Introducing GVI Olives... our new childcare project in Mombasa

Hello, Jambo, Boungiorno, Guten Tag, Bonjour, Buenas Dias, Goede Dag, Bom Dia and Welcome, Karibu, Benvenuto... and the rest..!

I am very excited to welcome you to the launch of the GVI Olives blog, which over the next few weeks will be introducing you to GVI's newest projects being launched in Mombasa, Kenya. The name, GVI Olives, comes from our main partner organisation and the main focus of our blog, the Olives Rehabilitation Centre, or the ORC for short!

As you will hopefully appreciate over the coming months, the ORC is one of the great examples of how a truly grass-roots community-based initiative can achieve truly great things from seemingly nothing. In the absence of big donor funding or grants, the ORC has been delivering real opportunity to the most vulnerable children of Mombasa's Bombolulu slum area, through the sheer dedication, hard work and good will of a handful of volunteer teachers.

Relying on a few local private benefactors, and despite the resulting financial insecurity, Steven, Michael and their small team of teachers have turned a small collection of ramshackle rooms in to a school for the neediest children in their area, kids that have dropped out of the government school system due to hunger and lack of parental support. In an aea where substance abuse and crime often takes the place of literacy and education, the ORC ensures that the most vulnerable young children receive lunch each day and the Kenyan primary school curriculum.

You only need to spend a few minutes here to see the positive effects the ORC has on the children lucky enough to attend. But more remarakbly, in the few fortunate instances where they can secure funds to return children to mainstream education in private schools, they typically rank in the top 10% of their classes, a real testament to the time, energy and care that the teachers put in at the ORC.

From July, GVI Olives hopes to support these teachers and the children to expand on the work, by placing volunteers with them to assist. It really is a situation where every little helps. For example after talking to the teachers, we hope to provide breakfast each day for over 100 children - just £15 a week should hopefully ensure that these kids don't start their school days with empty bellies anymore.

If you are unable to join us at the ORC in Mombasa, then I hope that you will join us at this blog to follow the story of GVI Olives.

Thank you, Corti

Introducing GVI Olives... our new childcare project in Mombasa