Dear Diary

Ok, how about a quick update anyway on what I've been upto.

Three weeks ago, I was going through my time-line on twitter, and my long time friend Mercy Murugi of the Togetherness Supreme film & Kibera Film school had posted a tweet about a family that had to eat a cat because they couldn't find food.

She wanted to do something and asked on twitter if anyone was willing to join her.She is a giver at heart. I remember her from way back buying food for street families, some of whom actually became her friends. I caught on to her dream.

I would never describe myself as a philanthropist, perhaps due to the nature of my work, but this story ate me up inside. I was in a position to be an agent of change, and I had to do it.

Together we began a call to get food for Ndaragwa IDP's. We gave the project one week, it was an urgent issue, and time lines had to be short.

Within one week, Mercy, Peter Nduati,CEO, Resolution Health, Magana Kenyatta (twitter friend)Vyona Ooro, a friend and Myself managed to convince a couple of people to support our call.

The next Sunday, we were on our way to Ndaragwa. We had raised over 170,000 shillings, bought food, and sanitary pads for the women.

It was a humbling experience. I cried, a lot.

The man who fed his family on a cat is a hunter. His trap was empty for three days, on the fourth day, he found a cat trapped, he killed it and took it home. They cooked and ate it. His other option was to kill his last born child, and eat him. he told us this on camera. I couldn't listen to his whole story. I went to my car and cried. I was angry, Someone in this government needs to resign.

As we drove back with Vyonna, I thought about sustainability.

If we want to raise money to buy food every weekend, its easy, we can do it without much effort.But what they need more is something that will last, like a fishing rod, and not necessarily the food.

I wondered what I could do to help. What we could all do to offer something sustainable.I wondred if Uhuru Kenyatta's ESP programme would allocate a fish pond for commercial purposes on the 9 acre piece of land the 400 families bought from their IDP allocations.

I wondered if the little nursery classroom could have proper seats, space and books, and toys that the children can enjoy.This is my personal dream, which I will follow to the grave. Next week we will start collecting toys, old and new, books, old and new, clothes, shoes, pencils, pens, book shelves,and a few other tangible things that will last.

What challenged me the most about these people was their spirit of hope.They will not seat back, cry and beg be helped. They have just bought 59 acres of land in Nyandarua, and are raising money to pay it off. 1.3 Million shillings balance which the area MP has promised to help raise.

This is a community that witnessed the brutality of ethnicity, and are still paying for the sins of other people.

If you can, in any way offer support, from mentoring, toys, books, shoes...let me know.

Together we can do this.