For those who should, For those who are in need. |
MCC's Great Rift Valley Walkabout |
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Elk Hill Farm, Virginia
My Peace Corps experience in Makindu really had an incredible impact on my life. I knew when I left Kenya in 1979 that I would return. I experienced what many folks who have gone to Africa experience, a great passion for the people, their cultures, the sights, the smells, everything! I have returned to Kenya 10 times. The commitment I feel to my friends in Makindu is a lifetime one. Over the twenty-four years I have now come to know three generations of friends and family in Makindu. and as you can imagine many of my friends have been impacted by AIDS.
The Makindu Children’s Center (MCC) works with 104 children, most of whom were orphaned by the AIDs pandemic. The center provides daily care, nutritional meals, education, vocational training, medical services and also helps identify guardians with whom the children can live (please spend some time exploring the MCC web page for details of MCC’s work). The AIDs pandemic is so overwhelming in Africa that the only way I can deal with it is to isolate it to these children. Next year will be my 25th anniversary of arriving in Kenya and I plan to celebrate by going on this walk and helping these kids.
This will be no "walk in the park". It will be a very challenging adventure. We will "run into" Turkana and Pokot tribesmen. The hike will take between 15-18 days and will cover some of the most remote and difficult terrain in Kenya. Camels will carry gear and water. Water will be a scarce commodity. We will have 5 liters per person per day. My hope is that the expedition will be in Nairobi by 1 July 2002. We will drive down to Makindu and visit MCC for a day, then travel back through Nairobi to start the walk. We should complete the walk about the 20th of July.
Now the money part. Flights to Kenya will be between $1200 and $1800 depending on departure city. The walk (camels, food, guides, gas, and lodging will run approx. $1000 per person. Everyone who is walking has pledged $10,000 in donations. MCC is a 501c-3 non-profit so all donations are tax deductible. I would like to see if an airline would contribute the tickets, so if anyone can help in that arena, let me know. Obviously we would love to find someone to underwrite the costs of the project. If anyone knows of a possible single source donor, please let me know. However, barring a WHITE KNIGHT, I am asking all of you who read this to help. Please donate to MCC's Great Rift Valley Walkabout. All of your money will go directly to the MCC program. Please use this trek as your catalyst to give to these kids.
And you will be able to follow us along on the walkabout on the MCC Webpage. We are going to stay in touch throughout the walk via satellite phone and emails. Daily updates will post commentary and photos, and you can email questions or comments so that everyone can participate. At the end of the trek, the communications equipment will be left at MCC so that we can establish even better communications with the center.
I am committed to doing the walk and paying the money myself if need be. I need any who can commit to helping with the money to make a commitment. If we find other sources of funding we can adjust the financial arrangements.
However, if we do not find outside funding, I am still going. Please let me know if you can join in this great adventure, either through going yourself, or by supporting another! Michael Farley
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In July of next year I plan to hike approximately 250 km up the Sugutu Valley, which is in the Rift, from Lake Baringo to Lake Turkana. And in doing so, my goal is to raise as much money as I can for the Makindu Children's Center. Makindu is the town where I spent a little more than 2 years in the Peace Corps. 
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More About Michael:
Michael Farley is the Executive Director of Elk Hill Farm Inc. Elk Hill provides treatment and specialized education to troubled adolescents from around the Commonwealth of Virginia. We have three schools, two-day programs, a group home and and a residential program. During the past four years I have worked as a consultant for Abell Foundation assisting with the Baraka School, which is located near Nanyuki, Kenya. This school provides a remedial education and one heck of a cultural experience for inner city Baltimore boys, ages 12-14. I am now on the Baraka Board of Trustees. I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Makindu from 1977 to 1979. My home was a small mud hut about 6km north of Makindu in area call Mtakuja. I worked for the Ministry of Agriculture as an extension officer and also taught at two secondary schools. During the last year of my stay, I became the Mtakuja Cooperative manager and worked with one hundred farmers selling vegetables to buyers who were shipping daily to the UK. During that year, we succeeded in getting our official status from the Ministry of Cooperative Development, raising the prices on our produce, and obtaining a grant to cement the furrow that provides the gravity flow irrigation. In the late 1980s my wife, LeeAnn, and I led a project called Cans for Kenya. Following the draughts of the mid1980s the water table at Mtakuja was so low that the gravity-fed system no longer functioned. Several schools in Virginia recycled aluminum cans for one year and raised enough money to purchase a water pump and a lot of PVC pipe to re-direct the water at the Mtakuja irrigation scheme. We made two trips to Kenya during the project. Following the successful implementation, my friends in Kenya held a ceremony to make me an honorary Mkamba elder. To this day this is my greatest "merit badge". The Makindu Children's Center's shamba is near the scheme. I was in Kenya twice in 1999. In September, I visited MCC for the first time and met Paul Baxter and Dianah Nzomo. We spent some time together and they shared the vision of MCC and told me about the director Winnie Barron. In December 1999 I returned to Kenya and met Winnie Barron. What an incredible person. This walk is my way of trying to help, the kids, my adopted Makindu friends, my fellow Mkamba and all who suffer and die from this terrible pandemic. Please make it your way too. |