Community Relations - Kenya
The following organisations are supported by British Airways and receive complimentary tickets, cargo and excess baggage.
Children of Mukuru
This charity was set up to help some of the 60,000 street children who live on the streets of Nairobi. Working in conjunction with the Mukuru Promotion Centre (run by the Sisters of Mercy) it aims to provide basic needs: food, clothes, basic health care and primary education for nearly 6,000 children.
Nyumbani Children's Home
The Nyumbani home for HIV positive orphans was founded in 1992 by Father Angelo D'Agostino, a Jesuit priest and former surgeon who was concerned by the lack of provision for these children in Nairobi.
He rented a room in a small house and provided for the care of these abandoned babies and small children. Since then the establishment has relocated to a purpose built complex, housing and providing medical and educational needs for 94 orphans aged three to nineteen. Additionally, the project supports 1,500 HIV positive children in the slum districts and has embarked on an ambitious plan to build a Village to house destitute AIDS orphans as well as the other neglected generation, the destitute grandparents.
British Airways has been involved with Nyumbani from the early days, with cabin and flight crews visiting the home during stopovers in Nairobi and BA staff were involved in forming a UK registered fundraising charity in support of the project. The cabin crew boost the morale of the home with two dedicated visits by a nominated cabin crew each year. Advantage is made of the daily flights with crews continuing to visit and support the home with donations of much needed supplies.
Visit www.nyumbani.orgNanyuki Children's Home Charitable Trust
Nanyuki Children's Home is located 70 miles north of Nairobi. There are 95 children resident at the home, ranging from a few weeks old to 16 years. The Trust is a UK-based charity commited to raising funds to support the home. Other necessities such as clothes, toys and medicines are also collected on a regular basis and sent there. The Home receives virtually no other regular support from any source so the work of the Trust is vital to keep it running. Nanyuki Children's Home Charitable Trust has no paid staff and very little in the way of expenses so nearly every penny raised goes directly to the children.
Visit www.nanyuki.orgThe David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust embraces measures needed for the welfare, protection and conservation of wildlife and habitats in Kenya by rescuing and hand-rearing orphaned animals so that they can return to the wild when grown, with a particular focus on elephant and rhinos. The Trust also educates communities about the value of wildlife and environmental protection and campaigns against the abuse of wild animals in captivity.
Visit www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.orgThe Haller Foundation
The Haller Foundation works with individuals and communities in townships and in rural areas in Kenya. Its goals are to help families break out of the poverty trap, supporting small-scale enterprises through education, training initiatives and seed funding to begin creating ‘barefoot entrepreneurs’.
The Haller Foundation funds a series of three-day programmes designed to teach low cost, sustainable farming techniques to small-scale farmers. Participants are given hands on training at a demonstration organic farm with the aim of promoting self-sufficiency without damage to the environment. Training in water conservation and wells management, integrated fish and irrigation systems, livestock husbandry, tree planting and bee-keeping, compost making, using organic pesticides, and many low cost alternative technologies are introduced. Animal leasing programmes are available and all courses include a session on family planning and HIV awareness.
Visit www.thehallerfoundation.comThe Kenya Trust
The Kenya Trust assists in many practical ways by improving conditions and facilities in schools, hostels and community centres. It is currently raising money to build a small school with toilets in Kibera, a large shanty town on the outskirts of Nairobi.
The Trust promotes and supports the development of music within The Salvation Army in Kenya and Uganda by funding and staffing Training Seminars for music leaders and facilitating Music Schools for young people. Additionally it sends out packages of musical instruments of all kinds, teaching packs, educational materials and text books.
Watumu Turtle Watch
In the world of conservation the sea turtle has become a flagship species, as its decline is an indicator of the state of health of our oceanic ecosystems.
In Kenya, there is mounting concern as the marine environment is suffering increasingly from a range of human related threats in recent years. Consequently, local community members in Watamu became involved in sea turtle conservation efforts that resulted in the formation of Watamu Turtle Watch in 1997.
In 2002, WTW, responding to the need for further community based conservation, broadened its efforts and created the Local Ocean Trust which undertakes general marine conservation work locally and nationally.
LOT/ WTW is a non-profit NGO committed to the protection of the Kenyan marine environment through research, education, community development, hands-on conservation and campaigning. The Project’s principal aims are to integrate conservation principles into the values and cultures of the local coastal fishing communities along the Kenyan coast, in an effort to offer alternative methods of generating income that are compatible with the sustainable and long term use of natural resources.
Visit www.watamuturtles.com