Download our October 2009 newsletter.

June 2010
Advantage Africa has made a short film about child-headed households in Uganda. The film shows how orphaned children, despite their poverty and vulnerability, have dreams for their future; they want to be teachers, doctors, pilots and managers. It describes shows how Advantage Africa is helping them realise these ambitions and appeals for donations to support such projects.

May 2010
Our partner, Rescue Team in Kenya are held a a 'Candlelight Memorial Day' to remember and honour the men, women and children who have died from AIDS in their community. They raised awareness about HIV prevention and have invited local leaders to meet people 'living positively' so they could understand their needs and take action to support them.

April 2010
We sent grants to our child-headed households project in Uganda and our HIV & AIDS project in Kenya. The latter included basic resources for a 'kids club' and support for 20 people living with HIV to improve their nutrition and collect their antiretroviral drugs from hospital.

March 2010
We sent a grant to our project in Obambo, Kenya today, thanks to generous donations from two supporters and a charity called Friends of Obambo. The grant funded care for people living with AIDS, a nursery school, a village clinic and a feeding programme, including a new kitchen, shelter and fuel-effiicent stoves - so that 120 orphaned children can receive a nutritious meal each day.

December 2009
the Rescue Team for HIV & AIDS held a day of awareness-raising events to mark World AIDS Day.

November 2009
86 people from Kibwezi, Kenya are being assessed for wheelchairs in a project partnership with the Association of Disabled People in Kenya (APDK).

September 2009
Improvements, including plastering of floors and walls, were made to Bombo school in Uganda which is supported by Advantage Africa through our partner the Single Parents Association of Uganda.  The school is providing an education to over 100 chidren, many of them orphaned by AIDS.

August 2009
Advantage Africa supported ten members of the Kibwezi Disabled People's Organisation to be fitted for wheelchairs.

March 2009
26 representatives of Advantage Africa's partner organisations attended a week-long training workshop in Kisumu Kenya.  The workshop enabled our partners and staff to share experiences and update their knowledge and understanding of development, disability and HIV.

January 2009
We approved a grant to empty and renovate pit latrines at a village school so the girls there can go to a toilet with basic protection for their health, safety and privacy.  For just  £300, this work will make a major difference to hundreds of people's lives.

December 2008
Our partner organisations in Kenya held public events to mark World AIDS Day and World Disability Day on 1st and 3rd December.  In Obambo village, the rally was attended by 726 people.  There were bold messages, endorsed by local leaders, about preventing the spread of HIV, and caring for orphans and people living with AIDS.  156 people openly queued up for counselling and HIV testing as a result.      

November 2008
With funding from Andrews Estate Agents’ Project 60 and Castle Hill Baptist Church in Warwick, a new HIV/AIDS resource centre is being built in Kalulini, Kenya.  The centre will be a safe meeting place and government-approved for HIV counselling and testing.  

January 2008
2008 has started traumatically for people in Kenya, where shocking violence and suffering has occurred following the disputed Presidential election.  At least 1,000 people have been killed and 300,000 displaced from their homes.  There is widespread fear, and emerging hunger as supplies of food and fuel run low.

We have been in constant contact with our contacts and partner organisations in Kenya since the crisis began and especially with those in western Kenya, where the impact of the violence has been greatest.  Shops, smallholdings and homes in and near to one of our projects have been robbed and burned and at least three people killed.  

Despite people’s fear of leaving their homes, our partner was repeatedly approached for food and medical assistance and requested our practical help and prayers.  Our colleague there told us about Hilda, an elderly woman who was terrified because she had no radio to hear the latest news and feared the worst.  He helped her collect water and later returned to her house with small supplies of rice and sugar.  He told us: ‘We are doing all we can to help the community; some people just come to be consoled, given that they have lost relatives, and this is also our role right now’.  Through the work, often at great personal risk, of inspirational people like our colleague, Advantage Africa has responded to the immediate needs of more than fifty people like Hilda as best it can.  But the impact of the violence will continue to be felt in the weeks ahead and further strain our ability to fund projects such as orphan feeding and youth employment initiatives.  As Otieno told us by mobile phone, ‘Almost everyone is affected - even those who have money to buy food, where can they buy it from?  Shops are closed and when they do open, prices have doubled and even tripled.’

Advantage Africa has launched an appeal to support people most affected by the violence in one of its partner communities.

November 2007
A new nursery school for 70 children, most of them orphaned by AIDS, opened in Obambo Kenya, providing pre-school education in the village for the first time. 

June 2007
Work began on the construction of a new special educaton unit within the primary school at Thinu in Kenya.  The unit will provide facilities for forty disabled children and is due to open later in 2008.

December 2006
In four communities in Kenya and Uganda, Advantage Africa supported our partner organisations to hold rallies on World Aids Day (1st December) and World Disability Day (3rd December).  Over 3,000 people attended the events which included speeches about prevention, care and fighting stigma.  Our phones were buzzing with excited text messages as our partners reported how things had gone so well and so many people had been reached.  Out of these events we are confident that people will decide to adopt orphans, report the abuse of disabled children or protect themselves from HIV infection.

At midday on World AIDS Day, all our partners all sang 'Today its Me' a rousing call to work together to fight AIDS.  Click here to hear the song sung by the Obambo church choir.

October 2006
Our Partners' workshop was held from the 25th to the 28th of October in Nairobi, Kenya on the theme of 'care'.  The workshop, attended by seventeen participants, included training on home based care of people living with AIDS and the inclusion of disabled people in development.  The lively sharing of ideas between partners that took place is now helping each of them to have an even great impact in their projects.

August 2006
Advantage Africa's partner Zack Lwanga, from the Single Parents' Association of Uganda (SPAU), reports:

'Work has gone well in June and July on the project to build a new house for 20 orphans under the care of Betty Kizito, an HIV positive woman in Muzinda, Uganda.  The orphans all have a ray of hope shining in their lives as far as shelter, one of the basic needs of life, is concerned.'

'However, even in the presence of the new house, the lack of resources to pay for school fees (examination fees, uniform and lunch costs) continues to cast a dark shadow on the orphans' lives.'

At the time of this interview with Zack, five of the children, all pupils of nearby primary schools, had been sent home for overdue fees, some as low as ten thousand Ugandan Shillings (around £3) a term.  Simple needs such as these will soon be addressed by the project in Muzinda, which also aims to help single parents to grow food, earn money and address the many challenges caused by HIV/AIDS.

'Eno enyumba empya ejakuba nungi nnyo kubanga kuliko ne ka shed kwe tugya okuzanyiranga ko... Tubeyaanza nnyo olw’omulimuguno.'
                                       (This new house is going to be quite a good one because it has a shed, where we can play... We thank you very much for this work) – Bob Mubiru, 12, one of the orphans in Betty's care.

'Nze, nasanyuka nnyo olw’enyumba yaffe eno empya kubanga tugyakuba turina ekisenge ekyaffe' (I was very happy because of the new house because we [girls] shall then have a room of our own). – Eri Nakijjoba, 8, another of the orphans in Betty’s care.

To see pictures of the construction, including the roof being completed, click here. 

For more information about this work visit our single parents' project page and the SPAU website.

Our October 2009 Newsletter describes how Advantage Africa is helping disadvantaged children improve their lives, support people living with HIV and provide training to our partner organisations in Kenya and Uganda.

Our October 2008 Newsletter highlights how Advantage Africa is supporing inspirational people to provide education, support child-headed households and meet the challenge of HIV 7 AIDS.

For previous newsletters and other archived news click here.