With this site we'd like to tell you — and the pictures almost speak for themselves — about the disabled children of the Port Reitz School in Mombasa, Kenya, and their great need for help.
In most Western countries we have the possibility to give disabled children what they need most: education and medical care, including prosthetics, wheelchairs, crutches, etc. Disabled children in poor countries face a hard struggle to survive. Supporting their education enables them to find jobs, take care of themselves, and become valuable members of society. Many of the teachers and staff at Port Reitz School are proof of that: once they were students at this school themselves.
We visited the school several times and gained great respect for the people who work with those children. They accept all handicapped children, irrespective of their disabilities, religions or social backgrounds. Although there is barely enough money for education and medical care, no child is ever sent away.
More than 250 children attend the Port Reitz School at present. There is financial support for 47 of them; of 100 children the parents can help a little; the rest have no financial aid at all. The school needs help, and through this book we are trying to find sponsors, so that the children may receive the education they need to survive in their world.
The cost of one full year of education, including boarding and two school uniforms is only about €110 per year. We realize that not every one is able to sponsor a child fully, because his or her education takes several years. However, it is also possible to help with a one-time donation, so that the school can buy, for example, a milk cow or goat, wheelchairs, crutches, medicines, etc.
This school isn't supported by a big organization like Unicef; just by the Methodist Church in Mombasa, Kenya. We are happy to report that we have had initial, moderate success in finding people in Europe and The United States willing to help these disabled children. We ourselves are not directly involved in the sponsoring; we only volunteer to establish contact between you and the child and/or school. Your support goes directly to the child or the school, without a lot of money lost in a big intermediate bureaucracy. The child benefits a full 100%.
If you want to know how you can help one of these children to have a future, please do not hesitate to contact us at
info@asherphoto.eu Also for more general information, or to know which child is next on the list to be sponsored.
The school will inform us of your sponsorship once it is final. The book that goes with this project will then be updated, mentioning your name and the name of the child whom you are giving a future. Of course you may order this book at cost, with your name as sponsor inserted.
All photos and other material in the book and on this website are based on information we obtained at the school, when we visited in November 2006 and is updated to June 2008 included. In April / November 2009 we will go back to visit the school. Asava Morrison Chahiro, a very close family friend, who lives in Mombasa, and sponsors a child himself, visits the school every 2-3 weeks to check on progress of the sponsored children.
If you have the opportunity to visit the school yourself, you will find it a unique and rewarding experience; all guests are more than welcome. Asava Morrison is more than happy to accompany you to the school. Please note that the summer holiday runs from the 3d week of November to the first week of January.
Alexandra Hermens (Photographer)
Wendy Baardman
Asava Morrison Chahiro
