{ Why Challenge Africa }
We are called Challenge Africa, because our projects challenge small communities to work together to find sustainable ways to address huge issues like HIV infection rates and the educational attainment of girls.
Our projects target orphans and vulnerable children, HIV positive individuals and families and vulnerable girls and women, but we try to involve the whole community, improving life for all.
We aim to:
- be an advocate of sustainable practices such as farming and clean water provision
- respond to the needs of people, rather than prescribe development solutions, and
- work with the community, empowering those without a voice.
We are a small organisation working alongside local people to help improve lives. We believe in a hand up not a hand out and ensure every donation goes directly towards the projects that make a difference.
I love school, especially Mathematics and games.
Pauline, 8
Challenge Africa’s projects are diverse, ranging from egg farms for feeding orphans, to memory book counselling enabling children to have a lasting record of their lost parent. We encourage young men to join our football teams through which they access vital health messages which will protect them and their future partners. Our farm offers agricultural lessons to help improve farming output and we help families grow their own vegetables and trees, securing livelihoods and building a greater understanding of how best to manage natural resources in order to protect and improve the environment. We prioritise programs with strong track records to ensure every donation we receive can actually make a difference.
We believe every child has the right to education and care and so the early years class welcomes children with HIV; hoping to make short lives as happy as possible.
‘I love school, especially Mathematics and games’ Pauline, 8
Your donations fund a teacher to educate and care for 40 orphans on the Early Years programme.
We particularly focus our efforts on addressing the needs and basic rights of women and girls. Our goal is to facilitate change at both the practical and structural levels and to equip vulnerable females with the knowledge and tools required to live their lives the way they choose with health, dignity, self worth, confidence and literacy.
We don’t want to develop a culture of dependency so the goal for each project is to be self sustaining and empowering. By giving a ‘hand up’ through skills, training and education, community members can empower themselves and improve the lives of the next generation. Our tailoring training project, for example, equips young women with skills and resources to provide for themselves and their families, whilst the uniform they practise making enables orphans to attend school. Garments are also sold to enable the learning centre to be self sufficient.
Volunteers, from the UK, France and Australia, have assisted the local team in construction, farm work, teaching and occupational therapy. It is a mutual exchange of knowledge, skills, cultures and friendship.
Because of our size and the way in which we engage with communities in a very practical way, your contribution will really change someone’s life. Our projects are on a very human scale and respond to the challenges that are given to us by the communities we work with. We will continue to believe that local people can find the solutions to the challenges facing them and that a ‘one size fits all’ development approach as often used by big international charities, cannot fully succeed in strengthening communities and improving livelihoods.
If you like the sound of what we do, why not volunteer, raise funds or consider other ways you can donate to support to our projects.
It costs just £3.20 to feed 60 orphans a basic daily meal; so for the cost of a sandwich in this country we can fill hungry tummies in Kenya. We intend all our projects to be sustainable and self sufficient but until we are able to achieve this we must rely on your kindness.
Follow our blog for details about our challenges and projects, the people we meet, the stories they tell, the progress we are making and how YOU can make a difference.
{ Where we work }
Challenge Africa currently works in small rural communities around Lake Victoria in Nyanza Province, Kenya. Having spent five years successfully supporting the village of Wagusu to develop and improve the lives of their orphaned and vulnerable community members, we are now focusing our efforts on nearby Abimbo. Abimbo is a poorer area due to it’s proximity to the Lake and the community, of just over two thousand people, face many challenges.
We are called Challenge Africa because, although we are currently small, we hope to replicate our successes on focused efforts in other areas of Kenya and the continent.