a better quality of life for our

friends in the village.

We say Asante-sana ( thank

you ) to each and everyone of

you who supports The Ronnie

Fund. Our family is simply the

facilitators , helping Ronnie to

get the resources he needs. It is

each and every one of you who

are truly making a difference in

Wongonyi Village, Kenya.

If you are interested in hearing

more about our projects, we are

happy to come and speak to

your group, our message is sim-

ply that everyone can make a

difference in this world. Contact

us at the address above.

Kathy and Peter Wood

86 Quebec Street

Bracebridge, Ontario

P1L 2A4

Phone: 705-645-8393

E-mail: theronniefund@sympatico.ca

“Supporting One Man’s Dream for

Quality Village Life in Kenya”.

We’re on the Web

at

www.easysite.com

/theronniefund

The Ronnie Fund

Isaiah Mwandami, Biosand

Project Manager, presents a

newly constructed Biosand

Water Filter to a family of or-

phans.

Check out our blog at

www.KENCANConnection@blogspot.com