Save the Date: Jass Tournament 2024

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Dear Jass Enthusiasts,

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It's that time of year again! Our annual Jass tournament will take place on November 24, 2024, at werkk in Baden. We look forward to welcoming many participants—whether long-time players or new faces eager to join the fun.

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Mark your calendars and stay tuned for more details. Your participation directly supports our school in Mombasa, Kenya.

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See you at the Jass table!

Hey Jass Champions!

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We were excited to once again our yearly Jass Event at Werkk in Baden.

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It was a pleasure to see you all, and to indulge you all with a Risotto after the Game!

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We are definitely looking forward to the next Jass Event in 2023!

Marafiki! Friends! We are at the place to be!

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Half of our organisation Forever Kids Kenya has arrived at Milele Elimu Centre today!

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Meeting the kids always reminds us why we are doing this!

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Hey guys, we would like to introduce to you our partner Bold Matters!

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On the photo you can see some of us in the two super cool t-shirt designs which are available in the Boldmatters online shop, and from which CHF 10.00 of the proceeds go to our organisation!

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We are really excited about the designs, the Ascona shirt as well as the boldmatters shirt!

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Many thanks to www.boldmatters.ch we are very happy!

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Do you already know our partner @alunirjewellery ?

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CHF 1.00 of the proceeds from the purchase of each of their beautiful pieces of jewellery will be donated!

 

We are very happy to be one of their partners!

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Take the opportunity to treat your loved ones for Valentine's Day or of course Galentine's Day!

Still looking for a Christmas gift for your loved ones?

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We have an idea! Why not combine giving in the spirit of today's #givingtuesday with a good deed and give twice!

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Our original Kitenge Shopping bags as well as Kitenge Backpacks ensure a good mood in everyday life and spread African joie de vivre!

 

The ecologically and sustainably produced bags are sewn by local tailors in Mombasa from fabric scraps of colourful kangas (African shawls). Each bag is handmade, unique and available for as little as CHF 30.00.

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The leather key rings with our "Forever Kids Kenya" logo are also made in Kenya.

For CHF 15.00, you can enrich your key ring with a subtle touch from Kenya.

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You can find them on our homepage at:

www.foreverkidskenya.com/shop-de

Today we would like to give a heartfelt thank you to Labdoo for the laptops they provided for our kids at Milele Elimu Centre !

 

Thank you guys for supporting us!

 

As you can see the computers are in good use by our students and they profit greatly from the new possibilities they have while learning digitally!

Dear friends, followers, supporters!

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For a while now there is a new way how you can support us!

At:

foreverkidskenya.com/donations

You can now donate with

T W I N T

We have also added the Twint code to our business cards

Dear Friends

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For the last two weeks Milele Elimu Centre had 2 German teachers volunteering with them. It has been an amazing time with them and the kids enjoyed their stay and the school lessons.

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Last Friday they had their last day at MEC! We would like to thank Anna Siehoff, Isy Babu and Miriam Schaich for their commitment and would be happy to have them visit our school again one day!

Dear friends!

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The time has come and after years of saving up donations, we were able to purchase a suitable plot of land in Mombasa in April 2021 to build our very own school building.

Now we need to raise the money for the construction of the building.

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We need your help! You can read all about the advantages of having our own building as opposed to the current situation at our rented site on our GoFundMe! Just click on the here!

 

For your support, a "contribution" no matter how small and sharing, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

About a fortnight ago, Nadja and Mark met with some MEC alumni who are currently attending secondary school mainly those who are still financially supported by our association.

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They were given some good advice and motivating words, and were once again encouraged in their goal of being able to continue their studies at a university after secondary school.

We are very proud to announce two alumnis of Milele Elimu Centre took up their university education in January 2021.

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Joel (on the left) studies "Bachelor of Science" in Biochemistry at Kenyatta University in Nairobi.

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Iptisam (on the right) studies "Bachelor of Arts" in Kiswahili at Moi University in Eldoret.

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We congratulate Joel and Iptisam and wish them continued enjoyment and success in their ongoing education!

Dear friends

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Unfortunately the virus is not only making life difficult for our pupils in Kenya but also here in Switzerland and so, with a heavy heart, we have to cancel the charity event we had planned for November 29th because of the current corona situation. We had been looking forward to welcoming many eager card-players again, but unfortunately we can only hope that we can make up for this event next year.

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But you can rejoice nevertheless, because instead we are currently working on an upcoming online event. What exactly this event will look like we will announce shortly!

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Until then we wish you all good health and thank you for your support!

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Ahsante Sana !

Hello there - how is everybody doing while staying at home? How do you spend your time? We keep our students that are staying safely in their family homes busy with writing letters to each other. In the picture is an example sent by Elijah to John In it he describes life in Mombasa during COVID times.

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Please keep on sharing our GoFundMe:

https://gf.me/u/y2k8zj

Safe and Sound - Last Friday we spent a wonderful evening at the Openair Charity Concert in Menziken. Before we started with the really good musicians of the evening Black Cat's Smoking, Paolafuerte & SilverBlue, we were allowed to introduce our association briefly, because the donations of this year's event were handed over to us. We would like to express our thanks and appreciation to all donors and interested people of this event! It was big fun and brought us a lot of joy!

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A special thanks goes to SilverBlue and the Huus 74, who made this very successful event possible.

Corona is still present in our lives here in Switzerland. But we are lucky to say that it looks like we are on our way to have controlled the situation and things are slowly getting better here. Not so in Kenya, where the numbers of infections are still rising. Since one month the country is in lockdown and last Friday the President just announced at least another 3 weeks of lockdown. Since the lockdown all schools are closed, which means that all children now stay at home and the burden to feed the children now lies on their parents instead of the schools. To add another burden to the parents, many of them are affected by the lockdown, which means they can't do their normal jobs and therefore have less or even no income compared to times before Corona.

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Our partner school Milele Elimu Centre has almost 300 children and in these times of global crisis, which affects the poorest the most, we need to stand up and support them not only with education, but with the basic needs to survive in terms of nourishment and hygiene.

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A while ago we gave out the first batch of urgent basic foods and hygiene to the most needy families.

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With the second batch of distribution following soon we will be able to add more families to the program.

"Two beautiful and very memorable weeks spent at school, with my family, my friends, my kids, my loved ones. So happy to see how they're growing up, getting matured and how they can't forget me. My heart belongs to them. Not much words to say, the pictures will tell you everything. Until we meet again soon... I left Mombasa with a heart full of new memories ~ and I will be coming back for more."

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- Nadja Kaufmann

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More pictures can be found on our Facebook page.

Just after we arrived in Mombasa we had our first official meeting with our former primary students. Those who graduated with our partner school Milele Elimu Centre and proceeded to secondary school or did other courses. We just made it in time to meet everyone in Mombasa before they went back to school in the first or second week of January. Many of them go to a boarding school far away from Mombasa and just come home when there is a long vacation or the school year is over. It was a great pleasure to meet most of them again. We had nice talks and shared some more memories together! Even if they leave our primary school they are still part of the Milele Family and always will be! They always find an open door at our school and are very welcome for visits anytime. Milele Elimu Centre keeps in touch with them personally 2 - 3 times every year.

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Ibtisam and Joel, who are among the first ever students of ours to finish the secondary education, are awaiting the invitation letters to the university, which will follow only in a few months. For the time being, we gave them the opportunity to gain some work experience and make a first living for themselves as intern teachers in our primary school. The first two weeks have passed and both of them are doing very well in teaching their younger students! We are proud of you!

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More pictures can be found on our Facebook page.

Voilà, voilà! z'Kenya is playing Jass again !!!

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Or rather for Kenya!

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For the fourth time we can already hold our Jass tournament on 03.12.2023!

We are really looking forward to seeing you dear Jass community!

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As always, in addition to the great main prize, there is also a lot to be won in the raffle with a little luck!

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All proceeds will go to our project in Mombasa, Kenya!

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Register at: foreverkidskenya@hotmail.com

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Sponsor main prize Jass tournament:

Globetrotter

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Sponsor main prize raffle:

SoFlow

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Schedule_

 

December 03, 2023

Open Doors: 12.30 pm

Start of Jass: 1.30 pm

End of Jass: 5.30 pm

Soup chat: 5.45 pm

Award ceremony: 7.00 pm

Event closes: 7.30 pm

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Partner sliders 
(French and German cards)

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Werkk Kulturlokal

Schmiedestrasse 1

5400 Baden

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We look forward to welcoming all die-hard Jasslöw:innen as well as beginners!

What an Event!

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Again a big thank you to www.wild-solivo.ch Thank you for making this super event possible for us!

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Also many thanks to @holzmann24 for letting us craft gifts for father's day and many thanks to Titien & Fanto and their Mamma for telling us their story!

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We are definitely looking forward to the next Summer Event!

Dear Friends

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Our President Nadja and Mark are currently on site in Kenya.

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On this occasion, they paid an impromptu visit to two former students of MEC at Kenyatta University, where they are currently studying!

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On the left is Godfrey, a first year Bachelor of Arts in Community Resource Management.

On the right is Joel, in his second year Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry.

Have you checked out our cool Kitenge ShoppingBags and Backpacks yet?

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At

www.foreverkidskenya.com/shop-de

you can buy them!

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They put you in a good mood in everyday life and spread African joie de vivre! The ecologically and sustainably produced bags are sewn by local tailors in Mombasa from fabric scraps of colourful kangas (African scarves).

Each bag is handmade, unique and available for as little as CHF 30.00.

Our grade 3 learners currently work on a project on cultural events!

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They chose to reenact a wedding!

Dear Friends

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Thank you ~ Thank you ~ Thank you

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Yesterday's Jass-Event can only be called a success! We had many players and also other guests on site! Thank you to everybody who came to play, and support our school Milele Elimu Centre at the same time!

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We congratulate the two winners of the tournament from the bottom of pur hearts and hope they will enjoy their price, tandem flight, sponsored by @paraworld.ch

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The Forever Kids Kenya Team says thank you and, of course, until next time!

Dear Friends

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This past week schools were closed and that meant that a lot of the kids that attend secondary school, but are still sponsored by us, came to visit Milele Elimu Centre .

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Our director Joseph Muli held a meeting with them. It was a successful and fun day with an open discussion about self awareness and many other subjects.

Today we want to give a huge thanks to an organisation called international medical aid!

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They had a medical camp organised in collaboration with the Coast General Hospital.

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The target group was the entire community around MEC and it was a successful event with around 400 people seen by the doctors.

We would like to thank the Männerturnverein Leibstadt for the generous donation, which our members Sandra Senn and Nadja Kaufmann were able to accept on July 14.

We received CHF 1000.- from the men's gymnastics club from the proceeds of this year's fish dinner Take Away & Home Delivery, another CHF 1000.- from an anonymous MTV member who generously doubled the amount.

We thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Today we have a little success story for you 🥳🎊 And a reminder that university may seem the most obvious, but by far is not the only path one can take after secondary!

 

This is about Tommy, who joined milele Elimu Centre in 2013 when the school first opened 🏡📚 until he cleared class 8.

We have been supportive of his ongoing education all through Secondary School.

 

After that, he decided to join the National Youth Service of Kenya from where he regularly updates us on how much he likes it and that he was allowed to develop very positively there. 🙌🏼✨

Recently he cleared level 1, now he still has two other levels to clear. 🤗

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National youth service (NYS) core main duty is to train and mentor kenya's youth through: paramilitary and regimentation / National building programs / technical and vocational training in various skills and trades. This training is highly regarded for future job searches.☺️🤸🏾‍♀️

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We are very happy that Tommy has found something he likes to do and where he feels comfortable and wish him all the best for his future!🎊🥰

On 28.03. Nadja and Mark bid farewell to our graduating class to their future challenge at secondary school with a "Fancy Lunch".

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There was eating and laughing, but of course also a few good pieces of advice to the children for their further path in life.

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In a week's time, the results of the KCPE final examination will be available and it will become clear at which secondary school the children will be able to continue their education.

 

With one laughing and one crying eye, we wish them all the best in their new phase of life!

Yesterday the Milele Elimu Centre was lucky to have a French open day at Alliance Francaise Mombasa with some of our kids learning a little French.

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This has also been an introduction to our partnership with the institution in various areas like teacher training, kids and staff participation in events held at the institution, and many more to come.

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Our kids had a memorable, educative and fun-filled day!

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Great appreciation goes to the Af director and the entire staff who made the day a succes.

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Ahsante Sana

This month at the Milele Elimu Centre we had a visit from Moja - Stitch for education, an organisation working on the empowerment of girls and women.

 

They held a workshop with our girls and teachers. Very generously they also brought some reusable sanitary towels for the girls and other hygiene products for our teachers.

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You can find out more about this wonderful organisation at http://moja.dk/

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you very much for your visit.

Last Friday we were able to hold our Forever Kids Kenya Workshop. We discussed our strategy for the coming months and redistributed the main tasks in our NGO. For the first time our new team member Wanatcha Andres participated in the workshop. We would like to officially welcome her to our association.

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We also used the opportunity to take the new official photos for our website. We thank our man at the camera Marcel for giving us his talent for free this afternoon. You can find more of Marcel at https://www.marcelrenggli.com

We would love to express our gratitude to UNFPA Kenya (United Nations fund for population activities Kenya), who held an event in Mombasa with the theme of welcoming girls to womenhood. Among other students from other schools in Mombasa, our class 6, 7 and 8 girls were invited and participated at this event, after which they happily went home with a big back pack of free given toiletries.

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"UNFPA Kenya aims to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young persons' potential is fulfilled".

Some time ago our friends from

@wowtapes visited our partner school Milele Elimu Centre and created this wonderful, inspiring video for us.

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You can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/f7KyVnw-uN8

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To see our kids during this hard time makes us miss them even more.

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Shortly we will post a Corona-Situation update how we support our kids and their families during lock down.

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In the meantime we hope all of you stay healthy and safe.

This years class 8 are the candidates who will do their KCPE exams by end of October this year, means they will finish their 8 year primary education and then next year hopefully continue with the secondary education. It is well known that the class 8 works extra hard in their last year, studying more than ever, using up most of their free time. That's why a very spontaneous visit to the beach on a Saturday afternoon was a very welcome and fun change! Moments and memories that will be kept forever! And this is what happens when the kids take over my camera...

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More pictures can be found on our Facebook page

After a little over a year we are back with our children and employees. Despite the short two weeks we enjoy the moments with everyone at the Milele Elimu Centre. How we missed them! A lot has already happened in the first week and we already had some events that we will show in a later post. Here are some beautiful impressions from school in Mombasa!

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More pictures can be found on our Facebook page.

Dear Friend of Forever Kids Kenya

 

Finally the time has come and we can share our program for our 10th anniversary with you!!!

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08𝗝𝘂𝗹𝗶2023 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗸𝗸 𝗕𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗻.

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Starting at 11:00 a.m. with 𝑺𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒕𝒇𝒐𝒐𝒅 and 𝑲𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒎𝒎 - free admission.

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Doors open for the evening program

From 17.30 with our live acts

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-𝑷𝒐𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒚 𝑺𝒍𝒂𝒎 𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒅𝒚

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Gregor Stäheli

 

Reena Krishnaraja

 

Milan Milanski

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-𝑳𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝑴𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒌

CHORD Band

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-𝑫𝑱'𝒔

Orewo & Splitty

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Pre Sale: https://eventfrog.ch/10JahreForeverKidsKenya

 

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We are already looking forward to your numerous attendance to celebrate this milestone with us!

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Your Forever Kids Kenya Team

It's Workshop Time

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While in Kenya we had the pleasure to host a workshop with our teachers and employees of Milele Elimu Centre!

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We met old friends again and got to know new additions to the Milele family. In return, we were able to better introduce ourselves and the association and explain how we go about fundraising.

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Help us to build the best work environment for our wonderful team, so they can educate the great minds of the future!

Hey there friends

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We are glad to tell you that the work on the wall around our land that will be home of our school building have started and are progressing very well so far!

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We are still counting on your help guys, so please support us through GoFundMe

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Please share and support as much as possible:

https://gofund.me/2b03b90c

Dear Friends

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From Monday 7th to Wednesday 9th our 8 graders will be sitting for their final primary level national examination. This is a big thing in Kenya!

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After this exam they will be joining secondary school - form 1.

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We wish our 8 graders all the luck and success in the world!

Dear Friends

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Are you ready for our Christmas fundraiser?

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We have something special for you this year!

After a long search, we were finally able to purchase our own property in April.

 

We have big plans for our current and future pupils. We are planning a 4-storey school building so that we have enough space to provide basic education for even more children.

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For this we need a lot of bricks, which we want to achieve with this year's fundraising campaign.

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For CHF 30 you can contribute 30 bricks for the construction of our school.

As a thank you, we will put a small sign on the wall with your name or the name of the recipient(s)!

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Buy a gift for your loved ones and do something good at the same time

It doesn't take much - just send us an email at foreverkidskenya@hotmail.com and let us know how many bricks you would like to donate!

Dear Friends

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We are very happy that this past week, we had our first german lesson at Milele Elimu Centre!

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The kids were very eager to learn their first few words in german!

Don't forget to support us for our project: Our own school building in Mombasa!

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Donate here:

https://gofund.me/2b03b90c

Dear Friends

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A very big thank you to FC Wohlen for the kind donation of their old club jerseys for our kids in the MEC !

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The jerseys are in great use for the sports lessons!

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Thank you very much!

Many thanks to www.Pilates-Tanja.ch and www.abedisis.ch for organizing the Yoga and Pilates Charity Event, where all donations go to our Milele Elimu Centre in Mombasa!

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Please mark yourselves, Sunday, September 26th, 2021 in the calendar, we would be very happy about numerous participants!

Super excited that our association is featured in todays AZ newspaper! In the article our president Nadja and vice president Pia tell you all about our plans to build our own school building!  

 

Give it a read: https://www.aargauerzeitung.ch/aargau/baden/hilfsprojekt-zukunft-fuer-slumkinder-badener-schwestern-bauen-schulhaus-in-kenia-ld.2135390

 

And please support on Gofundme: https://gofund.me/2b03b90c

We are proud to announce that our graduating class has successfully passed their KCPE exams!

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All of our students have done well, we are especially celebrating with Elijah who has achieved the best result of the whole last five graduating classes. This makes him our current top scorer! Congratulations Elijah!

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The KCPE results are an important first milestone towards a successful future for Kenyan students and we are happy to see that the results of our alumni are improving year on year.

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We hope that we can accompany and support as many of them as possible on their further journey at secondary school!

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On our Youtube Channel and in our Video section, our students tell you what they will miss most about MEC.

The time has come, our association president Nadja Kaufmann and her husband Mark Tipatet, the former headmaster of Milele Elimu Centre, have finally found their way back to their beloved school.

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Together with guests Felicetta Guerra and her partner Lorenzo, they visited the MEC at the beginning of the week before the students were released for the school holidays.

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Currently, our 8th graders are still writing their final exams until Wednesday before they too can start their holidays!

Some of our kids at Milele Elimu Centre took the time to write essays about their experience at the school and also life in Kenya during the pandemic. You can find the letters on Facebook: www.facebook.com/foreverkidskenya

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Please help us to continue the support for the children and their families nothing in the world is more valuable than a child's well-being.

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Click the link gf.me/u/y2p4wf to get to our GoFundMe and find out how you can help and share.

Patrick Kutilo, teacher at Milele Elimu Centre and passionate artist has made it his mission in this school free times to train some of the students in Arts. As you can see in the picture the first attempts were already very successful!

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More of Patrick on Facebook: "Patrick's Art Work"

Even before the COVID 19 pandemic, life in the Shauri Yako slum in Mombasa was hard and built on unstable foundations. The misery and poverty of these families have been catapulted to the next level since the lockdown. Since the Kenyan government has decided that all schools may not be reopened until 2021, children spend more time on the streets.

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Our main concern is to help the poorest families in this difficult situation. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have regularly sent food parcels to our families while the schools are closed. Our teachers and local staff regularly visit and support the families and make sure that the welfare of our children is guaranteed.
 

We are eagerly awaiting the reopening of our school, as many challenges have to be overcome. The conditions under which the government will allow schools to reopen next year are strict and can only be met with further financial support.

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We are thankful for every little support that helps us to reopen the doors of our school in 2021, so that we can continue to offer our children the possibility of an education.

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How can you support our partner school?

Tell your friends, relatives, work colleagues, neighbours and acquaintances the following link to our "Go fund me" page:

https://gf.me/u/y2p4wf

Covid-19 is still very present in the every day life in Kenya. The children weren't able to go to school since mid March this year, and the government announced that they will open schools again in January 2021 where all classes will have to repeat. This means that the 2020 academic school year is actually a "lost" year. As the children are just staying at home, they are exposed to the every day slum life, for a very long time..

 

We try to keep in touch with our children and their parents regularly, even with home visits. To keep our kids busy, we distribute some homework on a weekly base so that they continue learning. This time, we asked some of them to express their feelings and thoughts in these difficult times through drawings, and this is what we got.

Unfortunately, Kenya was not spared from the corona virus either. On the same day as Switzerland, the Kenyan President ordered the closure of all schools throughout the country. The children will stay at home until further notice. We hope that the situation there will not worsen too much and that they have taken precautions early enough. But before the schools were closed, we had an encouraging event to report: Taekwondo lessons were introduced! A first insight and a some trial lessons for interested students. We hope that the Milele Elimu Centre will soon be able to resume normal school life and thus the Taekwondo lessons can be intensified! The first lessons were already very exciting for our children!

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More pictures can be found on our Facebook page.

After the opening of our partner school Milele Elimu Centre in 2013, Kelvin was in the pioneer class that in 2015 finished class 8 and therefore primary education. Not only that, but from there he continued to secondary education, and four years later he is among our pioneer students who finished secondary just last November! During the four years of secondary school he used to come and visit the Milele Elimu Centre quite often, during his school vacation or during end year, and specially also for the christmas parties held yearly in school. As he says, the Milele school is a family and the kids become very attached to it. Once Milele, always Milele!

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We are proud of all of you who finished secondary education and will continue to support in any way we can, hoping for a bright future for all of you!

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You can watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm_eTIn6GeY

While the children and their parents usually long for the big Christmas celebration at our partner school Milele Elimu Centre, the staff look forward to the year-end outing trip! For two years now, not just a day trip but an overnight trip has been planned. We want to give the hard working staff a break where they can relax and mostly have fun with each other! Because the success of our students comes with them! Ahsanteni sana!!

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More pictures can be found on our Facebook page.