2016
70,000/- to Homeless of Nairobi
149,600/- worth of beads, trophies & goblets to One Bead
16,000/- to Virunga Fallen Rangers Fund
15,000/- to the VW Anonymous Club to drive 1300+ kms for the orphans at Teule Childrens Home, Loitokitok
6,800/- to Dalmas Ngoizi & Mercy Njoki school fees (Elima Junior Academy)
15,000/- to the Sirkon 2016 Charity Race and Fun Run
5,000/- gift voucher to the Rhino Charge Raffle Committee
2,500/- to Tushinde Children’s Trust
65,000/- of glass balls for Garissa University Memorial Garden
15,000/- to tree planting for Oloosirkon Secondary School
25,000/- to Ngare Ndare Forest Trust
15,000/- for 2 month’s rations for the Walk with Rangers Tana Delta anti-poaching team, & trophies worth
20,000/- to the 10to4 bike challenge in support of the Mount Kenya Trust.
2015
22,000/- for milk to Homeless of Nairobi, pay for a volunteer’s month’s salary & 4 Taekwondo & music lessons,
15,000/- to buy football uniforms for our local Oloosirkon Football Club.
Our broader-ranging contributory efforts include following Fair Trade guidelines; paying a staff of 40 well above standard wages; and providing them with loans, transport, medical, and controlled working hours and conditions. The studio also supports the local school in Oloosirkon (Tuala) by supplying desks, chairs, water during the dry season, exam papers, reference materials and storybooks. We also sell greetings cards made by Women in Kibera – Kibera Paper – and also from Tunajenga, a fair trade organization supporting men from diverse Kenyan communities.
Sara Wroblewski (www.onebead.org) visited mid 2012 with three friends to inspect the kilometer long fence that they funded around our local Oloosirkon Primary School. They also donated many kg of school supplies they brought with them. We held an art camp at the studio, to teach the students about recycling, art & glass. Sara raised 500,000/- shillings for the fence in the USA with the sale of beads (donated by Anselm’s studio) that were made into bracelets and sold to her fellow students.
She has purchased a plot in the centre of Oloosirkon 'town' – pending cutting through a tangle of red tape to build a community centre. Heartwarming tingly feel-good stuff, by an amazing individual. Her program continues to thrive, focussing on leadership initiatives in the USA.
We’ve planted trees, repaired roads and collected garbage.
In addition, Kitengela Hot Glass donates more than 30 raffle prizes to a myriad of causes annually. In the coming years, the company, with the assistance of One Bead, is planning to focus on local adolescents in its vicinity. The goal here is to help them to better connect with their environment and resident wildlife via tree planting, and creating a community centre. Kitengela Hot Glass’s hope is that these efforts will stimulate greater appreciation for the surroundings and gretaer civic pride in the neighbourhood.
“The picture below is of Oloosirkon Government Primary School/Shilinge Primary School and Emakoko Primary School children being visited by the Chanuka Express mobile bus,” explains Anselm. “Its aim is to uplift young people through literacy and practical life skills education. Kitengela Hot Glass also funds monthly subscriptions to the Chanuka Express children’s newspaper.”
One local student, Dennis Mokua, graduated at the top of his class from Oloosirkon in December 2010. He scored 335 marks out of 500 which equates to a “B” average. Dennis’s ambition is to become a doctor.
Kitengela Hot Glass paid his secondary school fees and expenses for 2011 & 2012. He finished his first year in secondary with a B+ (6th out of 119). His results in 2011 were a B+ (6th out of 136). Our scholarship for him continues. In Dec 2012 he had a mean ‘A’ grade (3rd out of 135). Also in 2011 we sponsored him to attend the Jehudi 2nd ‘Growing up Green’ Annual Camp on Environment, where he had the opportunity to visit a biogas slaughter house, was introduced to NEMA, met Dr. Shah (the first Kenyan to get a PHD in pharmacy & responsible for planting trees along Waiyaki Way), visit the Giraffe Centre, plant trees & go horse riding in Central Province.
“What Dennis has achieved is very impressive,” Anselm comments, “especially when you consider the difficult learning environment at a poorly-funded school."