Guest Post from Simon Hart of VICDA, Kenya

Over the past few weeks you've heard a lot about the recent ESTC distribution trip to Peru. The trip was a great success, but this week we thought we'd update you on the ongoing impact of our other distribution trip earlier in the year, to Kenya. So this week's blog is a guest post from one of our partners in Kenya, ESTC distribution trip host and former staffer, Simon Hart.

"It has been a few months now since the Distribution Trip in Kenya, and the staff at VICDA have been busy visiting the projects that benefitted from your kind donations to assess how the money was spent and to begin planning for next year.

The feedback from the projects was very encouraging, and the Directors at each project were very grateful for the support they have received. Your donations enabled the GVN Foundation and VICDA to provide the food needed to support an incredible 168 children in one placement alone, at Shelter Children’s Home- just in time as the school holidays were starting, which means more mouths to feed! Kenya is currently experiencing some of the highest food price rises in history, enhancing food insecurity and making it more difficult for families to survive. As you can imagine, even a slight rise particularly hits orphanages and children’s homes hard, and ensuring food security became a priority across several of our projects.

Where possible, VICDA ensured your donations were spent with sustainability in mind, and a great example of this came at Nairobi Children’s Home. Whilst also meeting the direct needs of supplying food to the orphanage, most of the funds were spent on purchasing a new fridge for the home. This has helped immensely in reducing food prices, as now food can be purchased in bulk and stops any food from going to waste.

Additionally, at Thika Rescue Centre your funds helped to develop a sustainable agricultural project, assisting in the purchase of equipment, water piper and seeds to get the project started. When visiting the placement a few weeks later, it was great to see the crops thriving and the teachers informed us that the various classes tended to their own patch proudly, seeing it as a competition! Not only does this initiative enable the home to produce some of their own vegetables, but it also gives the children a chance to train in a very practical Kenyan trade, assisting them for the future. Finally, it was great to see the long term aim of Thika Rescue Centre is to construct a Green House, and they are already planning how to spend any future funds productively.

There were inevitably, several challenges and some alterations with the planned distribution of funds. At Happy Life Children’s Home, VICDA had put aside a significant amount of money to pay for an operation one of the young boys needed. Fortunately during the course of the planning, he was adopted and can now receive the care he needs from his new family. With considerable funds set aside for this operation, it was decided to donate these towards the Home’s considerable medical expenses at the hospital, which will enable the continued treatment of other sick children.

VICDA also used some of the funds to construct 6 new houses at one of the IDP camps they support. This was particularly successful, as it benefitted widowed and vulnerable women as well as their young children, reflecting 2 of the core objectives of the ESTC campaign. In addition, whilst the houses are very simple and assembled within 3 days, they are amazingly transferable incase the IDP camp is moved in the future.

At another IDP camp, the VICDA staff have become very involved and integral to the lives of the residents there. With the construction of the new school complete, your funds helped to assist 21 children in partially paying for their school fees. 2 children in particular were so happy to get back to school, they spent the same evening with their new classmates to catch up on the work they had so far missed!

So overall the distribution of funds was a huge success, and so many people benefitted from your kind contributions. Despite the rise in food prices which forced our attention towards meeting the immediate food security needs of many of our projects, we were able to implement a number of long term and sustainable projects which we hope to continue supporting in the future.

On behalf of VICDA and everyone at the projects, Asante sana!"

From everyone at ESTC, a huge thanks to Simon and everyone at VICDA, and to our all hosts who helped raise those funds in 2010. ESTC 2011 is just around the corner, and if you haven't signed up yet, it's not too late! You can sign up at www.eatsotheycan.org to help make this year's event as successful as last year's was!

 - Luke and the ESTC team.

The countdown is on... tips and tricks for your ESTC event!

With under a month to go, the countdown is on for the Eat So They Can 2011 weekend, 15-16 October. We're starting to hear about the events people have planned for this year and they sound awesome! We're hoping 2011 is going to be even bigger and better than last year.

Hopefully, you have signed up and started planning your Eat So They Can event. If you're stuck, check out our past events gallery for inspiration. There are plenty of ideas and photos to help you get creative and come up with the perfect Eat So They Can fundraiser.

This week, we would like to share with you a few tips and tricks that we've picked up along the way to help your event run smoothly and make sure it is a success!

Here's a sneak peak at the 2011 Party Packs.

1. Use your party pack. If you registered your address to receive a party pack, this is now on it's way to you! In it, you will find some information, stickers, business cards and our 2011 DVD. We recommend making the most of all these resources - but our number 1 tip is to watch the DVD! Our stars, Lydia and Eliza, along with Rachel Dickinson (the mastermind behind the DVD creation), did an awesome job at putting together some short clips about Eat So They Can. Before your event, watch the DVD and decide which sections you may like to show your guests, so that they come away from your event a little bit more informed about the work that we do and where their funds are going. If you would like to receive a party pack but haven't been in contact, please send us an email and we will get one on its way to you. 
2. Volunteers. Running an event by yourself can seem like hard work - even if it is incredibly worthwhile! Our second tip is to find some friends and family who support what you are doing and ask them if they'd like to spare a couple of hours to help you. It could be painting signs, cooking food, or even cleaning up afterwards. Having some keen volunteers around definitely makes the whole process more fun.
3. Set a goal. Decide how much you would like raise for Eat So They Can this year so yuo have something to work towards. Your online host profile has a great feature to help you keep track of how you progressing towards your goal. Don't forget that everyone who raises over $500 automatically goes in our draw to win an all-expenses paid spot on one of our distributions trips to Kenya or Peru in 2012. You can read more about this amazing prize here.
4. Social media. Let everyone know about your event, and about Eat So They Can, by sending out emails to people who may be interested in attending, or mentioning it on facebook or twitter. 
5. Businesses. If you are after some additional donations to top up your total raised, try contacting local businesses who may be willing to make a donation, match the amount you have raised or donate goods or services for a raffle - all in exchange for a little positive publicity!
6. Contact us. Our team is here to help you with your event, so if you need resources or a little positive encouragement, let us know. You can send us an email and we will get in contact.

They're our top six tips for hosting an Eat So They Can event this year. We're really looking forward to the Eat So They Can weekend and seeing all the different events around the world come to life.

- Fiona and the Eat So They Can team

Days 4-7 of the Peru Distribution Trip Diary

Hi everyone, this is the second installment of my time in Peru. Enjoy!

Day 4 – On the fourth day of the trip we headed along the twisty roads to the Sacred Valley of Peru with our amazing driver, Gustavo! We went to the Lamay Nutrition for Change program for lunch to help distribute food to the kids from the local school. This program is designed to provide the children from Lamay village and the surrounding hills with a daily breakfast and lunch, as well as a multi-vitamin. The children who participate in the program often walk for 2 hours or more, to and from school each day. The program has improved the children’s health, school attendance and is also helping them to focus and work hard in their classes. Through funds raised from Eat So They Can 2010, we were able to grant $2,500 towards this program. In the afternoon, we visited a girls orphanage and had heaps of fun playing volleyball, soccer, and a Peruvian version of duck, duck, goose - guinea pig, guinea pig, llama!

Girls enjoying their lunch at the Lamay Nutrition for Change Program

Day 5 – We decided to include one day of tourism during the distribution trip for two reasons. First, I wanted our team to be able to see some of the incredible sights in the Sacred Valley, and second, because Geovanna from the orphanage we support had recently graduated as a tour guide! Geovanna grew up at the orphanage where we launched the Peruvian Promise Program and is the first of the girls to leave the orphanage and graduate as a professional! We are so proud of her!

Geovanna came to our hotel in the morning and took us to Pisac, a small town in the Sacred Valley. On the way she told us her story of how she had ended up in the orphanage and shared her hopes for the other girls there. We visited the local market and then Geovanna took us on a tour of the Pisac ruins. We were all so impressed with how professional, confident and knowledgeable she was!

Geovanna, our Tour Guide

Day 6 – We had a VERY early start on Friday as they are doing work on the road to the community of Pampallacta where we were headed and we had to get there before the road closed at 6am! The road to Pampallacta is full of hairpin bends and big drop offs, and I have to admit that I had a few doubts along the way as to whether this was such a good idea! It was therefore a big relief when we got to the top of the mountain – until we saw that a big trench had been dug in the road and there was no way across. We started trying to fill the ditch with dirt and then someone from the community lent us some planks of wood, and after lots of pointing, shouting, and manoeuvring, we managed to get our van over the ditch!

As soon as we arrived at Pampallacta we all knew it was worth it! Watching the children running down the mountains to come and see us, and seeing their smiles when they saw the balloons and hot chocolate, was such a great feeling! Peruvian Hearts also run their Nutrition for Change program at Pampallacta school, and we hope to be able to support them with funds raised from future ESTC events.

Pampallacta Party!

Day 7 – On our last day we returned to Cusco for a cooking workshop! By this point, all our team were starting to think about their ESTC 2011 events so this was a great way for us to get some recipes and ideas! We cooked nachos and guacamole for starters, and ají de gallina for the main course. We’ll be uploading our ají de gallina recipe onto our recipe guide soon so keep an eye out for it – and don’t forget to send us your recipes too! http://www.eatsotheycan.org/resources/recipes

Gigi in the Kitchen!

A huge thank you to our distribution team for being such a fun, compassionate and hard-working group! And of course a special thank you to all our hosts for making our work possible. I’ve returned from this trip with even more motivation and energy for ESTC this year!

Together we are changing lives – one meal at a time!

- Eliza

Peru Distribution Trip Diary

Hi everyone,

So I’ve been back in New Zealand for more than a week now but my mind is still far away in Peru! The Distribution Trip was such a special and inspiring trip, that I am sure I will be thinking about it for a long time. I wish that you could have all been on the trip with us, but I will try to share a little bit of what we experienced through this blog...

The 2011 Peru Distribution Team!

Day 1 – On the first day we had a welcome dinner at Yanapay Social Restaurant. This is a really unique restaurant because it directly supports a children’s project in Cusco and because many of the staff who work there used to attend the children’s project. It is also a really beautiful and magical place, because of the way it is decorated. If you ever go to Cusco, I really recommend that you go there for dinner or a delicious cocktail, and of course try on their hats! You can read more about the restaurant here.

Modeling the hats at Yanapay Social Restaurant

Day 2 – We started off the day  with orientation. Daniela, our Peruvian ESTC Ambassador, gave a great talk about Peruvian history, culture and gastronomy. We also watched some interesting videos as an introduction to what we would see over the next few days. The Girl Effect video was a great introduction to our afternoon, when we took part in the launch of the Peruvian Promise Program! Thanks to ESTC 2010 funds, we have granted over $9,000 to this program. The idea is that 16 girls are being given the opportunity to become leaders in their communities through educational scholarships, inspirational retreats, mentoring, and workshops. During the launch of the program, these 16 girls each spoke of their dreams for the future and what really struck me was how much thought had obviously gone into their choices – one girl dreamed of becoming tour guide so she could travel the world, another girl spoke of wanting to become a policewoman, others of going to university. It was such an inspiring day, and I have no doubt that these girls will go on to do great things for themselves and their families.

The Peruvian Promise Program Scholars

It was also really beautiful to spend time with the Dodson family and hear Ana Dodson speak. Ana is the Founder of our partner organization, Peruvian Hearts. She was born in Peru and was adopted by an American family when she was a baby. Her family took her on a trip back to Peru when she was 11 years old because they wanted her to embrace her heritage. Ana was so moved by the extreme poverty that she saw during her trip that on her return to the USA she founded Peruvian Hearts. Ana has since been a CNN hero and won numerous awards for her work to improve the lives of children in Peru.

Danny Dodson, Eliza Raymond, Judi Dodson and Ana Dodson

Day 3 - Next, we went to Huchuy Yachaq which is a community center located on the outskirts of the city of Cusco. The community suffers from a number of challenges relating to accessibility issues, lack of basic facilities, unstable housing, and social problems such as unemployment, informal employment, alcoholism and domestic violence. Through funds raised from Eat So They Can’s women’s empowerment cause, we are providing a $5,000 grant to set up a jewellery workshop for the mothers in the community.

Learning to weave at Huchuy Yachaq

In the morning, we met some of the mothers from the community and had the opportunity to buy some of the products they had made. A few people from our team also learnt the basics of weaving and jewellery-making from the mothers! This was a really great moment for me as it was obviously fun and also empowering for the mothers to be able to share their skills and knowledge with us. In the afternoon, we organized a small party for the whole community. A highlight was the raffle and also sharing hot chocolate and cake with the kids!

Showing off her new hat she won at the Huchuy Yachaq raffle!

Watch this space! Days 4-7 will be featured in next week's blog!

- Eliza