Call for Kenya 2015 volunteers

The Kildare-based charity which has spent ten years helping a children's home in Kenya, Maintain Hope, is getting involved in a new project, writes Brian Byrne.

With the original Shelter home and school at Ngong now on a viable footing, the organisation has been asked to build a new home nearby for 50 children next year.

The charity has asked for expressions of interest from potential volunteers for the new project. The 'expedition' date is provisionally next July/August. Maintain Hope is already negotiating for a site for the home, which will cater for rescued children currently living in a rented house.

"We need to know by November if we have the volunteers to go ahead," the charity's founder Gerry O'Donoghue told the Diary yesterday. "Negotiations for a site are almost complete and we are drawing up the plans and specifications for the building."

The project calls for two dormitories, a common room, kitchen, laundry, toilet/shower block and an administration office. The entire footprint will roughly equal four of the classrooms which Maintain Hope has built in the past. "It's a tall order and will be a real challenge, but by using our usual phased method, it is very feasible. Non-building volunteers will be needed to participate in an Outreach Programme with the children."

Enquiries to maintainhope@gmail.com are welcome.