It was a very wonderful month of October 2005 to have a team of sponsors visiting the UCCIP project and its community groups. The team consisted of two couples, Jim and Edna Leftwich and John and Hazel Prestwich, who have in the last two years made a considerable number of visits to this project and our sister projects, JAM and Kirongo.

On 28 October 2005 all the staff and volunteers from across the three projects gathered at Dudi View Hotel for training on communication and understanding one another. The afternoon session was occupied by news of the ‘Buy a Gift for Kenya’ scheme. The Coordinator, Jim Leftwich, who was the chief facilitator of the day, broke this good news and explained every bit of the content and how it was initiated and how it had been given a good start-off. Overwhelmingly it was clear that the retired couple who were celebrating a major wedding anniversary and downsizing had played a major role by demonstrating a spirit of love and compassion for Kenyans by having any presents intended for their own celebrations diverted to buy gifts for the needy in Kenya. This was a big lesson for us to learn here in Kenya, as an African would definitely have opted to add such presents onto their own wealth.

Come November 2005, the Coordinator transferred a sum of 77,000 Kenya Shillings which went into buying gifts such as a donkey and cart, heifer cows, seeds, fertilizers, wheelbarrows, watering cans, spray pumps, jembes, etc.

It was a big ceremony at which these gifts were distributed with lots of entertainment as the members were singing, dancing, and chanting words of excitement and appreciation, naming the gifts after the sponsors. Endless verbal and written "Thank You" continue to reach our desk of which, if they were to be communicated to the UK, would form a big pile of emails enough to carpet a floor measuring 100m square and even beyond!

Thanks for all the support.

Leonard Odongo
Manager, UCCIP

Back to Latest News