Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.
In September I will be flying out to Kenya to volunteer for Action for Children in Conflict (AfCiC). I will be volunteering as a clinical psychologist within their street children's programme in the Thika district, for 9 months to a year. The programme works with children who come from backgrounds of extreme poverty, hunger, neglect, abandonment, family breakdown and abuse. These children are often forced to live on the streets, working and begging, and are highly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Many often find themselves resorting to substance misuse as a way of escaping the cold, hunger and trauma and often find themselves in conflict with local residents and police. The programme runs several programmes to help rehabilitate and reintegrate these children back to their families (where possible), schools and community. The programmes include outreach and day care centres and a residential interim care centre for the most abused and vulnerable children who cannot immediately rejoin their families.
My role will be to help develop the mental health side of these programmes, providing individual and group therapy to the children and their families, as well as to provide teaching and training to staff within the centres on mental health issues, counselling and therapy in order to help ensure long-term sustainability. I also hope to raise awareness and understanding of mental health issues within the wider community, working with the local schools, police and medical professionals.
In addition to the role I will be undertaking in Kenya, my aim is to raise £1000 for the charity. The money donated through JustGiving will go directly to AfCiC. Some examples of how this money may be spent include:
£10 - can pay for a school uniform for a vulnerable child (often the only thing preventing a child from attending school is a lack of a uniform), or will buy play therapy materials to help children communicate or express difficult feelings and experiences.
£15 - can provide a desk for a poorly equipped classroom.
£20 - can feed a child within the programme 3 times a day for a month, or provide a bed kit (mattress, blanket and mosquito net) to a child.
£35 - will feed a child at school every lunchtime for a year.
£40 - will pay a school cook's salary for one month, allowing the charity to feed 200 children.
£50 - will pay for a skills training course for an unemployed youth (inc. tailoring, carpentry, hairdressing or bicycle repair), or buy counselling books for the staff.
£100 - can go towards additional staff training, furniture or equipment.
Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to AfCiC and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.
So please dig deep and donate now.
Thank you very much for your support.
