Austin's Kitchen Garden

At Cura, in partnership with Real Impact Farm, we hope to implement an organic, low-impact bag garden to help provide our kids with nutritious, freshly-grown fruits and vegetables. This has been a dream for us... and a new campaign is working to make it come true! That the campaign is dedicated to the memory of Austin, who was captivated by Africa and wanted to be a teacher, makes this an even more special partnership.

Please check out our Fundly page for more information... and give if you can! Every little bit helps, and we can make this garden happen as early as July if this fundraising goal is met, so please share broadly!

(Superbowl) Sunday in Cura

It's Superbowl Sunday, and our teams are rivals... but we managed to get along in Cura today!

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It was a delicious day of art and apples and visitors and laughter.

Thank you, Southwest Airlines!

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At long last, Donnah from SOS Children's Villages presented Cura with leather goods made from up-cycled upholstery from Southwest Airlines! Moses, Board members and some of the children posed for a photo with the loot!

Loise was selected as a spokesperson on camera -- to send a video thank you to Southwest for its generous donation. She was poised and articulate and confident, as usual!

These footballs from Alive and Kicking will get plenty of use...

As will these shoes from Maasai Treads!

Friday Visitors

We arrived at the end of the school day today, just as the Secondary School students were marching across the field... Our guest, Zainab, joined in -- then spent some time back at the Home with me and returning volunteer, Jenny H. It's been a week filled primarily with Nairobi-based meetings, so it was wonderful to be back in Cura with the kids who inspire us!

Cura Secondary Happenings

New desks are being built, and old desks are being refurbished, to prepare for Monday, when the Form One students come back to school!

And Head Teacher, Mr Njoroge, congratulated David Kamau, a Cura Secondary School Form Three student who was awarded a Kenya Education Fund scholarship!

Real Impact Farm

Loise, one of the new Cura Board members, and I had a long, hot day together with Linus and Marylyne of Roots and Shoots... learning about organic farming practices at Real Impact Farm. We are thrilled with the possibilities for partnership with this fantastic organization!

Cura, via Kigali

Due to technical difficulties, I can't link or post a photo here... but rest assured that it was a productive and photogenic weekend, where Cura is concerned! I traveled to Kigali, Rwanda, stayed with friends at the lovely inn, Heaven, and had a couple of meetings with people whose organizations use leadership and scholarship programs that we can adapt for the benefit of Cura Secondary School students.

Chris Mburu, of the Hilde Back Education Fund shared his experiences with his scholarship program over our delicious appetizers -- and, over our hearty brunch, Tina Anderson, with These Numbers have Faces, helped me understand her program's leadership curriculum for young people making the transition to university.

So many people doing such fantastic work!
~H

Books Books Books, Property of Cura Primary

This book delivery was a long time coming!

Poetry

Today Jane and I distributed the beautiful books of poetry to the Cura poets and the rest of the kids...  Many thanks to Mary Strickler and her students for such a successful project!

Nairobi Partner Meetings

This morning I met with Linus, Marylyne and Brenda, of Jane Goodall's Roots and Shoots -- to debrief about the Cura Secondary School Real Impact Farm field trip they coordinated, as well as potential future plans. Our conversation ranged from agribusiness, to kitchen gardens, to organic farming, to secondary school curriculum, to job training and mentoring... big ideas in the works!

After a stroll down Ngong Road, I then met with Dominic from Kenya Education Fund... and received the excellent news that one of the Cura Secondary School student applicants was accepted into KEF's scholarship program! I'm thrilled!

Yet to go today... an afternoon meeting with Pip from Flying Kites -- to talk about the LaunchPad program they're implementing to help their students transition from secondary school into their adult lives. Such meaningful work going on all around here in Nairobi, and so many opportunities for us to network for the benefit of the projects we're passionate about!

Lots of Everything

Yesterday I had a long meeting with some of the new Board members leading the projects in Cura... we had LOTS to talk about. I really did need a day to process all of the information and plan a way forward, even just for the nearest future... there are lots of challenges and lots to celebrate and lots to do! I didn't go to Cura today, but instead stayed in Nairobi  to have lots of meetings with lots of interesting people, amid lots of traffic and, eventually, lots of rain!

Dusty Return

It's been a while since rain fell in Cura - so we breathed in red dust as we drove down the road!

A generous friend donated some toys for younger children, so the mothers promised to deliver them to their grandchildren, nieces and nephews!

And Jane got a sneak peak at the poetry book she helped create with a US- based yearbook class... Such an accomplishment!

Books on Order

Last year, I worked with Julius at Nairobi's Text Book Centre to compile an order of books for Cura Primary -- and this year I'm finally filling the order! Thanks to donor dollars raised to support education in Cura, I will be making a large delivery of Science, Social Studies and English textbooks later this week. Mrs. Mwathi, Cura Primary School's Head Teacher, is helping me determine a good date/time for the presentation... so watch this space for photos of that event!

CURA Heart

I'm heading back to Cura -- FINALLY -- wearing my custom-made pendant from Melinda Maria... 100% of the proceeds go to Cura, so if you like mine, why not buy one for yourself or a loved one?

Coming out of Hibernation

Things have been a little slow on the Cura Orphanage blog in 2014, but I'm working on changing that! I head back to Cura this weekend, so please watch this space... and Facebook, too!

My bags are packed, filled with art supplies from a generous friend, and a whole box full of poetry books, thanks to the wonderful Mary Strickler, Balfour and Jane Muya. They worked with students in Cura and in the US to produce a lovely collection of poetry and images -- and each of our Cura Rotary Home kids will get a copy!

I'll be arriving on the heels of some other very generous visitors who delivered boxes and boxes of clothing and school supplies -- it's a wonder how they got them all through the airport!

Henry and the rest of the kids gratefully approve.

Thank you for watching this space for more photos and news over the next couple of weeks!

Cura at 10!

On Saturday, Cura Rotary Home celebrated its 10th birthday! 

It's hard to believe our projects have been underway for a decade already,

but we definitely think the milestone warranted a party!

Founder, Evelyn Mungai Eldon

Deputy Director, Mike Eldon

Dancing, of course!

Dignitaries in attendance

The Mothers, entertaining the crowd

Please share... and GO!

Special for August! Burning Torch will be selling gift cards to benefit Cura Orphanage!



Creative Visions Foundation will host its monthly sun-downer -- always a good time! -- but the event on 7 August is special to us because Burning Torch will be there to sell gift cards that will benefit US!


Please attend if you can... and tell your friends!

Thursday, August 7th 6-8pm*
Online pre-sale - $20
At the door - $25
*CAP Members are free

Dan Eldon Center for Creative Activism
18820 PCH Suite 201, Malibu, CA 90265

RSVP HERE

A big week!

This week saw the launch of a project started nearly two years ago with a contact from Southwest Airlines who wanted to see if Cura could help re-purpose the leather from the airplane seats that were getting a make-over. In partnership with Creative Visions Foundation, GoodMakers and the Gina Din Foundation -- and largely due to the amazing work of Tilo Ponder -- the project is much bigger and much more successful than we could have initially imagined!

Watch the Southwest package on this project  -- and check out the Wall Street Journal online piece about it, too!

We are so grateful to everyone involved, and we're looking forward to getting kids in Cura outfitted with backpacks, shoes and footballs made from the "upcycled" leather!

There is also big news at Cura Secondary School, in that the process of having the school officially designated by the Kenyan Ministry of Education is nearly complete. This designation will mean that the government will take over responsibility for paying teachers' salaries (a major financial burden lifted from the current administration!) and the school will be eligible for other forms of government funding.

This will allow those of us on the US fund-raising side to concentrate on the next step for Cura's young people... college, job training and mentorship. Stay tuned for more information about the programs and scholarships we'll be putting in place this year!

Thank you Kenya Education Fund!

Many thanks to Kenya Education Fund administrators and generous Cura donors -- you made it possible for two Cura Secondary School students to participate in this weekend's Mentoring Workshop!

With funds from donors who want to support educational opportunities in Cura, we sent two students to this workshop in June 2013; we plan to send two more to the sessions set for this July, as well. The students are selected to participate by their high school teachers, and they are expected to present materials and information to their classmates when they get back to school. Both students and teachers at Cura Secondary say that the strategies and resources that come back from the workshops are getting results! 

Medical Camp by the Numbers

Jane, Margaret and Peris have gathered some of the basic data from our Medical Camp day, and here are some of the significant numbers...

The number of Cura community members who participated in our Medical Clinic day...
Actually, it's OVER this number, AND this doesn't include the 50 of our children at the Home!

The number of male patients screened for prostate cancer.

The number of female patients screen for breast and cervical cancers.

The number of patients screened for HIV. Of that number, two patients screened positive and were referred to the appropriate government clinic for further treatment and information.

The number of patients screened for diabetes.

At least 100 people, including our 50 children, were also screened for hearing, vision and ENT issues. One of the girls in our Home has significant hearing loss, as it turns out, and is now pursuing treatment. As Jane recently pointed out, all of these services are expensive enough for the local community that almost none of them would have had either testing or treatment had we not collaborated on this important event. 

THANK YOU to those who gave their time, talent and resources in support of this successful day!