Hey. It’s long but I hope it’s worth a read!

This is different from regular posts about gigs or upcoming music but it’s far more important.

I was asked to join an amazing group of people who volunteer every year to lend a hand to the people of Bungoma in Kenya.

I’ve only been involved for a couple of months and already there is so much I could say about this project and how amazing the work that’s being done is but I want to try and keep this short and sweet.

The people of this community in Bungoma are in need of many things that we as a group can really help them obtain, provided we have the funding to do so.

From a building perspective, we can sort out and ship in proper good quality materials and build;

Housing for teenage mothers of which there are hundreds in this area who have been abandoned by family and left to fend for themselves. Some as young as 11 and 12.

Lights and pathways around areas where people collect water. (This makes them less secluded and much safer for the people who have no choice but to go there every day morning and night, often young women)

Roofs, floors, drainage systems, wells, veg gardens, classrooms and sanitary facilities in schools and orphanages.

And then there’s the less serious but just as important side of it where we can

Play music and dance together

Build simple things like cots for babies

Record music and videos together

Teach what we know to each other

Teach each other different words and ways in our languages and cultures

Enjoy the moments of love between human beings helping each other. In my opinion feeling loved and cared for is one of the most essential human needs. To feel like someone is there for you, has traveled all this way to help you out. That has to have a lasting effect. To know you matter and that your life is yours to make of it what you can and have the support there, even if that support is a memory of something that happened in your school five, ten or twenty years ago. That’s the stuff that’s will stick with us as people and help us to get up in the morning and embrace every day and keep going no matter how bad the circumstances may be.

Personally my main mission is to teach a bit of music to the students and record a song (audio and video) at the end of the week and share that song with the world in the hopes it will reach many eyes and ears and hearts and then the kids can look back on it in time and just feel really positive that the world knows they are there and that they have a voice and that that voice is positive, progressive and empowering.

And I absolutely cannot wait to learn from the people there. The rhythms and harmonies in the music is something very ancient and special. This may seem “convenient” for a fundraising post about going to Kenya but I’ve dipped in to tribal African music a lot. Since I heard the first notes of “Circle of Life” from The Lion King (you all know it) I’ve been enthralled by it. I had a half hour chat with a Dublin bus driver from Nairobi about it one day as he was driving the bus playing his own tunes on a JBL speaker. That was in 2012. It’s just class and makes my soul dance.

I’ve been working with groups of young people in different music projects since I was a teenager from bands to lessons to workshops and even a few therapeutic counselling sessions via music and every time I actually know myself how much everybody benefited from them. Makes me feel amazing knowing I can help someone with music. I’m not great at building stuff but il tog out and get stuck in to everything that needs to be done as well so don’t worry I won’t be dossing over there.

If you can spare a few bob please do. Any donation big or small is very much appreciated and the money goes towards flights, injections, accommodation (it’s not fancy…at all!) Visas, local transport and food and then once I have enough to cover my own costs every cent over goes in to materials for the project. (Timber, plastics, instruments, medical supplies) and hundreds of other beneficial things for the community.

Because I’m aiming to make the video as well, if any companies want to sponsor me with big huge fat envelopes of cash, your name will be plastered all over my social media and on T shirts in Kenya and in the final video, your brand will be featured as a sponsor. I’ll make sure that people know you threw in for a great cause.

This is something I am so proud to be able to do but I do need you help so… Kenya please donate?

Thank you.

Slán.

Ruben.