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Would you like
an opportunity to be a volunteer in Kenya, where you can
use your talents and skills to enhance the lives of young
girls, while learning about the culture and customs of the local Kenyan
people. Your volunteerism will make a genuine difference to the lives of
these girls and also help with the funding required to sustain this center.
Volunteers can live in one of our comfortable volunteer rooms adjoined
to the center.
Our volunteer programs are set up to help CARA raise the funding required to sustain and enhance the center going forward. All funding required by volunteers wishing to visit Kenya are achieved through their own fund raising efforts. What CARA can provide is a safe and friendly environment at a low cost for female volunteers. CARA's aim is to attract some of the many international female volunteers who choose to travel to Kenya to work with the charitable institutions located there.
The young girls
who make it to CARA Girls Rescue Center, are provided with the love and care
they deserve. They are guaranteed nutritious meals, a place in school
and an environment where they can feel some sort of security and live a normal
life. Just take a look at our logo above to see the happy faces of some of the young girls this year!
Volunteers Kenya Programs:
CARA Projects have two types of volunteer programs. Volunteer Program 1 - This is an annual program which involves bringing a group of volunteers to Kenya. Volunteers on this program raise funds in their local communities and workplaces and spend two weeks working on various projects in the center. This volunteer in Kenya program has brought many volunteers to Kenya, ranging from gap year students, transition year students, teachers,tradesmen and volunteers who just want to help young children in Kenya.To go with CARA Projects for two weeks in February, it is necessary for volunteers to fund raise 3000 euro (1800 euro for transition year students). This is the annual fund raiser run by CARA to sustain and support the center going forward.Volunteer Program 2 - This is a year round program for female volunteers and involves staying in the volunteer accommodation at the center. The minimum fund raising required will need to: 1. cover your flights to Kenya.2. Vaccinations which are inexpensive.3. Entrance visa to Kenya (40 euro or 50 $).4. 70$ (or equivalent) per week accommodation which includes meals at the center, tea/coffee making facilities, hot shower and flush toilet - 25$ pickup at Nairobi airport for single pickups (Groups are complimentary). The center is approximately 1 hour from the airport.
If volunteers are working with other local charities, and would like to use the volunteer accommodation, then this can be arranged. The aim of the volunteer accommodation is to try and raise funds for the center. So if you are female and are looking to volunteer in Kenya, in a safe and comfortable environment, then the CARA Girls rescue Center can help you. And you can help the center also.
If you are interested in volunteering at the center, or would just like to provide an expression of interest, please send an email to owen@caraprojects.com
Volunteering and working with young girls who are suffering, through no fault of their own, from abuse, neglect, starvation or have been abandoned due to the abject poverty of their family, has proved to be very fulfilling for previous volunteers.
These fees/contributions are just as important to these young girls as your time spent with them.
Maire, a school headmistress from Ireland working with the girls.
Mary from Ireland, getting the center ready for the official opening ceremony February 2014.
Kayleigh from Ireland, helping the girls with the sewing machines. About CARA Girls Rescue Center Kenya
The Cara Girl's Rescue Center was built by volunteers and opened in October 2012. The volunteer accommodation was completed in February 2014 and gives international volunteers the opportunity to live and work with the young girls at the center.
The center currently caters for twenty-five girls who have been referred to the rescue center by the Kenyan Government's Children Office. These girls will all have been victims of neglect, abuse, female mutilation, early marriages or incest. The aim of Cara Projects is to provide vital services for the Rescue Center and the children by providing a safe home where the children can sleep, be fed and be loved, get access to education, water and sanitation, healthcare and counselling. Esther's story detailed below has been a huge positive for the center. Esther is currently in top position in her year, following the exam results for first year students in Loretto College in Kenya.
A
training center has been set up which includes a yearlong mentoring program for
nine girls who have finished secondary school. This program includes a 3 month
computer course, along with training in tailoring. CARA provided the training
center with both electric and mechanical sewing machines which the girls are
now using to make uniforms for the schools in the local area. This will help to
provide the girls with certain skills and also provide income for the center going forward. There are also facilities now for building domestic aquariums.
These aquariums will be stocked with ornamental fish which are bred and reared
as part of the fish project.
These children are some of the most under- privileged and vulnerable children you can imagine. To give you an indication of the suffering these children endure, it is best relayed via the story of a beautiful little girl named Martha who was taken into the center in January 2013. When Martha arrived at the center she was just 3 years old but weighed only 12lbs, little more than some newborn babies. Her arm was broken from the physical abuse she had suffered, she was malnourished, but more disturbingly her hair was grey from the severe stress she had endured. Needless to say she was lethargic, her eyes were dull and it was evident that at just 3 years old she had lost hope. Thankfully Martha was taken to Cara Girls Rescue Center, where on arrival she was provided with nourishment both physically and mentally. Over the last year she has continued to thrive, she is putting on weight, her hair is now black again and she smiles and runs around like any 4-year-old little girl should. Martha is just one of the twenty-five children currently in the center, each child has their own individual story which are equally as harrowing. Cara Girls Rescue Center is providing a stable, welcoming home for these children...."A house is built of bricks and stones, a home is built of love and dreams".
Cara Girls Rescue Center is run solely from money raised through sponsorship, donations, fund raising activities and volunteerism. Thankfully Cara Projects is on a path towards making the center more self-sustaining as this is the only way forward to allow it to grow and cater for more girls in need of rescuing. As well as the monthly sponsorship program and the fundraising efforts of the volunteers there are a number of initiatives to make the center more self-sustaining.
· The volunteer accommodation which provides funding for the center, through the volunteer in Kenya program.
· Fish Pond – over the last two years two very large fish ponds have been built at the back of the Rescue Center, one to grow fish called Tilapia which can be sold at the local food markets and the other to grow goldfish which can be sold to local pet shops and provide a good source of income.
· Greenhouse – the Rescue Center was kindly donated a very large Greenhouse by another charitable organisation to help provide a source of food for the center. It currently has tomatoes and watermelons growing in it, and unfortunately due to the limited water supply, the center is restricted in what can be grown in it.
· Chicken Project – the 2013 annual volunteering trip involved building a chicken house to raise chickens and sell them as a source of income. This project is now up and running and in February 2014 100 new baby chicks were bought. These will be sold in 6 weeks and the proceeds used to reinvest and make some income for the center.
Water is probably the key ingredient that is missing at the Rescue Center. The center does harvest rain water to water tanks but unfortunately when the rain stops, as you can imagine it often does for months at a time, the Center has no choice other than to buy in tankers of water for the center so the children have water to drink, to cook food and to provide washing facilities and sanitation. A tanker of water for one week for the center costs €40, so it’s an expensive necessity. In 2014 the volunteers of Cara Projects have set a task of trying to raise additional funds, outside those needed for the daily running of the center to try to raise enough money to build a borehole at the center so it would have it’s own water supply. This would not only benefit the center but also the local community who could then buy cheaper water from the center. Unfortunately boreholes are expensive and the current estimate of this project is in the region of €30,000. Nonetheless, it is something that the Girl’s Rescue Center badly needs and hopefully this goal will be achieved to help make the center more self-sustaining.
All money for the projects undertaken to date has been raised through fund-raising events and through sponsorship. It is through the amazing generosity of a huge number of people that these projects are possible. All money raised goes 100% to the projects and there are no administrative fees or salaries taken by any of the Irish staff or volunteers. If you choose to volunteer in Kenya at the center, all of the funding raised will be used to heip run this center.
CARA Projects website is at the following link: www.caraprojects.com
Location:
Below is a map showing the location of the CARA Girls Rescue Center, located in Kibiko A, Nairobi, Kenya:
The rift valley, inhabited by the Maasai people is virtually over the hill from our center. We have many Maasai friends in the valley and have a good rapport with these local people.
Our volunteer in Kenya program has brought many volunteers to Kenya. It is a great opportunity to provide a brighter future for the children we serve and also for all our volunteers. Volunteer in Kenya, make a difference to a young girls life.
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Volunteers Kenya, Volunteers Africa, Volunteering Kenya
