Asante - thank you - to everyone who contributed to the 2018 Holiday Campaign! We look forward to showing you how your generous donations are going to make a difference in Kenya in 2019!
Our 2018 Holiday Campaign is now underway. Find out how you can give a gift with meaning to your family and friends and support our projects in Kenya.
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Helping rural children in Kenya at the heart of Farmers Helping Farmers 2018 Holiday Campaign
The Farmers Helping Farmers (FHF) Campaign 2018 offers many ways to give a gift with meaning and support the work of the P.E.I.-based organization in Kenya.
Donors will receive a gift card in time for Christmas for donations received by December 15, 2018.
This year, there are a couple of new initiatives that will focus on children in Kenyan schools twinned with schools and Sunday schools on P.E.I.
One new offering for the 2018 campaign is Vitamin-A rich orange-fleshed sweet potatoes for 10 school children for $25.
Farmers Helping Farmers provides a school garden – and a gardener – at 18 schools that now have a cookhouse, thanks to the generosity of supporters of FHF and The Village Feast.
Students are served a stew for lunch called githeri, primarily made of beans and maize cooked in a giant pot. The vegetables from the garden add nutritional value in the form of kale, cabbage, onions, and tomatoes.
Schools have recently started growing more sweet potatoes and more want to add them.
“Vitamin A deficiency is a widespread problem in sub-Saharan Africa, including Kenya,” said Teresa Mellish, coordinator for Farmers Helping Farmers.
“Orange fleshed sweet potatoes are rich in beta carotene which the body converts into Vitamin A and the children love them because they are sweet.”
More than 3,000 Kenyan school children now have a hot meal each day at the twinned schools.
Another offering for the 2018 campaign is a $200 donation to help make a school disability-friendly.
It’s part of the Safe and Inclusive Schools (SIS) Project of Farmers Helping Farmers, which will include a new round of workshops and visits in March 2019.
The goal is to work with teachers and administrators to create positive learning environments for all, with inclusive classrooms for students with special needs.
“After our 2016 work in Kenya, rural teachers asked us for more workshops, visits to schools, and materials for all students to learn shapes, numbers, the alphabet and more,” said Liz Townsend, a member of the Education Committee of Farmers Helping Farmers.
“They need ramps and other renovations to make classrooms and toilets accessible to students with physical challenges.”
Townsend will travel to Kenya with two other members in March to help guide the project.She says donations to the Holiday Campaign will support the purchase of specialized learning materials in Kenya as well as construction supplies and labour to demonstrate accessibility options in two twinned schools.
Last year’s Holiday Campaign raised almost $50,000 and had a positive impact on the lives of roughly 1,500 individuals in their farm households and 4,500 children in schools in rural Kenya where Farmers Helping Farmers has been working since 1980.
There are a dozen different gift suggestions, from $10 mosquito nets, $20 soccer balls, $25 for a vegetable grow bag, $90 for milk for school children, $500 for a water tank, to $1,000 to establish a vegetable garden for a school.
Colleen Walton, president of Farmers Helping Farmers, says the Holiday Campaign is crucial to support the work the organization does in Kenya.
"One hundred per cent of these gifts will go directly to Kenya," said Walton.
“We are grateful for the long-term support of people on P.E.I.and beyond.”
