My name is Marijana. I come from Bosnia and Herzegovina. I would really like to help with this project. I was wandering would it be ok for me to contact various toy companies asking them to donate christmas gifts for the children? If they comly in what ways can the gifts be shifted to the orphanage?

Hello Marijana

Welcome to Kabondo and thank you for joining! Yes please do contact various toy companies for gifts for the children. As far as getting the items shipped, they can be sent directly to the village, care of Eric Ochanji, the local representative. The address is 8 Kadongo, Kabondo via Oyugis, Kenya.

I can provide you with a phone number and email address as well for Eric, if that is needed.

I should mention that the children do not live in an orphanage. To maintain ties to their family and community, the orphans typically live with extended family or other guardians in the community whenever possible. Other members of the community assist whenever they can. Members and leaders of Kabondo feel that it is important that the orphans maintain links to the community.

If you need any assistance or have any other questions, please feel free to ask any time!

Regards,
Barb
Facilitator Kabondo

Hello Everyone,

I have to make a few corrections to my original post regarding this task.

First: in addition to gifts-in-kind, funds are required for the party. The community has established a budget of $1230 for this party. The money will be used to purchase food, drinks, gifts, entertainment and transport for the orphans. The community has agreed to contribute maize that will be used to prepare Ugali (a common staple food among the Luo community of Western Kenya that accompanies every meal). They have also agreed to contribute beans to prepare Nyoyo (a mixture of maize and beans), firewood, fetching of water and cooking. The members of the community who have farm produce to spare will also donate it to the families of the orphans on that day.

This party will be not only for the 120 orphans originally identified for this project, but all the orphans and vulnerable children in the area, which is over 400.

Second: After Eric consulted with the local postmaster, he was advised that gifts be sent to a city address rather, where Eric will pick them up. The correct address is:

Eric Ochanji
P.O. BOX 3527 - 40100
KISUMU, KENYA

All donations will be acknowledge and receipts provided.

So lets try to make this a special day for all the children.

Regards,
Barb

Hello,
My name is Mariska.. I am from the Netherlands and I would love to help. But this is my first project actually, I am new at Nabuur.
So to be honest, I don't know exactly how I can help you.
But I do know that I can, I am studying leisure& tourism, so I am very often in contact with children.. And learn a lot about them, and how to teach them.. And entertain them.
Can anybody tell me how I can help?
Lots of love. :-D

Hello Mariska!

Welcome to Kabondo and Nabuur. We are glad to have you.

There are a number of ways you can help. First, take a look at the project (the resource section with the project plan, budget, other documents, etc) to get an idea of what work has been done or is planned. Also look at the various tasks. Once you have found a task that interests you, (such as say this one, which is helping with the Christmas party), you can contribute in a number of ways.

For example, on this task, we are looking for ideas on how we can raise either the actual gifts for the Christmas party, or funds to cover the costs of the party. So, you could contribute by finding organizations that could donate items and look into ways to ship them. You could maybe organize a collection of toys and gifts and/or funds in your home town and send them to the children; or you could post comments on various ideas for what we can do.

The options are yours and we can provide guidance, input, assistance as well.

Does this help? Have I answered your questions? If not, please do let me know. If so, let us know what you would like to do or how you would like to contribute and then we can proceed from there!!

:-D

Warmly,
Barb

Hello Mariska,

Thank you very much for joining Kabondo and your offer to help our HIV/AIDS orphans and other disadvantaged children. Barb has rightly given you a brief on what issues we are trying to address. It is my sincere hope that you will find a way of helping out. Thank you very much for your efforts and concern.

Eric

Local Representative

Thanks Barb! This information helped me a lot!

Hi Ineke,

Thank you very much for offering assistance. If you could look into seeing if this organization can assist us this year. Other ideas and suggestions are also welcome!

Regards,

Barb

hey Barb,

i'm a newer at nabuur, my name is Navin Son, would you need my help. i'm a graphic designer, i can doing some card design as a gift for the christmas party or doing some other gift of...

can i know what ur idea for this party, hope i can help you!!!

Cheers~

Navin Son

Hello Navin,

Welcome to Nabuur and to Kabondo! We are glad to have you.

This is a great idea. Cards or some other gifts would be great. How can I help you do this? What information do you need? What kind of gifts were you thinking?

Barb

Hello Barb,

i just tell you my idea. i'll use a card to have a draw or print the Christmas image or some greeting, and the inside of the card i fill it blank, so that u and neighbour can write something and send the card to the people who need this christmas love !

i want to ask, is it any title can i put in the card ? when i finish the card, i send to what address can u tell me, so that i can easy to mail to u!

hey Barb.... i'll start my work and i'll send it to u! oh ya! can i know what is ur due date!

TQ
Navin

p/s: how many pcs of card do need i done, can u let me know the total! :-)

I wrote to about 10 toy companies asking them to contribute a few toys and have not received a reply from any of them :-( . I will keep trying. I really wish this Christmas party to be a success

Hi Everyone,

Marijana: thank you for contacting the companies. Please do persevere. Sometimes you just have to follow-up and keep trying! :-)

Navin: I think you card idea is very good. Regarding the address, I will see what Eric has to say. The cards should be sent directly to him so he can distribute them to the children. Regarding the title, I will also get Eric's input and we can see how to go about this. Regarding a due date, I would suggest that they be in the mail before the last week of November, as it takes a long time to mail things to Kenya and we want to make sure they get there in time for the party. As far as sending my the work, that would be great, and if possible, post it here (as a file attachment) so others can see it as well.

Keep up the good work everyone!

Barb