December, 2011 - Looking Ahead . . . with Grateful Hearts!

As the year draws to a close, what a pleasure it is to reflect on the many gifts Africa Exchange has received over the past year and how those gifts have played a part in making a difference in the lives of so many of our friends in Kenya. Thank you, thank you for your generosity and faithfulness!

2012 promises to be a year of growth in the outreach of Africa Exchange: (more)

 

September, 2011 - SIMAHO Efforts Continue

Our partner for Somali Relief, Sister's Maternity Home, in Garissa are busy conducting health surveys, feeding and emergency response in 16 ambulatory feeding centers in North Eastern Kenya near the Somali border.  This response to the East Africa Famine is ongoing and we continue to seek support from donors and partners in order to extend this effort.  Our thanks to SIMAHO for their good work.

 

August, 2011 - First ICDC Country Tour

Mark Okello, Change for Children Coordinator, facilitated a tour of all 8 of our Integrated Child Development Center's.  Journeying together were three members of each project, totalling 24 persons.  The purpose of the tour was to expose ICDC staff to work being done in other parts of the country for the purpose of expansion of vision, increasing capacity, sharing stories and celebrating the good work that is being done.

 

July, 2011 - Somali Relief Effort is Launched

The famine affecting the Nortern reaches of East Africa is currently being felt heavily in North Eastern province of Kenya where Africa Exchange has a presence on the ground. With the help of an emergency grant from Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, we have begun to support ambulatory feeding through our local partners.  As you can see from our March update, our forcast has proven to be accurate and we were fortunate to have pre-positioned 60,000 doses of multivitamine in Garissa in anticipation of what was to come. Our partners are now distribuing 3 tons of a special Immune Booster porridge especially for malnourished children and lactating mothers who are making their way to remaining watering points in the 9 areas where we hope to have an impact. A more substantial medical effort is underway as we position resoucesto the area as they become available. Updates to follow.

 

June, 2011 - Ethics Today Article

Chistian Ethics Today publishes an article written by director, Sam Harrell in its Summer edition.  Follow this at Christian Ethics Today

 

May, 2011 - Annual ICDC Seminar

Each year we are privileged to gather together representatives from each Integrated Child Development Center for three day of sharing, learning and discovery.  This year's seminar included a visit to Real IMPACT, a local NGO emphasizing food security through kitchen gardens.  Participants were eager to take this exposure back to their communities for trial.  Gatherings like these build local capacity to meet local challenges and at the same time provide an avenue for sharing struggles, and successes.

March, 2011 - East African Drought Begins to Bite

While we are accustomed to dry spells this time of year, indications have been given by the Kenya Meteorological society that the long rains expected to commence mid-March will be much reduced, leading to an increase in famine conditions currently being experienced in Eastern and North Eastern provinces of Kenya.  We have plans to increase our distribution of Unimix supplement in affected areas where we have ICDC units.

February, 2011 - ECHO conference in Tanzania

We are always eager to learn and share what we have learned.  The East African ECHO symposium provided such an opportunity for Africa Exchange.  Sam Harrell, executive director, was invited to present on the topic "Beekeeping as a tool for microenterpise development in communities."  In addition, networks and contacts were made that will be very helpful to our future efforts related to agriculture and food security.

January, 2011 - The "Year of Sustainability" Begins!

This is the year that each of our ICDC units are meant to be fully functional on their own with a minimum of external financial inputs. This has been our goal from the outset and we are excited to monitor progress at each unit.  We continue to provide inputs related to child health, nutrition and education.  We are also eager to respond to requests for further development of income generation activities. (more)