In November last year Camp Kenya, a gap year project undertaken by Camps International, started working with the Chanukeni Children’s Centre founded by the Chanukani woman’s group.
The women’s group strives to provide nutritional, as well as medical support to the children, despite the total lack of resources, no kitchen and no adequate food supplies and catering equipment. The medical support is hampered by both lack of transport and personnel. Camp Kenya’s collaboration with the group is intended to improve services at the centre and to provide extensive support to the children.
Over the first few months Camp Kenya visited the centre a number of times to discuss Camp Kenya’s involvement in rehabilitating the centre and building an entirely new classroom and sanitary facility. The original classroom was a mud walled, makuti roof (thatched) structure, with a dirt floor infested with Jigger worms. Up to 90% of the children are infested with jiggers in their feet and legs, which is extremely painful and if they are not removed or treated can cause severe disabilities.
Monique Baronet from Camps International’s Kenya Office explained “Our first task has been to build the children a new classroom and play area with a concrete floor to alleviate the jigger infestation, we started work on the new classroom toward the end of August 2008, Camp Kenya contracted the work out to a local contractor and the main classroom is now finished and the old classroom demolished.”
“We have also excavated an existing well that sits on the centre’s boundary, the children now have water to drink and wash with.”
A combination of diseases and sickness related to poor hygiene such as diarrhoea, cholera and dysentery are common among the children, it’s our hope to relieve the centre of such diseases, we have constructed a small sanitary unit for both the children and teachers to use. This work has been made possible through people choosing to volunteer on our gap year project.
Camps International were recently won the Best volunteering organisation awarded by Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards 2008 with http://www.responsibletravel.com
The women’s group strives to provide nutritional, as well as medical support to the children, despite the total lack of resources, no kitchen and no adequate food supplies and catering equipment. The medical support is hampered by both lack of transport and personnel. Camp Kenya’s collaboration with the group is intended to improve services at the centre and to provide extensive support to the children.
Over the first few months Camp Kenya visited the centre a number of times to discuss Camp Kenya’s involvement in rehabilitating the centre and building an entirely new classroom and sanitary facility. The original classroom was a mud walled, makuti roof (thatched) structure, with a dirt floor infested with Jigger worms. Up to 90% of the children are infested with jiggers in their feet and legs, which is extremely painful and if they are not removed or treated can cause severe disabilities.
Monique Baronet from Camps International’s Kenya Office explained “Our first task has been to build the children a new classroom and play area with a concrete floor to alleviate the jigger infestation, we started work on the new classroom toward the end of August 2008, Camp Kenya contracted the work out to a local contractor and the main classroom is now finished and the old classroom demolished.”
“We have also excavated an existing well that sits on the centre’s boundary, the children now have water to drink and wash with.”
A combination of diseases and sickness related to poor hygiene such as diarrhoea, cholera and dysentery are common among the children, it’s our hope to relieve the centre of such diseases, we have constructed a small sanitary unit for both the children and teachers to use. This work has been made possible through people choosing to volunteer on our gap year project.
Camps International were recently won the Best volunteering organisation awarded by Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards 2008 with http://www.responsibletravel.com
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