Solar Lights Campaign 2017

Photo shows Martha Cherotich Kemei who was one of the recipients of an Afri solar light. She is a single mother who lives with her eleven children and three grandchildren. Martha is a casual labourer who looks for work from locals on their farms to provide for her children and grandchildren.  The solar light enables the children to study after dark and allows Martha to do the many jobs necessary for a mother of a large family. Photo: Development Pamoja.

Let there be (Solar) Light…

Give a gift of light to a Kenyan family this Christmas…Children and families who do not have electricity will benefit from your gift …

Your Solar light gift will:
Improve health…by avoiding use of toxic kerosene;
Reduce poverty…by reducing cost of energy;
Increase income…by enabling people who do not have electricity to work after darkness;
Reduce global warming…by replacing use of fossil fuels;
Contribute towards Afri’s climate justice work;
Support Afri’s partnerships with Development Pamoja and the Kenya Pastoralist Journalist Network.
 
€15 …buys one solar light for a family
€30 …buys one solar light for a midwife and one for a family 
€60 …buys four solar lights which will benefit midwives, families, schoolchildren and the wider community.  Families can use solar lights to enable them to work after dark, to supplement their income and to enable children to study in the evenings.

When you buy your light(s) we will send you a gift card which you can retain or pass on to your chosen recipient.

Will you give a gift that brings light and hope this Christmas?

All the money raised from Afri’s 2016 campaign went to purchase over one hundred solar lights in Northern Kenya and Mogotio on the Equator, north of Nakuru.

Let’s show that after all there IS something new under the sun….

How to purchase your gift:

You can buy your gift in the following ways – you can pay online using our i-donate system – http://www.afri.ie/donate/

Alternatively, post a cheque/postal order made payable to “Afri” to 134 Phibsborough Road, Dublin 7.

If you would prefer to pay by bank transfer please phone us for details.

In order to post out your gift card please include your name and address when you are buying your gift.

Let there be (Solar) Light…

sunrise
Sunrise in Kenya

Give a gift of light to a Kenyan family…

Children, families and midwives in Northern Kenya will benefit from your gift of a solar light…

Your Solar light gift will:

Improve health…by avoiding use of toxic kerosene;

Reduce poverty…by reducing cost of energy;

Increase income…by enabling people who do not have electricity to work after darkness;

Reduce global warming…by replacing use of fossil fuels

€15    buys one solar light for a midwife

€30    buys one solar light for a midwife and one for a family to enable children to study in the evenings

€60    buys four solar lights which will benefit midwives, families, schoolchildren and the wider community.  Families can use solar lights to enable them to work after dark, to supplement their income.

When you buy your light(s) we will send you a gift card which you can retain or pass on to your chosen recipient.

 

Will you give a gift that brings light and hope?

Let’s show that after all there IS something new under the sun….

 

How to purchase your gift:

 

You can buy your gift in the following ways – you can pay online using our i-donate system – http://www.afri.ie/donate/

 

Alternatively, post a cheque/postal order made payable to “Afri” to 8 cabra Road, d07 t1w2.

 

If you would prefer to pay by bank transfer please phone us for details.

 

In order to post out your gift card please include your name and address when you are buying your gift.

 

Continue reading “Let there be (Solar) Light…”

Afri Partner, Abjata Khalif and the Kenya Pastoralist Journalist Network

Abjata Khalif (right) presents a solar powered lamp to a midwife in Sankuri, Garissa, Kenya.
Abjata Khalif (right) presents a solar powered lamp to a midwife in Sankuri, Garissa, Kenya.

Afri supports the work of the Kenya Pastoralist Journalist Network, founded by Abjata Khalif, which promotes sustainable development, conflict resolution and protection of human rights. Afri particularly supports these communities through providing solar lamps to school going children and midwives.

These enable children to study after the hours of darkness and help midwives to deliver babies safely.  You can read about this work here: “Tapping Renewable Energy”;  “Traditional Birth Attendants in Garissa, Kenya, now using Solar Lamps“; “Northern Kenyans adopt nocturnal life to escape extreme heat

Abjata also visited Ireland a number of times as Afri’s guest, speaking at some of our events as well as to students involved in Afri’s educational programme.  He spoke at Sustaining Activism’s Fire in 2013  as well as at Féile Bríde in 2014.

Here is a short film about Abjata Khalif and the work he does (made by Dave Donnellan):-

No Fracking: Not Here, Not Anywhere



Poster no fracking web


Making the Connection, Fracking No!, an international gathering of anti-fracking activists, in the Glens Centre, Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim, 7pm-11.30 pm Saturday 28th November.

NO FRACKING: NOT HERE, NOT ANYWHERE

FRACKING NO: Nĺ AQUÍ Nĺ EN NINGÚN SITIO

International activists resisting fracking in England and in the northern regions of Spain will share and swap information, stories and experiences as part of Making the Connection, Fracking No! to take place on Saturday November 28th starting at 7pm sharp in The Glens Centre, Manorhamilton.

Donal O’Kelly will perform Fionnuala, his Edinburgh Fringe First award-winning show about human rights abuses connected with the Shell Corrib gas project, with live music by Dee Armstrong of Kila and Diarmuid and Lughaidh Armstrong.

A panel discussion comprising of speakers from Burgos, Cantabria, England and Ireland will follow with DJ Enda of Firehouse Skank finishing off the evening with reggae beats.

The idea for Making the Connection, Fracking No! was born out of a visit to Frackanpada 2015 in the Basque Country in July by Leitrim-based anti-fracking activist Caitriona Kelly in which over 400 international activists and campaigners from over fifteen countries gathered for a week of workshops and talks.

This event has been organised in collaboration with Afri and is supported by Love Leitrim.

Traditional Birth Attendants in Garissa, Kenya, now using Solar Lamps

Abjata Khalif, from Afri’s partner organisation, the Kenya Pastoralist Journalist Network, writes about the introduction of solar powered lamps to assist in the work of midwives in Sankuri in Kenya.

Abjata Khalif (right) presents a solar powered lamp to a midwife in Sankuri, Garissa, Kenya.

Hasna Muktar, a traditional birth attendant in remote far flung Sankuri village in northern Kenya prepare her ‘’traditional delivery room’’ ready to offer deliveries services, behavioural change education and other consultation to pregnant women in the village.

Sankuri village is 300 kilometres from main Garissa town and the area has poor communication and transport network forcing residents to use donkey carts and camel to ferry patients to hospitals. The journey takes seven days to main Garissa town and most patients die on the way before receiving medical attention.

The mode of transport and duration it takes to main hospital is not favourable to women experiencing labour or are ready to deliver. The seven days journey is a recipe for obstructed delivery that causes fistula and mother and child death.

But Women in Sankuri have their set of rules and guided by cultural beliefs that traditional birth attendant has the prowess to offer good abdominal palpation , offering ‘’traditional ante natal care and safe delivery services without hassle of going to Garissa hospital and in hand of midwives serving many women at ago.

As the scorching sun set in the horizon, group of eight heavily pregnant women walks into Hasna expansive compound housing her ‘’delivery room’’, consultation room and traditional training room where she educate both pregnant and other women on behavioural change and family planning.

Her traditional facility is built with sticks and grass and the only source of water is from shallow well and no running electricity to light the facility that offered safe deliveries for last twenty five years. Continue reading “Traditional Birth Attendants in Garissa, Kenya, now using Solar Lamps”

Water as a Human Right in El Salvador

Afri Co-ordinator, Joe Murray, visited El Salvador and Guatemala in January 2007 to meet some of the amazing groups and individuals who are tackling the many causes of inequality and injustice there.

During his visit to El Salvador he came into contact with the Programme of Human Promotion and Sustainable Development (PHPSD) in Santa Rosa de Lima: among other things, they are addressing the critical issue of water, which has been a major cause of premature death and serious illness in the area.

In the majority of rural communities in El Salvador, people often have to walk miles to access contaminated streams to fetch water for domestic use. During the dry season the problem is exacerbated by deforestation causing the streams and the wells to dry up.

Water in El Salvador

 

The PHPSD has formulated a three year plan entitled the ‘Safe Water Project’, which aims to promote sustainable development based on food security and improvement in the health of the participating families. Providing access to clean water is the central element of the plan through the provision of water tanks, which collect water during the rainy season and preserve it in conditions whereby it can provide clean, safe water for families for the rest of the year. Not only will it provide safe drinking water but it will also enable families to grow crops which will improve their nutritional intake and may allow for some crops to be sold.

Afri, with the help of Irish Aid, will provide funding, assistance and support in the process of building four water tanks in two rural villages named Quebrada Honda San Sebastian and Los Melgares, near Santa Rosa de Lima. As part of a project entitled ‘Water as a Human Right’, we will also provide funding for training workshops for members of the community on how to maintain and care for the water tanks. In addition, there will be a strong element of education involved and personnel from the project will take part in Afri ‘Education for Liberation’ days in 2008.