What is needed?  Money - just £750!  With gift aid just £600 needs to be donated.

What's it for?  To supply a home for orphaned children in Kenya with much needed electricity.  The children in this home have none and in the evenings they have to use lamps which as you can see from the picture, gives out very little light.

Riandu is a small community 150km from Nairobi.  It suffers a lack of rainfall with crops failing on a regular basis.  This leads to poverty and premature death of children as well as their parents.

In 2002  a local welfare group approached Vision Africa about setting up a children's home in the area.  VA helped build a shelter to provide care and protection for the orphans and vulnerable children.  'Mbeere Children's Home' opened in 2004 and today has around 60 children.

Electricity is in the area but they have to pay to connect up to it.  The cost is around £700.  By doing so, it would allow the children to use the classroom in the home for studies at night rather than using paraffin lamps in the dining hall.  Being near the equator it gets dark around 6.30-7.00pm every evening!

If more than that is raised, it will allow the home to purchase a television for the children to watch.

What am I doing to encourage you to give?  Nothing, Nada, Rien, Niets, Niente, Ingenting, Khe Chaina, Gar nichts, kuch nachin, nashi, moo-ka-chi, Nihil, ekkert.  No prizes if you know which language all those come from!

No running a marathon.  No climbing Everest or throwing myself out of a plane. 

All I ask is that you consider how it would feel going home tonight and sitting down after a meagre meal with no lights.  No TV or computer to look at and pass the evening or brighten up the dark. 

Oh, I should have said that while I am doing nothing, I will do something to encourage you to give!  I will match every donation made with my own money up to £500.  So actually I'm only asking you to give £300 since this matched, with gift aid will give us the £750 we need. 

So please give as much or as little as you can and let's help this worthwhile and deserving cause.

When is it needed by?  Fast!  By Friday 15th July so don't delay!