Smiles all round in Kenyan aid trip
Kickstart consultant Siva Singh delivers toothbrushes to Kenyan orphanages.
When planning your summer holiday it’s rare that you will consider the philanthropic impact of your 2 weeks in the sun. However this was exactly the case when Kickstart consultant Siva Singh of Training Synergy booked his ‘8 day luxury safari holiday’ this year. When researching excursions for his well deserved break he began to realise the many social problems that the Kenyan children have to overcome on a daily basis.
Siva explains: “Due to the Poverty and Aids situation, Kenya creates an orphan every five minutes. Many children are taken to children’s homes due to the extraordinary struggle for families to make ends meet, and unwanted pregnancies still occur every day in the slum areas from where many of these children are born. The social services also find children dumped onto the streets or simply left on the doorsteps of orphanages. As the numbers have increased, so has the strain on children’s homes. With limited government funds they lack income, so it seemed ridiculous not to try and help in some small way”.
What can one man and his wife do?
This was the question faced by Siva and his wife Leyla. After many late nights of research they decided that the most useful items they could take from the UK were…toothbrushes.
Why toothbrushes?
“Through our research we found out that simple everyday items such as toothbrushes were virtually impossible to find in Kenya yet the impact of not having access to them was huge. Dental Care (where available) is very expensive and is simply not an option for the children in the smaller orphanages.” says Siva.
They decided that they would ask the staff at Synergy to donate toothbrushes and money with which they would buy food for the orphanage on arrival in Mombasa. True to the ‘Synergy spirit’ Siva and Leyla were fully supported by the team and managed to raise a considerable amount of money and most importantly received 100’s of toothbrushes for the trip.
Needless to say, the trip was a real eye opener for Siva and Leyla and even though the donations were well received and the children loved their new toothbrushes, the scale of the problem was overwhelming. When asked if they would be going back Siva replied adamantly, “Definitely. We are already planning another trip. We will look to take more money and other essential goods. With a bit more planning and the backing of The Synergy Group I think we could make a real contribution and directly impact the lives of those kids.”
Look out for information on Siva’s next trip to Kenya, maybe you might want to send him a toothbrush!
Story Date
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
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