Story

Hello, thanks for stopping by! On Sunday 21st April this year I will be running the London Marathon raising money for International Needs – to help them provide for street children in Kenya. Please donate and help me reach my target- from £10 - £1,000 every bit helps! Can you imagine being homeless for just a day? We often take for granted that we have beds to sleep in and roofs over our heads. Most of us get to eat a hot meal a day or more and live in a society children can access their basic right to education. This is far from the reality for street youth and children in Kenya. An estimated 60,000 children and young people live on the streets in Nairobi and this number is growing. The majority of children living on the streets in Nairobi live in informal settlements and rely on scavenging, begging and picking through rubbish for daily survival. Many have ended up on the street due to abandonment, domestic conflict or extreme poverty at home and have had no formal basic education before life on the streets. I am aware of how fortunate I have been in my upbringing in the UK, and am so pleased to be supporting a great charity that helps to provide rescue, rehabilitation and re-integration into society for street boys in Kenya, assisting those in vastly different situations to myself. It is scary to think that boys at such an early stage of life are living on the streets of Nairobi and are dependent on scavenging to make a living. I cannot even begin to imagine going thorough this, let alone at such a young age. I dread to think how a younger version of myself would fare in these circumstances. On the 21st April I will be running the London Marathon (all 26.2 miles of it!) to raise funds for the street boys in Kenya! The goal of the project is to rescue, rehabilitate and re-integrate street boys in Kenya back to their families and society through a gospel centred approach to restore them. The project is executed by International Needs UK through Grace Empowerment, a local Christian charity in Kenya. The charity rescues street boys and youth and provides them with food, health care, identity cards, clothes and other basic resources at a drop-in centre. Grace Empowerment goes further to support them with non-formal education, vocational training and counselling from the gospel to break them free from redundancy and addictions to drugs. Grace Empowerment has rescued over 100 street boys since it began its mission in 2006. It now seeks funds to build a rehabilitation centre which will provide a longer and more defined rehabilitation programme for the boys whilst harnessing their skills and talents. This will enable them to earn subsistent livelihoods when they leave the centre and re-integrate back with their families and into society. Prior to this I had very little experience running, other than a fluked and slow half marathon last year! But I have been throwing myself in training and setting myself some high targets… I would recommend checking out my Strava to keep in touch with training! So please support me in undertaking this challenge by giving what you can to help street boys in Kenya with Grace Empowerment. Also, the Marathon place comes with a fundraising target amount (of £1,800) so please help me out here! And I will do my best not to come last! Thanks for reading this note and I hope that you are now heading to donate! Thank you and I will see you at the finish line!