This act of kindness and care from a 7 yr old, has inspired others to donate through Peacemakers to the famine relief in Somalia.  Because of the violence and killings in Somalia thousands are fleeing to Kenya to the refugee camps that were set up over 20 years ago.  This is the worst famine in the area for 60 years and many thousands are dying.

  Because of your donations we have organized the churches in the area where we are building a Resource Centre, to encourage the Kenyans to give their crops and to meet the need of their neighbours. Consequently a lorry has been donated for the trip plus food and water and this week Peacemakers are linking up with other charities and driving the aid to the camps adjacent to Somalia.  We have managed to get all the money donated to the cause.

If there are people who still want to give then please contact us via email or the contact page to make your donation via Peacemakers for Famine Relief.

Thank you.
Brenada Marshall

We have been experiencing a snowy cold front early in our winter this year, which has probably kept us more confined to our homes, like me with colds and flu; a friend sent me a video recently which I would like to share with you, it just filled me with warmth - take a look -


CLICK THE PLAY BUTTON TO VIEW VIDEO

Aah - it expresses total love and acceptance even though they are so different.   It certainly promotes the Spirit of Christmas.

I want to take this opportunity of thanking all our sponsors and friends who have so generously given of themselves throughout 2010, to the various Peacemakers’ projects in Kenya.

Most of you are aware Christine Gibbard has now been in Kenya, as a volunteer, since July 2009.  She has been concentrating mostly in supervising the building work of the Resource Centre.   If you would like to browse through our website, you will see up to date photographs of the progress made there.  The Prayer House and adjacent rooms are now completed, also a traditional house in the garden, which I stayed in when I was there, it was lovely and cosy (we are hoping to build another two for retreats next year).  The kitchen is now in use and the house will take a little longer to complete.

Peacemakers have also rented a neighbouring shamba (allotment) to grow vegetables and banana trees and we are rapidly becoming self- sufficient with our food and selling the surplus.

Once we complete the house we hope to become operational which means we will advertise for the hiring out of the facilities to the community and further.  All our buildings are multi-purpose and can be adapted to facilitate any event.  We hope by the income that this will generate, we will be able to build a restaurant and a community hall from the proceeds raised in the near future.

During this year there have been a number of our sponsors from the U.K. visiting Kenya and serving the community in a voluntary capacity with their talents and professional training skills.  Relationships and friendships have been formed with promises of returning again sometime soon.  Gap year students will never forget their hands on experiences either, nor will they ever be the same person again.                       

Peacemakers U.K. and Kenya are a family of volunteers and we so need one another.  As a sponsor and friend you are also part of this family now, so may I urge you to continue to support and care into the New Year and throughout 2011, in either fund raising for the house to be completed on site, supporting kids with special needs, projects etc., or visiting and serving as before, and praying for those in the field.

Christine will be coming home in January for a rest and the renewing of her visa. If you would like to help with her return airfare; that would be an extra blessing. We will have to hire somebody who is trustworthy and reliable to live, work and care for the centre and the many activities that are already running on a regular basis, while Christine is in the U.K.  I will be travelling back with her sometime in February.

Your sacrificial giving has not gone un-noticed or taken for granted and I pray to God that whenever you go shopping, He will fill your basket with many blessings.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL FROM THE REST OF THE PEACEMAKERS FAMILY

                       With Love and every Blessing for 2011
                                              Brenda

Are you able to volunteer? Several young people have already joined Peacemaker teams.
Take Hannah and Charli for example. After visiting a variety of continents they arrived in Runyenjes, Embu, to volunteer their help in setting up a Plant Nursery for the community centre. Here were two gap year students who certainly didn’t mind rolling up their sleeves and getting dirty. See the photos of the planting. They also helped get the prayer house ready for painting! Thank you Hannah and Charli, You were brilliant!

If you feel you would like to volunteer your services, for whatever length of time, we would be able to make good and valuable use of you. Please contact Brenda Marshall via the websites contact form.
Thank you.

For more photos, please click on the "Full Story" link just below.

            TWO SPORTS GROUP SEMINARS 

                     IN KENYA JULY 2009

Kim Henderson, who is the PE and Sports Strategic Manager of the London Borough of Barnet, will be holding two more teacher / pupil sports training seminar in July in the Embu district of East Kenya.

Two years ago Kim held a residential teacher training course at the Moi Secondary school for over 100 delegates from primary schools. At the end of this very successful week, Certificates of Attendance were presented to those who had attended for the whole week. Sports equipment was given to all the delegates on their return to their schools, with a covering letter to their Head teacher stating such, so that they could impart to their pupils the training that they had received.

This time Kim is having two cluster groups at different venues. The first three day cluster will be two teachers and at least 4 pupils from six secondary schools selected to attend the seminar daily. The second cluster will be a similar seminar with six different secondary schools represented at the second venue. The venues chosen will have indoor and outdoor facilities to accommodate participation.

Kim is one of the many professionals from the UK who is willing and happy to give up her holiday period and cover her own flight expenses to freely share her expertise and skills with the Kenyans. In Kenya up until 5 years ago, all children could only attend school if their parents paid school fees and school uniforms were, and still are, compulsory. Now primary school education is free, but secondary schools are not.

Very little money, if any, is given to the schools by the government for equipment, so each time we have a teaching seminar, basic equipment is needed as teaching aids. For this training to be developed in the schools represented, extra equipment will be bought and given to each group of delegates to take back to their school. Again Certificates of Attendance will be presented.

If you wish to support this work and give a donation for sports equipment to go into other schools , then please send your gift to me and I will guarantee that every penny that is given will go to this project.
 
Thank You
Brenda Marshall
Director of Peacemakers International
Email: brenda@peacemakers-international.com

Its time for one of our Peacemakers UK member's to spend an extended time in Kenya!

Christine Gibbard has been the Head teacher at Ardeley St Lawrence School for the last 18 years. On the 30th June she will be resigning from this position and making herself available to oversee the building of the Resource Centre in the district of Embu and all the many projects that Peacemakers have initiated in the surrounding area, over  the past 20 years.  You will see from our web page, that the Prayer House  and the Abandoned Baby Refuge Centre structure is now completed and we need Christine's expertise and managerial skills to furnish and get the first stage of the Centre operational.

Christine has been an active and committed member of the work that this Charity has been involved with, both at home and abroad, from the beginning and knows the Kenyan people and the area very well.  She is also greatly loved and respected by the Peacemakers Kenya Team, who are looking forward to her joining them.  She will be flying to Nairobi 9th July 2009.

Christine has desired for a long time to spend more time in Africa and earlier this year spent  11 weeks in Rwanda, with other Head Teachers  going into schools and assisting the Heads and passing on their experiences.  She also wants to spend more time in Rwanda and follow up this work and friendships that were made then.

Peacemakers UK have also been invited to bring God's vision to Tanzania, which has been postponed until we have the Resource Centre up and running.  Incidentally, this Centre is going to be named ‘The Dennis Marshall Foundation’ Dennis Marshall was the founder of this work. So this is something for the future for Christine, while she is in Africa.

Christine will be non salaried while she is there for whatever length of time, so if you would like to be one of her sponsors during this period, please get in touch with me and I will arrange for donations to be transferred to her in Kenya.

Brenda Marshall
Director of Peacemakers International
Email: brenda@peacemakers-international.com

PROGRESS OF THE PEACEMAKERS RESOURCE CENTRE KENYA

Members of the Peacemakers UK Team visited Kenya in February & March this year to oversee the work and progress of the Centre. You will see from the photograph below, that the Prayer House was near completion.


Peacemakers International - Runyenjes Prayer House.

Pastor Selesio Njiriru, one of the Peacemakers’ Team in Kenya, is in the foreground.  He is soon to retire from his secular job in Nairobi and will be able to serve the community full time.  Also our long standing friend Patrick Nyaga Kavunguru.  We are all anxious to see this project and vision completed and fully functional and for the local community to be responsible, serving with their gifts, meeting the local needs and for the people locally to benefit.


One of the side rooms for the abandoned baby unit.

I'm now able to inform you that 3 months on, the Prayer House has been finished, the ground around is being leveled, concreted and grassed, followed by the planting of flowers and shrubs.

The furnishings will be purchased within the next 2 months and the Prayer House ready to be used as a retreat and a place for the youth in the area to gather.  The Prayer House will be a multi purpose building and the youth will be able to turn it into a Theatre and perform plays from time to time. It will also be hired out for weddings, conferences etc., as a means of raising money and making it self supportive.

There are 3 adjacent rooms around the rear of the Prayer House, one of them will be turned into an ‘Abandoned Baby’ Refuge/Counseling room, the second a temporary office/side room to stage and the third, which opens into the interior of the Prayer House, a store room/stage.


The land for phase 2 and 3 - a bit of a challenge to say the least!

Draft plans have been drawn up for the second phase and transferred to Kenya for a local Architect to draw and submit for planning permission.

Brenda Marshall

CHRISTMAS 2008 (a review of the year)

 

This year has been difficult for most people , if not all, with the credit crunch and people losing their jobs and homes, but despite all this, friends of Peacemakers have continued supporting financially and sponsoring a whole variety of projects.

 
For the full story - please click on the link below.

A big thank you to everyone who helped or attended the Cream Tea & Bring-n-Buy sale on the 7th August. We are very thankful that the weather was good and contributed to a very successful day. The Total raised was £637.24 which will go towards buying an Oxygen Concentrator for a children's hospital in Kenya.

The results of the two raffles are as follows:

Raffle (Pink Ticket)  A Professional Cake!        Winning Ticket 17  (Mazzy)

Raffle (White Ticket)                                                         Winning ticket
1st    Picnic Hamper                                                            No.  25

2nd    Coffee Maker                                                               No. 284
3rd    Massage & Foot Vibrator                                             No. 118

4th    Plant & £10 Garden Centre Voucher                             No. 274

5th    Soap Stone                                                                No. 214

6th    Body & Hair Care Travel Pouch                                    No.   51

7th    Boots Amazon Forest Skin Treats Toiletry Bag             No. 129

8th    Glass Ice Bucket                                                        No.  10

9th    Mug & Coaster Set                                                     No. 227



For a few more photos of the day, Please click on full story Below.

Letter of Thanks from Ministry of Health

Len Little flew out to Kenya on 9th April 2008 and back on the 25th.

Len will be posting a review of his trip in the near future.

Until then, to see what his itinerary was and the purpose of his visit,
please click on Full Story" below.