Summer 2009 Newsletter

News from Doublejoy

The big news from Double Joy that is making every one happy is the recovery of Mary Hinde who had been suffering from malaria and spent some time in hospital in Kisumu. Mary reports:

Thank you again for your generous support of Double Joy. We are so grateful to you for all your faithfulness.

At the end of 2007 we had to lay off a quarter of our staff. However, since November we have provided employment for seven new people. Our new manager is one who was laid off in 2007 and he is bringing in a great many savings simply by being careful with things like cement, saving us thousands of shillings. Two of our staff died at the turn of the year - one of sickness and one in a road accident and we have replaced them with two men with considerable work experience and many skills. One is now our new storekeeper, bringing more efficiency to storekeeping and the other is a practical genius who is helping us with all kinds of building maintenance. He will be able to weld for John when he comes to improve our guttering.

Just now we have thirty-four young people in secondary school, polytechnic and college. Seven are going to do their secondary school leaving examination this year.

Irene Grace Obara was an orphan we adopted. After she sat her primary school leaving exam, because she had done so well in the exam, she was given a place in a very high class secondary school. She did so well in the secondary school leaving exam that she has been awarded a place in Nairobi University (the best university in Kenya) to read economics. From her experience we are learning that such a course is not impossibly expensive. We have another secondary school leaver called Denis who, we hope, will follow in her footsteps.

In our area the maize was doing very well and people were full of hope. However, the rainy season came to a sudden end at the end of May leaving the immature maize crop to die. The cows will be able to eat the maize stalks, but in other parts of Kenya nothing grew. Even in Nairobi water is being rationed. The situation is being made worse by hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia. With the situation in most parts of Kenya being worse than in our area we cannot hope for much help from the government here.

With much love and gratitude from us all, Mary Hinde

Visitors’ News

On this occasion I haven’t got any recent news from visitors, although Eric will be visiting soon. However, I’d like to quote from a recent letter, sent with a donation:

“During and after our family visit in 2004, I was and continue to be amazed by the impact that Double Joy has on the children’s lives. To see such genuine smiles, humour, friendship and gratitude offered by the children despite the terrible suffering that they have been through was a truly humbling experience.”

Stuart Masterman, March 2009

Pen-pals

We continue to link UK pen pals with children at Double Joy. Ruth Adhiambo coordinates letter writing at Double Joy, leading to a flow of correspondence between friends in UK and children at Double Joy. We would like to encourage more regular letter writing from both UK pen-pals and Double Joy children, as people report long delays in waiting for responses to letters. This scheme provides a vibrant link between yourselves and Double Joy and gives you a very personal link with the project. If you’d like to become a pen-pal, please write to Ruth in the first instance.

Home for the Elderly

In November 2008 Mary told us of 6 elderly people, who had been supported by an NGO (non governmental organisation). The NGO that supported elderly folk and children in the community around Double Joy, and ran its administration from an office building in the Double Joy compound, has relocated to Bondo, some distance away.

The NGO was then unable to reach the 6 individuals and Mary felt it was incumbent on Double Joy to keep these people alive. She sent a plea to Double Joy supporters for help as she is unable to spend Friends of Double Joy donations for this purpose. She refurbished the office building to accommodate the 6 people.

The response has been encouraging and we are grateful to you who have joined this effort or extended your contributions to support the elderly folk. Mary reports the monthly cost to be about £230. Presently there is £140 per month being donated.

I have asked Friends of Double Joy trustees if they might consider redesigning the constitution, with Charity Commission approval, to include the elderly people in their Charitable Aims. Mary Hinde is very grateful for your recent support for the elderly people and wishes to stress that the children are, and always will be, the priority of Double Joy and that she isn’t intending to support more than a maximum of 12 older people

In the meantime any donations or fundraising ideas to raise one off amounts are welcome and, until it is clear if oDJ can accommodate the aims for the elderly people, I am trying to raise money to send to Mary to bridge the gap in funds.
I am going to Kenya soon to visit the new home for the elderly and to catch up with the children, of course. I’ve been compiling stories, articles, photos and some video that I hope will be of interest at http://fodj.posterous.com. As always, please look at www.double-joy.org.uk for more news and information about FoDJ.

Contact Eric Roseden for a standing order mandate form for the Residence for the Elderly. 24 Knowe Hill Crescent, Lancaster LA1 4JY , ericroseden@yahoo.co.uk or tel: 01524 383763.

FUNdraising!

Lancaster to York bike ride

I’m a Quaker, & every year Quakers have an annual gathering called Yearly Meeting (YM). This year, YM takes place in York in the last week of July. I’ve decided to cycle there & back, health permitting, to raise some funds for Double Joy. Would you like to sponsor me? I’m going to take 6 days to cycle there, and 3 days to cycle back. My total distance will be about 300 miles. You could sponsor me for the entire trip, by the mile or by the day – it’s up to you!

If you’d like to sponsor me, or you’d like a form to gather sponsorship money please contact me on 01524 847617 or jenroys@aol.com. Or, why don’t you decide there’s a way that you could do something to raise funds for DJ? Then tell everyone about it through the newsletter, & spark off someone else’s good idea...
Roy Stephenson

Roy – this could start a (bicycle) chain reaction!

Reindeer Food!

I didn’t know what reindeer food looks like, but apparently it looks very much like bird food, with seeds, corn and that extra special festive ingredient, glitter. You put it out in your garden just before Christmas and Santa’s reindeer know to visit your house. Pauline Ogle in Maghull had a Christmas sale and sold this special reindeer food to raise money for Double Joy.

Thank you Pauline!
It’s always lovely to hear about the amazingly varied ways FODJ supporters raise money so please send me reports of what you and your friends have been doing.
Wendy

Treasurer’s Report

A very big thank you!

...to all those who continue to give generously to Double Joy despite the credit crunch. Thanks also for your generosity over the Christmas period when we received many donations. This is always a great time for Double Joy. The summer months tend to be leaner and at this time we rely heavily on the regular commitment of our standing order donors. We had a record number of people becoming standing order donors last year, which is great. I’ve added a form for setting up a standing order in case you think you might be able to commit to more regular donations. Even small standing orders are a great help.

Peace holds but prices are high

Fortunately peace in Kenya is holding for the current time although the devastation and loss caused during the violence has been felt by all in Kenya and has had a damaging effect on the economy. The price of maize has doubled and fuel prices have risen by 50%. There has also been a drought in Kenya which you may have read about in newspapers causing loss of livestock and worries about the harvest. We are pleased to say the rains are now coming causing much relief and rejoicing.

Donations up on last year!

This year we made £56,252 (an increase of £4,638 on last year). Our total costs including bank charges were £336. This makes our running costs less than 1%!

So, where does your money go?

Double Joy has 90 children on the compound and 12 young people that they are supporting at Secondary school and 19 at Polytechnic. Double Joy is also supporting four young people in Higher Education. One is at teacher training college, one at Catholic Seminary, and two at University studying Economics and Clinical Medicine.

Investing in our young people

We see the support we give to Double Joy as not just charity but as an investment in the lives of these dynamic and talented young people who will, not only now survive to become adults, but will become a blessing to their community bringing new skills and ideas and help to support others around them.

Other expenses

We continue to assist with salaries of staff required to care for and teach the children, medical care for the children, materials for the school and provisions for farming. In addition to this we supplement administration and communication overheads and assist with transport costs that are high due to Double Joy’s remote location.
Chrissie Hinde