Congratulations to Grace Karabu on graduating from high school! An Imani Project sponsor paid her school costs.  Grace’s mother, Elvina Karabu, sent this thank you note to the Imani Project and the sponsor who helped her daughter finish secondary school.

 

Elvina and Grace

 

I write you this short note just to say thank you very much for all you did for me through my daughters' education.

Now Grace has finished her secondary school and it was because of your support that all this was made possible. Also thank you for your concern for connecting my daughter to a sponsor, tell her please on my behalf that I am very grateful and my prayers are to you all… Now also that Christmas is just around the corner, allow me to send you my warmest best wishes to you for a Merry Christmas and a very Happy new Year 2016.

All my best wishes to you

Elvina

We are sad to report that Chantal Garceau, the founder of Chantal's Little Shoes, is hanging up those shoes and discontinuing sales indefinitely.  Chantal has been a champion supporter for the Imani Project and AIDS orphans for five years.  Her compassion and effort has made a lasting impact on the lives of many in Kenya.  Thank you, Chantal!

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Five years ago this month, I sponsored my first Kenyan child through the Imani Project. Learning about the needs of the children and communities affected by HIV/AIDS in Kenya made me want to do more—and that was my inspiration to start my social enterprise chantal’s little shoes. Through the sale of my handmade baby shoes, with the help of generous and wonderful volunteers, I was able to use the profits of the company over the years to sponsor a total of ten children in the Masheheni village.

With additional money raised through sale of our Christmas ornaments, chantal’s little “ears” for helmets, and pet toys, we were able to buy 100 school uniforms for village children and fund the construction and usage training of the village’s first community composting toilet (http://imaniproject.org/composting%20toilets.htm), which improved water purity, sanitation, and local crop yield significantly in its first year.

Having moved back to my native Canada, maintaining the business of shoe making and selling is no longer feasible, so I will be suspending it indefinitely. I give deepest thanks to all those who supported my work: customers, volunteers, fans and friends. This has been a joyful and enriching experience in a thousand ways, and you can all know that you made my life happier as well as many lives in a small village in Africa.

I have been humbled by the great work that the Imani Project does for the victims of devastation and poverty in Kenya, and am proud to have been able to contribute to their efforts. The balance of my shoe and ornament inventory has been sold for their work. My book of patterns, Cozy Toes for Baby: Sweet Shoes to Crochet & Felt (Martingale, 2014), coauthored with Mary King, will continue to be available on Martingale Publishing’s site, http://www.shopmartingale.com/cozy-toes-for-baby.html and on http://www.amazon.com/Cozy-Toes-Baby-Sweet-Crochet/dp/1604684585 and all authors’ profits will go to the Imani Project.

If you would like to continue to support an exceptional cause that really makes a difference, please consider donating to the Imani Project, or sponsoring an orphan through them. The Imani Project (http://imaniproject.org/) is a partnership between Americans and Africans, dedicated to acting against HIV/AIDS and improving health conditions in rural Kenya. The goal of the Imani Project is to enable and empower Kenyan villagers to become educators, advocates, caregivers and HIV/AIDS activists in their own communities.

Thank you to all, and may you enjoy a blessed and joyous holiday season and new year!

Chantal Garceau

Imani Project at Portland Barefoot Soccer Tournament

The Imani Project was once again invited to be a presence at the annual Portland Barefoot Soccer Tournament, held on Sunday, June 8 at Concordia College. 

 

The Portland Barefoot 3v3 small-pitch event is both a tournament and a festival, with the goal of teaching young people about global HIV/AIDS.   Around 520 children participate, and over 1,500 people attend the tournament. 

 

 

 Internationally, Grassroot Soccer is an HIV prevention program that uses the power of soccer to educate, inspire and mobilize communities to stop the spread of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. Already, over 630,000 adolescents and teens have graduated from the program in 16 African countries. At the Portland tournament, there were appearances by the Portland Timbers, the Portland Thorns, African drumming and music groups, and many community organizations. 

 

There was also an opportunity for the grown-ups to play bubble soccer, in which each player’s body from the knees up is encased in a big plastic bubble; it’s pretty hilarious to play, and to watch. 

 

This is the second year that the Imani Project has had a booth at the Portland Barefoot Soccer tournament. 

The Imani Project Booth

We raised a little money selling crafts we brought back from Kenya, but more importantly, our presence gave people at the tournament a chance to talk about, and to learn about the global scale of HIV/AIDS, and about the work the Imani Project is doing in Kenya.  It was great fun to be there, to watch the kids play, and to talk with all the people who stopped by the Imani Project booth.  I can’t wait to do it again next year!

There's Lots of Silliness

If you want to know more about the tournament, you can go to www.portlandbarefootsoccer.org.

Virginia Scott, IP Board Secretary

Bellevue, WA teenagers count 50,000 pills for the Imani Project!

A church youth group in Bellevue, Washington held a service project for the Imani Project to help prepare supplies for the Imani Project's upcoming trip to Kenya to conduct medical clinics in remote villages. 30 teens and 10 adults from the Cougar Mountain Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints assembled in the church's gym. 

Some counted ibuprofen and acetaminophen tablets and put 30 tablets in a bag.  Others cut zinc tablets in half and put 10 halves in a bag.

The pills are included in Health Kits that are distributed to Kenyans in rural villages who attend classes taught by the Imani Project and who come to clinics for medical treatment.

All together, the group counted the following:

Ibuprofen            32,790
Acetaminophen 325mg   4,500
Acetaminophen 500mg  10,140
Zinc                  2,825
Total                50,255
Wow!  That was a good night's work!  Thank you!

North Bend, WA volunteers help prepare for September Medical Clinics

Volunteers cutting zinc tablets

On April 26, members of the North Bend Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints gathered to count band-aids and pills for the Imani Project. 30 members of the congregation, located in North Bend, Washington, spent over 70 hours working on supplies for our September, 2014 trip to Kenya.  Adults and teens from seventeen families joined us for 1-3 hours on a Friday evening.  It was a great opportunity to socialize and count, count, count and bag, bag, bag!

In their 70 hours, the volunteers:

• Counted and bagged 29,600 band-aids of various sizes
• Cut 4205 zinc pills in half
• Counted and bagged 8410 zinc halves

In September, the Imani Project is travelling to remote villages near the coastal city of Malindi, Kenya to conduct medical clinics,  On that trip, they will distribute 800 health kits to families who attend health classes and clinics.

Well done! Thank you!  The North Bend Ward congregation has planned another service project for the Imani Project in North Bend on May 30 at 7:00 PM at the North Bend LDS church building.  Everyone is welcome to join the effort!

Counting and bagging band-aids

Counting and bagging band-aids

Zinc time!  Cutting, counting and bagging

Thank you letter from the International School

We got a nice letter from the students at the International School of the Bellevue (Washington) School District, thanking us for talking to them about the Imani Project in Kenya and letting them help with the upcoming trip!

International School of Bellevue Helps the Imani Project

The Imani Project is working to prepare for our September, 2014 trip to Kenya to run medical clinics in the remote villages near the coastal city of Malindi.  We are taking 800 health kits with us to distribute to families who come to the clinics. We need a lot of pills and band-aids counted and bagged and pamphlets folded to get ready.  We have been getting a lot of help with this enormous task!

Diane and Phil Garding gave a slide-show presentation on the Imani Project medical clinics that we conducted in 2012 to twenty-one students from the International School of Bellevue, Washington.  The students then spent the evening helping prepare materials for the 2014 trip.  In ninety minutes, the students did the following:

• Folded and counted 820 first aid pamphlets 
• Folded and counted 1000 diarrheal disease pamphlets
• Counted and bagged 12,000 cotton swabs
• Counted and bagged 4302 cough drops
• Counted and bagged 5880 acetaminophen pills

Thank you!