Kent2CapeTown.com is being carried out in aid of terminally ill children. Rather than driving through Africa in order simply to help the children at Demelza House, we want to express our concern for children facing incredible hardship in Africa. Much of the African continent has been torn apart by war, famine and disease. It is often innocent children that suffer. Africa on the whole is in the midst of an appalling AIDS epidemic which contributes daily to the ever-growing number of orphans, many of whom have either HIV or AIDS. Though on the grander scale we are able to do little more than make a gesture, we have decided to break our trip in order to help with the work being done at three African Children's Hospices.

Project 1 - Pillar of Faith Home for Needy Children, P.O Box 6138, Kisumu, Kenya.

In 1997 two small children came naked to Nelson Ayaga's house, knocked on his door and pleaded for help. Then he woke up from a deep sleep not knowing whether his experience had been real or a dream. He prayed to God and decided that it was a calling to help some of Kisumu's many orphaned children. Kenya on the whole has an enormous AIDS problem. This dreadful disease often leaves children without parents. An orphan's relatives are often too poor to care for extra children and so they are forced onto the streets where they struggle to survive. There is no welfare system in Kenya and such children depend entirely on the compassion and charity of others. Where there is no kindness they die.

Nelson now has 36 children in full time care ranging from the ages of four to eighteen. They know him and his wife as father and mother and are given the love and family environment a child deserves. He gives them all the opportunity to attend school, gives them food, clothing and a good Christian upbringing. He runs the orphanage from rented property and lives with the constant threat of eviction.

He has located a ten-acre plot of land on the edge of Kisumu and prays that he will receive the money needed to buy the land. Once he has this land he hopes to expand the orphanage to cater for over a hundred children. He would set up a series of buildings in which twenty or so children can live as a family with a surrogate father and mother. The land would not only provide the children space to play safely but would enable Nelson to set up training programmes which would give children a fair chance of gaining employment once they leave school (some children cannot obtain the standards necessary to attend school and so would depend on such a scheme) Children could be trained in skills such as carpentry, shoe making, the keeping of chickens, growing maze etc. Not only would such skills ensure an individuals place in society but it would bring in revenue to the orphanage; give it a degree of self-support.

The Pillar of Faith Home for needy Children is in great need of help. Kent2CapeTown.com aim to raise funds as well as set up a scheme where people can sponsor an individual child with the money he or she needs to eat, be clothed and to receive an education. We also hope to supply the orphanage with voluntary doctors, nurses, missionaries, teachers and general helpers. There is a strong possibility that a 'gap year' scheme will soon be set up. Please help this incredible project by giving either some money or your time. For further information you can email me on info@kent2capetown.com or you can email Nelson directly on newpilfa@kisumu.africaonline.com. Those interested in coming to administer to the children's spiritual needs and to create awareness about HIV and AIDS through the church can email princeofpeace4@hotmail.com.

Project 2 - Rushere Hospital, Uganda.

Uganda is a breathtakingly beautiful country but is struggling to recover from the terrible civil war, which raged under the tyrannical leadership of Milton Obote and Idi Amin. During the 1980's Yoweri Musuveni began to build up a guerrilla force made up largely of orphaned teenagers. The force became the National Resistance Army (NRA), which finally achieved a clean sweep of the corrupt administration and peace finally came in 1986. Although the country is slowly recovering, much still needs to be done. The population in the area around Rushere, in the South West, has grown dramatically but until recently they were forced to travel over ninety miles to reach the nearest medical centre. President Musuveni lives in the area and, with his newfound popularity, was able to find a Christian group in the U.S willing to build a hospital in Rushere. It was built and opened in October 1992.

Rushere Hospital Building

Joan Hall, Hospital administrator. E-mail: joanhall@africaonline.co.ug

Joan Hall, the hospital's administrator, is an elderly English lady who is devoted to ensuring the hospital can expand and gain a firm financial footing for the future. She is now seeking long-term financial support but felt that the hospital needed reorganizing before she could begin this task. Our time at the hospital was spent organizing the past ten year's medical records, sorting through all the equipment - some of which had been buried in an old store room since the hospital was founded in 1992 - and producing a detailed inventory of all items in the hospital's possession.

Our continued efforts on behalf of Rushere Hospital will be concentrated on raising the funds necessary to build a new children's ward and operating theatre and staff quarters to accommodate the extra nurses that will be required.

Sick boy with his father by his side

One of the nurses at Rushere Hospital

Please give generously and so support our fund raising efforts on their behalf. You can contact me on info@kent2capetown.com You can contact the hospital's administrator on joanhall@africaonline.co.ug

Project 3 - Project Gateway, Pietermaritzberg, South Africa

Project Gateway

Shining Happy Person

Project Gateway is an organization set up and run by a network of Christian Churches. It is run in the towns old Gaol. The venue, once a place of despair, is now a place of love and compassion. They offer a Pregnancy Crisis Centre, AIDS counselling, a home for orphaned babies with HIV, a Christian school and a night shelter for the homeless. These projects are funded by charitable donations as well as profit making enterprises run on site such as fabric painting and the wonderful Jailbreak café and gift shop. They also aim to equip the needy with the skills required to start and run successful businesses. As well as teaching skills such as carpentry, metal work and sewing, they teach necessary business strategies such as marketing and accounting. Our work here was focus on Deduza House babies home.

A surrogate mother caring for an orphan

It was a very sad project to be involved in as every child has HIV and is not expected to live for long. It is a wonderful place though, and children are given the love and attention they need by surrogate 'mother' figures. Our future support of Project Gateway will take the form of raising the necessary funds for Deduza Home to expand and care for a far larger number of the community's AIDS orphans. Pietermaritzberg is the world's HIV/AIDS epicentre and Deduza Home is in great needs of support. Please help us give it to them.

For more information about Project Gateway you can visit their website at www.projectgateway.co.za

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