Our aim is to help the Kenyan people find a Kenyan solution to their problems, which is sustainable and capable of continuous development. A sad statistic from the World Bank is that only one out of six projects they fund in Africa continues after funding ceases. We believe the process we are following will ensure that groups continue to flourish and offer hope to their members after direct support for the group stops. Indeed, we believe that mature groups will assist in the development of new groups in the future.

The principle aim of Amani UK is to support the development of groups affiliated to the three projects: Imani, Kirongo and Umoja. These groups cover widows, poor farmers and youth groups. In the case of widows groups they provide the basis of keeping orphans in the community and many of them have developed nursery schools in areas where normal nursery facilities are simply not available. Through the networking of these groups, willing and able to take the orphans in, more than 300 widows and 2,000 children are involved, of whom 40% have lost at least one parent. Supporting this very practical philosophy now is a Home Based Care programme, reaching out to where the patients are but also providing an important clinic facility for those who cannot afford the state or private services. This group philosophy also leads naturally to the encouragement and development of micro-enterprise programmes.

All 3 of our projects have youth groups, not only functioning as the widows groups do, but also presenting HIV/AIDS awareness programmes in secondary schools and in marketplaces. Prevention and hygiene education is a major activity in the quest to turn this rampant epidemic around.

As a means of creating more interest in the work that we support, in October 2006 we launched a schools linking initiative where through schools we hope to provide both UK and Kenyan children with a greater awareness of the world in which they live and to help them become "world citizens".