2024 Autumn Newsletter

On a very cold and wet 4th July Patrick arrived at Manchester Airport after his long journey from a warm and sunny Kijijone. The weather did not dampen his excitement of being here in the UK to meet Friends of Patrick Muthuri Family Foundation and to thank them for all of their support. A full and informative itinerary had been prepared allowing Patrick to meet as many ‘Friends’ as possible with the highlight being a fund raising event held on Sunday 7th July. This was a huge success, raising the awareness of PMFF, attracting new ‘Friends’ and many generous donations. Patrick made it quite clear to all whom he met the positive effect Friends of PMFF has had upon so many orphaned and disadvantaged children in providing an education and access to sanitary care products.

The presentation made at the fundraising event made reference to the devastating effect HIV has upon poor families. “Whilst the HIV prevalence in Meru County remains below the national average the epidemic has left many children orphaned and made the community poorer.” * In September we were made aware of the plight of 10-year-old Angel Gakii whose parents had died from HIV within weeks of each other. Currently Angel has not contracted HIV from her parents, is testing negative, and is being monitored closely. She is under the care of her 80-year-old sick grandmother Alice who has no income, lives in abject poverty and is dependent upon village well-wishers for food. Patrick has arranged welfare support for her grandmother and Angel is now attending the local Primary School funded by Friends of PMFF. “In Meru County as of December 2023 there are 29,433 adults and 1,479 children living with HIV.” * *National AIDS Control Council (NACC).

Friends of Patrick Muthuri Family Foundation now have 20 dispensing boxes located in 20 Primary Schools providing the poorest children within the school community access to free sanitary care products. The education of girls from the poorest families is often disrupted due to challenges related to menstruation. Availability of free sanitary care protects the most vulnerable girls from exploitation, safeguards their health whilst allowing them to remain in class during menstruation. At the start of each School Term the 20 dispensing boxes are restocked. Teachers within the school monitor and provide the poorest children with sanitary pads as required with availability maintained during the school term. As a result of your wonderful support, we are now in a position to increase the number of schools we support from 20 to 25 at the start of the new school year in January 2025. We are also in the process of developing a Facebook page highlighting the need for sanitary care products to be more easily accessible to the poorest families within our communities.

The Committee were delighted to hold a meeting with Patrick present. Communication is paramount in obtaining quality information from Patrick which we can share with our ‘Friends’ and Supporters here in the UK. We were able to discuss the responsibility of being a charity and the requirement on our part to maintain a high standard of governance. Explain how we manage our finances and that decisions taken are based upon the support we provide being sustainable. Looking to the future, we discussed the number of orphaned/disadvantaged children still in need of help and schools that would like to be able to offer free sanitary care products. Patrick realised and appreciated how generous and committed our ‘Friends’ and Supporters are in helping the poorest within his community and asked for his heart felt thank you to be communicated to everyone. On behalf of Patrick and the Committee Thank You for all of your wonderful support.

Every £1 donated to Friends of Patrick Muthuri Family Foundation goes to help the orphaned children. No administrative costs are deducted. Friends of Patrick Muthuri Family Foundation is a Registered Charity 116708.