Rural Kenya: Children Dance & Learn the Dangers of FGM

We know from past crises that women are typically left out of traditional disaster relief efforts. That's why we're stepping in as women led organisation...
In April 2018, our school was demolished. We need help to start again.
Margret is among many women Compassion CBO trained in 2015. She has survived breast Cancer 2 times.
Now aged 63 years it was in 1993 she underwent total Mastectomy sad enough it had a recurrence in 2013.
She was put under adjuvant chemotherapy where she has spent over $5000 in treatment from 2013.
Every day she takes Tamoxifen. Through thin and thick she has managed to pay $3000 for her medication but has to raise the remaining $2000 and pay for Tamoxifen every month.
Margret is a…
In May, Compassion CBO conducted another Anti-FGM Seminar, to educate children and teachers about the dangers and health hazards related to FGM.
Thanks to a grant by Amplify Change to support a new Anti-FGM hotline, Compassion CBO has opened an office in Nairobi.
Following an intensive selection process, Compassion CBO has been awarded a grant by AmplifyChange to run Anti-FGM Hotlines in Kenya.
The children of Compassion CBO school in Nairobi are the beneficiaries of a heart-felt tribute from the friends and family of much-loved Parthenia Adams - ‘Aunty Polly’ - who passed away, age 97, in Detroit, Michigan.
Thanks to the generosity of our supporters we managed to repair our school roof before the rains started.... Panic had set in at our school in the Githogoro Slums when we heard that there was going to be heavy rain.
At a UK Trade Union conference a delegate, Debbie Hollingsworth, proposed that this year's collection should go to Compassion CBO, a Kenyan non-profit who she had visited. This is the story.
We held another anti-FGM [female-genital-mutilation] seminar; this time it was in Karurumo, a small town nearly an hour away from Embu - about 10 kilometres from Evanson’s rural home [Evanson is the founder of Compassion CBO].
The girls were armed with the information that would make it possible for them to argue against anyone trying to talk them into being subject to FGM. Phyllis also made sure that they knew where to turn to if they needed help, and which chief, police station etc. was closest.
Little Gifts that Have Made a Big Difference – Part 1
Back in 2005, the year I struggled so much to start an educational centre for children, a friend of mine whispered to me of a white man in Runda Estate, looking for pastors to train in computer knowledge. I thought that must be a very rich man to sponsor all those people. My friend told me about the house where the man was living and that a number of pastors had met there once, and introductions were made with them. I said I will go and see what happens.
When I was asked if I would like to sponsor a Kenyan not-for-profit organisation called Compassion CBO, I first looked at their website to see what it is all about. What struck me straight away were the first few lines:
“Compassion CBO is a grassroots, not-for-profit Community - working to eradicate poverty through education .... and to rehabilitate orphans and vulnerable children.”
Linnet Griffith-Jones writes about volunteering at Compassion CBO in Kenya
Today Compassion's chicken project has finally begun! We had to start off on a smaller scale than we wanted - there are vaccinations, antibiotics and glucose... Not to mention the building work, feeder, water dispensers and heat lamps that Compassion had to get. Another problem is the unreliability of the power supply...
Linnet Griffith-Jones writes about volunteering at Compassion CBO in Kenya
It is a great feeling to be even a very small part of what Compassion CBO does... Every couple of weeks, women from Bethsaida Women's Group come and dig up sweet potatoes for three hours a day, which are shared between the women's group and the orphanage.
Linnet Griffith-Jones writes about volunteering at Compassion CBO, in Kenya
My First Week of Training - Beginning at the Beginning
Having spent most of last month meeting some of Compassion's local partners and groups and reading the training manual provided by an MBA team from theKelley School of Business, Indiana University, I've been pretty excited to start on the training,
We started very locally with representatives from three groups. After consultation, we had realised that training the whole group wasn't totally in their favour as some had work, others had families to look after.
Julia, a young woman with disability, lives in a slum with her two young children in a house of 10 square feet of corrugated iron sheets... Through selling boiled eggs, she is able to buy food for her children. This is but an example of how a small donation or loan can empower one woman.
Linnet Griffith-Jones writes about her first week in Kenya
So I seem to be settling in to life here quite quickly, well compared to Uganda, where I remember feeling culture shock for ages. Don't get me wrong, I still spend a lot of time confused, especially by the money - I am still not entirely sure when things are expensive or when they are cheap but there is something weirdly comforting about hearing prices given in "bob"!
The main reason I'm feeling so at home is because of Evanson, the wonder boss! He's been massively understanding the couple of times I have had to call in sick because of eating something a bit off the night before or gone home a bit earlier than the other teachers because the heat has gotten to me.
Linnet Griffith-Jones writes about volunteering at Compassion CBO in Kenya
Getting to know Kenya
So I have now been here for a week and a half and am starting to settle in and get to grips with life in Africa again.
Having lived in neighbouring Uganda last year, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what to expect but living in the neighbouring country now has shown me how massively inaccurate generalisations are when you are talking about Africa. Kampala and Nairobi obviously have some resemblance: the weather is pretty similar, the matatus (minibus taxis that carry about fourteen people) look almost the same, but Nairobi is a lot bigger: the buildings are newer, the roads bigger and the boda-bodas [motorbike taxis] that are ubiquitous in Kampala have been banned from Nairobi city centre making it feel a lot calmer, especially as there also seems to be a lot more trees and greenery.
Debbie Hollingsworth writes about volunteering at Compassion CBO in kenya
Googling Women's Projects in Nairobi
For nearly two years I had been planning and saving for a trip of my lifetime to Kenya. In addition to the traditional safari/beach resort holiday, we (my friend Angela Jeffrey and I) wanted to link in with some projects because we had heard so much about the high levels of poverty largely experienced by women and children and the inter linked health and inequality issues they face on a daily basis.
I didn’t think it was going to be easy accessing any projects, but amazingly it was. I simply googled ‘women’s projects in Nairobi’ and up popped a link about some grandmothers rearing pigs as a means of earning a living for themselves and their families.