Essential improvements to a rural Kenyan family & community

Hello and thank you for taking the time to read and consider my GoFundMe proposal.

My name is Evallyne and I am Kenyan British. I have lived and worked in the UK for the past 25 years and brought up a family here. My work has always been in the care sector, most recently working with vulnerable adults at a specialised facility in Chichester, West Sussex. As you can probably imagine, the care sector in the UK doesn’t pay very well, so money is usually pretty tight.

Over the years, I have sent money back home to Kenya to help my family with their basic living needs, but have never been able to afford to make a significant improvement in their lives.

My reason for asking for help at this time is that I have recently returned from a visit back home, where I found things had deteriorated significantly since my last visit in 2018. The family, whose main livelihood comes from subsistence farming, is now living in abject poverty. In particular, my oldest brother, Kelly, and his family are living in extremely primitive conditions and are currently raising three young children in these circumstances (more information below).

At the present time, I have exhausted my personal finances in trying to help the family and am concerned about their welfare and future prospects. As a result, I decided to try GoFundMe to see if there may be people who are willing to help a group of people living in very poor circumstances. Any money raised from this GoFundMe proposal will go directly to trying to improve the lives of my brother and his extended family.

I see the need as being divisible into two separate phases:

1. Obtaining the supply of electricity to the property. This has been quoted at around £1,250 (US$1,625 / CAD2,250).

2. Building a new house for my brother and his family. This is estimated at around £6,500 (US$8,500 / CAD12,000).

The reason why I believe that the provision of electricity to the family is the most important need at the moment is that it is so transformative in its impact on every aspect of life. At the moment, the family have no power at all, so they are only able to live a very basic life during daylight hours only.

HOW THE FAMILY IS LIVING AT THE MOMENT

My family's homestead is located near the village of Mariwa in Migori County in the west of Kenya, not far from Lake Victoria and the Tanzanian border. It is about seven hours drive from Nairobi. The entire property comprises about three acres of ancestral land, most of which is planted with maize as a subsistence crop. The amount of land available for cultivation is not sufficient to be commercially viable. Most of the local population are subsistence farmers and the principal crop is maize.

My brother Kelly and his wife Joyce and their three younger children are all living in a two-room mud hut with a tin roof. There are no windows and no form of power at all. No modern conveniences, no refrigeration, no ability to wash clothes etc etc. The property is situated about about 30 mins walk down local tracks from Mariwa, which offers limited shopping. All food has to be sourced in Awendo, which is another 20 minute motorcycle ride away from Mariwa (motorcycles being the main mode of taxi transport in rural Kenya). I am currently arranging monthly food deliveries from a wholesaler in Awendo to cover the family’s basic needs. It is worth noting that there are no employment opportunities or any other means of obtaining an income in this area.

The family house comprises a bedroom for the parents and a separate living room, which doubles as the children’s bedroom at night. All cooking is done outside on an open fire and clothes and personal washing is done in a nearby river.

In addition to his parental responsibilities towards his own immediate family, Kelly is also having to parent three young sons of our brother Clement, who died in 2019. These boys became orphaned when their mother also subsequently died. They currently live in another property on the homestead. Two of them are hoping to go to university in September and the third is currently in full-time secondary education (paid for by the government as a result of his orphan status).

PROPOSAL PHASE 1 – INTRODUCTION OF ELECTRICITY SUPPLY

While I was visiting the family this Spring, and after I realised the scale of the problems that they face, I obtained a quotation for the installation of electricity to the family homestead. At present, the electricity supply has been provided to within about 300 metres of the property. Under current government regulations, any family that wishes to have a supply must pay and arrange for it themselves.

The extension of the electricity supply to our property would involve the installation of three new telegraph poles and associated wiring and infrastructure. It will also require the agreement of a neighbouring landowner on whose property one of the poles would need to be located (this approval has already been sought and given).

It is worth noting that while my family would be the primary beneficiaries of this extension to the power supply in the area, neighbouring properties would also benefit and this installation would reduce the future cost for any other connections in the area. So this fundraising would act to benefit the entire local community.

The quote that we received, as of end-April 2025, amounted to KSH196,200 (approximately £1,250). This is unfortunately outside of my ability to finance at present, which is why I am creating this GoFundMe.

PROPOSAL PHASE 2 – BUILDING OF A NEW FAMILY HOME

If there is any surplus money left over from this fundraising after the initial phase has been completed, I would like to put it towards the building of a new home for Kelly and his family. I envisage a simple, small, 3-bedroom bungalow structure, with a kitchen, living/dining room and a bathroom. Total area of the house is likely to be around 75-80 m². Based on indicative quotes that I received while I was in Kenya, the likely cost of building this, primarily in concrete blocks, with sheet metal roofing, would be around KSH 1.0-1.1 million (approx. £5,800-£6,500).

CONCLUSION

Once again, I’d like to thank you very much for taking the time to read this proposal. I hope that you have at least found it interesting. If you are unwilling or unable to help me on this occasion, I would very much appreciate you forwarding the link to anyone you know who might be interested in helping. This fundraiser has the potential to make a huge difference to the lives of people I care about very much and who I feel are deserving of a helping hand.