Tuesday 30 November 2010

Sad news - Mimi has died

We were very sad to learn that Mimi Burbank, pictured here with two of the boys and a helper, has died. She was in her late 60s, and had been ill with breathing difficulties.
Mimi was an American lady who has been in Kasese since 2006. She worked with orphans with the Base Camp United Christian Foundation.
She joined the Committee for SKILL (Street Kids Information and Learning for Life) this summer, and since our friends and hosts, Alan and Cheryl Parrett (missionaries with Emmanuel International) left Kasese on furlough at the end of August, Mimi has been our main point of contact with our Kasese Street Kids project.
It was Mimi who not only sent us all the most recent photographs, but who also kept us fully informed of details of the spending accounts on the building work for the Hostel. She was one of the cheque signatories.
She was an amazing, vigorous and feisty lady who loved the needy children of Uganda. We are going to miss her sorely.
Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends, in Kasese, in UK and in the U.S.A. Her friend Wesley Tse emailed to say:
"While we shall mourn at the loss of our sister, we should also rejoice that she is now with our Lord and Saviour. I picture Mimi arriving at the gates of heaven and our Lord welcoming her in with wide open arms, saying, "Well done, my good and faithful servant."

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Raise funds for KSK as you shop!

I have just registered Kasese Street Kids with http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/ksk.
I have only heard about it today: if you shop online (with any one of hundreds of firms, like Argos, Amazon, Comet, etc., etc.) do it via Easyfundraising and Kasese Street Kids can benefit by up to 15% a time. Click on the link and check it out!
School Assemblies: Mary and I were over in Barrow-in-Furness last week (on Children In Need Day), to do two Assemblies about the Kasese Street Kids at the school where Mary used to work, Newbarns Primary.
We are going to Barrow again tomorrow to do another Assembly, this time at St. Paul's Junior School, where I used to be Chair of Governors, and which two of our children attended. We do a PowerPoint presentation with lots of pictures. Each school helps KSK funds with a non-uniform day or some other fund-raising event.
All invitations to schools, or adult groups, welcome!

Sunday 14 November 2010

Life as a street kid

This is Joakim, one of the boys living on the streets of Kasese, Uganda. He is a feisty 9 year old (he was 8 when this picture was taken in November 2009).
He ran away from home at the age of 5 because he was unloved and beaten, and has lived with the gang ever since.
Like most of them he smokes "Ganja", a cheap form of hash. Here he takes his first "hit" of the day: it is eight in the morning.
(Image © Carol Allen Storey)
I met Joakim briefly in March 2010. Mary and I want to help him and his friends to a safer, healthier, more positive life.
But it won't be easy. Maybe you can help!
www.justgiving.com/kasesestreetkids

Wednesday 10 November 2010

Budget for remaining building work

Some figures when considering the cost of work needed to complete the Hostel building (I will give them in GB Pounds, not Ugandan shillings):
Doors and windows: £3,102
Water tank and gutters: £1,379
Electrics, including solar panel: £3,033
Converting pit latrine to septic tank (see picture): £582.

Total for these items: £8,096
But there is more needed - notably concreting the floor, and rendering the walls inside and out, which is a substantial task.
The Committee will be considering how much of this work needs to be complete before the children can start to sleep there; and also what the priorities are.
To contact us, email to kskjenkin@hotmail.co.uk

Monday 8 November 2010

Any Old Gold?

When we were doing a street collection in The Lanes shopping precinct, Carlisle, there was a man close to us with a stall, offering people cash for gold - things like broken bangles, or single earrings, etc. He wandered over to us and suggested we should do that for KSK: invite people to look through their jewel cases or treasure drawers, and find the sort of gold objects that they will never wear again, but have never got around to doing anything about.
So we are doing that - I have written an article for our Parish Magazine making that suggestion: and even saying that if someone would like their local church to benefit too, we can arrange that - money raised from their particular items will be split 50/50 between Kasese Street Kids and their church, so they should write that request on the envelope when they give or send us things.
Maybe we will get very little response (O ye of little faith!) but - just maybe - we will be showered with large quantities of useless gold items - useless to the owner, but really well worth selling. We would get quotations from more than one merchant, to make sure we are getting a fair offer.
So - if the Parish Mag - why not the Blog too? If anyone reading this would like to contribute in that way, send your gold items to us! I might as well give you my address (Rev. C. Jenkin in Cumbria would be easy enough to trace, so there is no point in being shy about it!)
So send all your old gold to Rev. Chris Jenkin, Beckside, Orton, CA10 3RX. And we will ensure that it is sold for a good price, for the benefit of the Street Children!
Or get in touch by email - kskjenkin@hotmail.co.uk .

Wednesday 3 November 2010

Press and Radio Coverage

Today Mary and I went up to Carlisle to have a live interview on BBC Radio Cumbria - particularly, of course, about Mary's driving challenge, but it gave us an opportunity to speak about the Street Kids and the Hostel as well - and to advertise this Blog!

We got home to find a phone message from the Sunday Post -"A colourful, upbeat paper with a particularly Scottish flavour" and 900,000 readers - a reporter wanted to speak to Mary, but when we phoned back he was out. Hopefully this will lead to a story being published there - maybe some of those 900,000 readers will want to donate large sums of money to the Kasese Street Kids! (As I was writing this he phoned and we had a long chat!)

The local papers have also given good coverage - the Cumberland News, a weekly which covers Carlisle and North Cumbria, had a half-page story with several pictures, calling Mary "Supergran"! (That was what the Sunday Post reporter had seen.)

More publicity on a smaller scale - we have several engagements to speak to groups, including two schools in Barrow-in-Furness, who will also have a fund-raising "non-uniform day" for us.
(Here is another of Mary's vehicles - a Foden Steam lorry!)

Monday 1 November 2010

Mulit-Vehicle Challenge complete


Mary's Multi-vehicle Charity Challenge concluded on 31st October with her driving three more vehicles: an Aston Martin DB7, and Austin Healey Silverstone, and a huge pink Ford Stretch Limo!














The limo was by kind courtesy of http://www.lancashirelimos.co.uk/ .
This brings to total of vehicles driven since the Challenge began to 63.
It looks as if the Charity Challenge will have brought in a total of over £2,500 for the Street Kids Hostel, which we are thrilled about.
It's not too late to sponsor her, of course - on http://www.justgiving.com/kasesestreetkids , or by emailing us on kskjenkin@hotmail.co.uk .
We are so grateful to all who have already been very generous!