Last Thursday a young girl arrived at Kipsing Primary School just as it was getting dark. She was alone and she had walked a long way to get here. Her serious expression made her look older, world weary, but her height and skinny build fitted exactly with her age. She was ten years old and …
Today Jonny leaves Cairo to start the African leg of his cycling journey from Edinburgh to Isiolo. He had the opportunity to get to know Cairo while he waited 3 weeks for his Sudanese visa. “I think I must have been ‘profiled’” said Jonny “because I met a Dutch family who received their visa in …
From somewhere in the dark there was a long blood curdling scream, followed by a fierce almost lion like roar. For a brief moment ghastly images formed in my mind as a rush of adrenalin surged through my body. But then my mind cleared and I realised we were listening to wild pigs fighting. We …
With the global media focusing on the famine in Somalia many people have been asking us what is happening in Kenya so I have put together some of the most common questions and answered them. Q. Do you have drought where you are? A. Yes northern Kenya is suffering from the same long running drought …
This afternoon a large thunderstorm developed over Isiolo and the surrounding area. The land is bone dry from months of drought, the soil is dust and the sudden downpour carries it away depositing it elsewhere. Deep channels are cut a spontaneous rivers appear. People watch as the water washes through their houses, grabbing at possessions …
Women are always at the front line of poverty, especially in rural areas. Northern Kenya is no exception, they feed the family, are responsible for finding water, collecting firewood and building the houses. Culture and poor access to family planning means that they can easily have eight children by the time they are thirty. Traditionally …
In The Shackled Continent journalist Robert Guest outlines various reasons for African poverty. He refers to a Peruvian economist, Hernando de Soto. This man has estimated that the value of what he calls ‘dead capital’ in poor countries, property that can not be capitalised because there are no title deeds, is roughly forty times the …
Craignish Primary School, in a little village on the west coast of Scotland, took the time to raise money for Oling’arua school.
Robert and Lili Levy have generously donated a second Farm Kit, this time to Kipsing School. The Farm Kit comprises a greenhouse, a drip irrigation system, water tank, seeds and fertilizer, it also comes with a years training. At Kipsing School the Farm Kit will be a teaching resource and a source of fresh vegetables …
On the 18th of July Jonny, DARE’s technical guru and most dedicated supporter, begins an epic bike ride from his home in Edinburgh to our base in Isiolo, Kenya. I am extremely jealous. Not only will he be meeting interesting people and sampling all kinds of culinary delights along the way (living in a region …