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Sign up to receive e-newsletter by clicking on VILLAGE NEWS icon.“The Village”  September, 2012  Your generous support of Village of Love Canada in the earlier part of this year has  resulted in some exciting advances in Kenya.  
Read in this edition how YOUR donations are enabling the Village of Love to expand right now! Hear a Canadian School Principal’s impressions of Kibera.Find out about current opportunities to empower orphan caregivers in the Village of Love! Welcome to YOUR Village! 
 
 Endurance is a LIFE ART for Kibera families:Support Village of Love  Marathon Team  To  run a marathon is a metaphor for life, connoting endurance,  perseverance, never giving in or giving up in the face of life’s  struggles.  How appropriate that eight amazing Village of Love supporters are running in the  Toronto Waterfront Marathon on  October 14th to support impoverished  families in the Kenyan slums of  Kibera, where ENDURANCE IS A LIFE ART!  With meagre resources, in the face of tremendous odds, their vision, patience, hope and faith in a better future for their children never dies.  Donate to support our Village of Love Marathon runners both here and in Kenya! Click SUPPORT MARATHON .  It is not too late to join in. The event includes a half marathon, and a 5km run/ walk. See MARATHON.    You could even become a Marathon Donor!   What is a Marathon Donor?A Marathon Donor is a champion supporter who gives every month to sustain Village of Love in continued provision of a better future for children. Even the smallest amount donated monthly makes a huge difference! See SUSTAINED GIVING    
 They visioned. They planned! They acted!  YOU donated!and the Village is Growing……From its inception, the aim of Kijiji Cha Upendo (Village of Love)  was to embrace EVERY family in Kibera caring for children, orphaned   and vulnerable through the HIV&AIDS pandemic that has swept through   sub- Saharan Africa. This vision was re-affirmed during the Strategic  Planning Session held early in 2012. The goal was set of adding a new  cooperative  every year. Now, through the dollars YOU donated for the  AIDS Ride for  Africa, this expansion has begun.    Thank you for your generosity. Your donations are already changing lives.   Beneficiaries from both cooperatives gather together to listen to encouraging words from the CAP/AIDS representative in Kenya. Andrew Obara, volunteer Project Administrator for Kijiji Cha Upendo, writes, “Outside  our office the newly recruited group and the old one were being  introduced  to each other. Later on they had a session with our  Community Health  Workers in the presence of Gizaw who afterwards talked  to them. He told  them how he and his siblings were brought up by their  mother in a slum  in Ethiopia on meagre resources. He implored  them….”   
 
First Impressions of KiberaTDSB Principal visits Kijiji Cha Upendo  Judy  Whitfield, Isabella and Leonora Obara, step carefully as they negotiate  their way along the slippery streets of Kibera where open sewers run  beside the houses.   For  Ms Whitfield, Kibera was a new experience and an eye opener. The  closeness of the buildings, if one could use that term for corrugated  iron shacks, and the lack of amenities surprised and disturbed her. She  describes one house that was apparently better than most since it had  two rooms and plastic covering on the walls. A single electric light  bulb dangled from the ceiling. A small TV stood on a table. The entrance  led off from a tiny common square with several openings to dwellings of  some kind. For water there was a common neighbourhood tap. Two  things shocked Ms Whitfield: that people so obviously without material  means had to pay for access to the tap, which was their only drinking  water; and that there were no toilets at all. Read MORE   
 Do some early Christmas shopping! Visit our online CATALOGUE to view gifts currently available at VERY reasonable prices. We’re  still working on providing online purchase facility. However, if you  live in Toronto, you can fill out an online form to make an arrangement  to purchase.  We have  attractive batik paintings, depicting common scenes from African life,  such  as women hurrying to market, or Massai warriors braiding their  hair.  Batiks are a traditional African way of painting on cloth, using  the  principle of wax repelling water,to create a lovely, luminous  effect  when backlit, though the pictures can also be displayed with a  simple frame. The batik shown here is by Kiwanuka, a well know batik  artist. We have a variety of sizes: 8”x6”, 19” x 11”, 26” x  17”, 38” x  61”. Also available are wooden tableware, carvings, jewellery and  baskets.    For our  range of special occasion gift cards to be given in lieu of a material  gift along with a donation to Village of Love Canada, see GIFTS THAT  GIVE TWICE  
 
 
Linda Levin, Coordinator of the Village of Love Canada 
  To receive news of the latest developments in the Village of Love,  and to hear about the difference that your dollars are making to  orphaned children and their caregivers, click the Village News icon 
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