Update: Help Kids who are Hungry in a Kenyan Slum

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UPDATE December 12, 2023

Dear Friends and Family,

Thank you so much for your generosity and support! I am so happy that this fundraiser has been a rousing success. Here is an update on where your money has been going. The budget spreadsheet is listed first and then a description of how our children have beneffited from your support.

Funds already spent (sorry it's so tiny, please zoom in)

Funds we are seeking

Slums to Suburbs is an initiative I started in the Kahawa Soweto Slum. We bring children from the slum out to boarding schools in the countryside. Nearly every measurable statistic shows that the slum is a worse place to live than the countryside. Quality of education is lower, health outcomes are poorer, and economic opportunity is lower inside Kenyan slums versus outside the slums. Our goal was to remove the children from this harsh environment.

During a two-week stretch in mid October, I visited 18 rural boarding schools within a two hour driving distance of Nairobi. I took a series of frustrating public buses and motorcycles from Nairobi to the countryside. I just dropped into the schools, asked to talk to the principal, and explained what we were looking for. Boarding school typcially costs around $350 per year. Our students receive a $130 sponsorship for school fees and supplies through Under Lea’s Trust, a German-based NGO. When I explained this to the principals, most showed sympathy but few high-performing schools offered meaningful discounts.

Two schools, La Verna Boarding Primary School and San Damiano Boarding Primary School offered us a total of 57 spots for $130 each! La Verna Boarding School typicaly charges $298 per year and San Damiano Boarding Primary School charges $432 per year. Which means that our savings total $11,584!

We identified 57 of the most vulnerable children in the slum from first through eighth grade. They were selected based on their living conditions. Gender-based violence is a disgusting problem in the slum. Many of the children were identified for boarding school because of violence at home. Nearly all of them were living in single-guardian homes, many without any parents at all. None of their guardians provide three meals a day. One 13 year old girl and her 11 year old brother were completely raising themselves with no adult guardian at home.

We held a series of boarding school information sessions for the guardians. The Principals and Vice Principals of both schools will be here in the slum tomorrow for a Q & A and a meet and greet with the students and guardians. We are forming a Guardian Group so the guardians can communicate and coordinate transportation on visiting days.

The children will be starting boarding school on January 12th. We are currently negotiating a contract with both schools to codify our agreement for years to come!

Guardian involvement in a project such as this is paramount to success. We are requiring that guardians pay the cost of the school bus for the children to get to and from boarding school ten times per year. The total cost is $1,520, or $26.67 per child. Not every guardian will be able to make the full payments. In order to help them out and ensure that their child can stay in school, I am fundraising for $800.

Since they are offering such steep discounts, both schools have requested that we provide dry food in the form of rice and beans to help offset the burden of feeding our students 3 meals per day. The total cost to feed our students one meal per day for the entire school year is $2,164.

UPDATE October 7, 2023

Dear Friends and Family,

Thank you so much for your generosity and support! I am so happy that this fundraiser has been a rousing success. I’ve spent the first $591 and want to provide you all with an update. The budget spreadsheet is listed first and then a description of our students who have beneffited from your support.

BUDGET (sorry it's so tiny to read)

ZAWADI RESCUE CENTER

I’ve been working together with my two amazing partners - Geoffery Moseti a Kenyan Social Worker, and Lindsey Arillaga a full time volunteer from California who works in disability services. Together, we opened the Zawadi Rescue Center. Children who are homeless are a critical issue in Kenya. The children are very young, ten, eleven, twelve; the youngest we met is only seven years old. For about 10 % of the cost of food, they buy glue and sniff it to get high and suppress their appetites. As a result, they stumble around in a daze all day, temporarily lose their fine motor skills, and slowly cause brain damage. We rescued 23 boys and 1 girl from the streets of Maua in Central Kenya throughout last week. A local priest has generously donated a boarding facility in the countryside for the children, we found three full time volunteers to staff the center, and we are continuing to seek donations from local Kenyan churches for operating expenses.

We secured a place in a catholic boarding school for the one girl, Brillian. She was dressing and appearing as a boy on the streets because it is especially unsafe to be a young girl who is homeless. The catholic nuns were so generous, they provided an 80 percent scholarship for her. The 23 boys are currently going through a detox from the glue at the Rescue Center and should be ready for school in three weeks.

Boys who live in the streets and sniff glue in central Kenya. Pictures taken before we took them off the streets.

Here are some pictures from after we got the boys off the streets and brought them to the Zawadi Rescue Center

Haircut time

Brillian was living on the street and now she's in a bueatiful boarding school with Head Teacher Sister Eznah

SOWETO YOUTH INITIATIVE

The Soweto Youth Initiative (SYI) is a Community Based Organization in the Kahawa Soweto Slum in Kenya’s capital of Nairobi. The average household earnings in the slum are 50 cents to 1 dollar and 50 cents per day. Families live in iron sheet shacks. The high school graduation rate is in the single digits. Young girls are highly susceptible to unplanned pregnancies. Young men are at a high risk of substance abuse; illicit alcohol nicknamed “kill me quick” is easily available and ubiquitous. SYI provides a safe haven for children in the slum. We look for sponsors to pay for school fees and when we can’t find them, we try our best to teach the kids ourselves. I oversee our in-center education project. All 27 of our students receive one math and one English class per school day.

A few students from our Kindergarten-equivelant class with their new math books and workbooks (omg Zeina is so cute <3)

ADVOCACY

I spend a few days per week visiting government offices and charitable foundations throughout Nairobi. The goal is to find partners who can provide the Zawadi Rescue Center and the Soweto Youth Initiative with resources and funding. So far, I’ve been able to secure five full scholarships to vocational training boarding schools in the countryside (one scholarship is the equivalent of $404), and three 80% scholarships for middle and high school girls to attend catholic boarding school in the countryside (full tuition is $500). So in total, these visits have resulted in $3,120 of scholarships. The countryside is so much safer than the slums, so our goal is to continue to bring students out there.

Liz and her sister Beth have a mom who is addicted to substances and their guardian in the slum struggled to provide enough food. Now, they are in a beautiful boarding school in the countryside.

Aggie is one of the success stories from the slum. She graduated from high school with good grades and is half-way through college. In her free time, she volunteers with the kids at SYI by helping with classes.

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Original Request for Donations August 29, 2023

Hi, my name is Collin Milone and for my 30th birthday I'm asking that my friends donate to the Soweto Youth Initiative. I spent most of my 20's living and volunteering all over the world. Today, I'm back in Nairobi, Kenya - the only place that I've returned to during so many years of travelling. The kids here stole my heart. They are beautiful and fun and grateful and I'm lucky just to be here spending my birthday with them.

The kids have next to nothing; sometimes not even dinner. We are an organization that educates, feeds, and cares for over 500 kids who range from infants to 18 years old. I'm asking that you donate so that we can provide them with basic needed items including but not limited to food, footwear, school supplies, and female hygiene products.

One hundred percent of your donations will go into my bank account in New York, then I'll transfer the money to myself here and spend it appropriately.

Thank you so much!