Ndalu Village, Kenya
Ndalu Village, Kitale, Kenya
The village was in for a triple shock:
The Virgin London Marathon (VLM) brought GREAT LONDON to Kenya during the 2012 Olympics. In a generous gesture never seen by the Kenyan county the organizers of the VLM facilitated a handout, to an entire village of around 3,500, that they should receive waterproof VLM rain jackets. The people reached, the rural folk of Ndalu village, Kitale district, Kenya, are those living in dire poverty. For the outstanding majority this gift was the first rain jacket they had ever received in their life. The district has a rainfall equal to the midlands of Great Britain (it even rained on the day of the hand out!) hence they gifts were extremely useful.
Thanks also to our board member & great supporter Stacey. We hosted our third Hal & Stacey Kelly
Feeding program; getting food to the needy. Giving out nearly 5,000 kgs of food to Orphans, the disabled community, widows, widowers, and school kids. How timely was this? The food was dropped to an orphanage who invited the food carriers in and showing bare cupboards, “We have absolutely no food for this evening’s meal for the orphans – look, the house is empty. In fact we were just praying at this very moment, wondering where the food was going to come from…”
It was a historic day for the village. Three schools have now adopted the VLM jacket as school uniform. The disabled were extremely happy that the jacket was not only waterproof but also warm! (The Rift Valley is at altitude thus it is cold here too!) Being a Shoe4Africa event we also delivered sacks of running shoes!
“On behalf of the whole community of Ndalu thank you for breathing new life in Ndalu”. Elijah Agevi, Area Chief.
“In Kenya nobody remembers the widows. In my life I never seen a function help the widows. Thank you London marathon, this is a marathon that must have the heart of God.” Joyce (Widow representative).
“A blessing that comes once in a life time. This is unique, may god bless the marathon people, how is it they can remember us when even our own don’t? I have never seen a happening like this. The whole village is now happy, the whole village is now red.” The local pastor.
Footnote: Driving home in the evening through a village of dirt roads with no street lights, no street markings and a high rate of road deaths there was a surprising bonus to this day. On 11 May 2011, the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 was launched in more than 100 countries, with one goal: to prevent five million road traffic deaths globally by 2020. Personally I have seen no action this past year in Kenya, yet I was startled that the whole village was now highly visible as they walked by the side of dirt roads, their reflective jackets making cars swing wide instead of zooming close by and causing fatalities as it so often the case in Kenya.
