Christmas come early

Written by Alison | 10 November 2010

Another amazing day .. not only did it stop raining in the UK and the sun shone brightly, but my daughter got confirmation of the arrival of her white Blackberry Bold ... the bad news is that my son has to wait another week for the arrival of Assassins Creed 3 Brotherhood

...... ridiculous western materialistic crap aside .... the REAL point of this blog is the results our Norwegian volunteer, Mona, posted onto my Facebook wall earlier today ... news, with visuals, of little Sylvia. Sylvia was highlighted when Mona joined us in north western Kenya earlier this year, working alongside the Canadian-based Tumaini Centre, established by soon-to-be-proud-Mum Amanda Flanagan.

Sylvia is the orphaned grandchild of the cook for the school that Tumaini support and have been constantly developing for a number of years. Unfortunately, due to the typical pressures of workloads and poverty, Sylvia's grandmother was severely struggling to keep Sylvia literally "alive" due to undernourishment since losing her Mother at only a few months old. In April, 4.5 yr old Sylvia was barely the same size as her 1 yr old cousin ..... but then we found her and people got together and helped and spent time and only a little money to find a way to help this little girl.

And look how we did:

I just want to thank EVERYONE involved especially Mona (for her time spent in Kenya and back home in Norway), Rose (in Kenya), Amanda (in Canada and now Kenya), the friends and family donors from Canada and Norway, Maurice for liaison in the community and all the amazing school staff for their efforts in keeping Sylvia in baby class to help with socialisation. The story of the school is uplifting on its own but I'd especially like to thank Sylvia's tireless Grandma, Christine, for honestly doing her best to fend for her grandchildren after her own daughter died.

Now there's much more hope for Sylvia, pictured here with a walking frame made for her to aid her in walking for the first time, on her own, at almost 5 years old. In the words of a friend, Jacque: "everyone should be proud and here's hoping Sylvia continues to prosper and in later life gets to track down who was responsible for the woolly bonnet!" ..bless her!!

Front cover of Vogue will be waiting, Sylvia x

I'd like to thank Catriona too, currently helping out in the community, a volunteer from Trinity College, Cambridge, staying till mid December and who will be updating us soon.