NAKURU, Kenya - 25 January 2008 - Following the controversial Presidential elections in December, Kenya is experiencing violence that has left an estimated quarter million people uprooted or homeless and several hundred dead.
This week the Pistis Academy & Orphanage has received 30 new children whose parents have been killed or homes destroyed. While the Red Cross is working to sustain an estimated 2,000 people now given shelter in a ball park in Nakuru center, no additional funding has been offered by the Kenyan government to help support those new children at Pistis.
In August of 2007, Terra Soft CEO Kai Staats traveled to Kenya through Student Project Africa Network (SPAN) to Nakuru, 3 hours northwest of Nairobi, where he lived and worked with the children and faculty of the Pistis to improve the water supply, electricity, and food storage systems.
"My host family, the Wekesas, have been keeping me informed of the situation, sometimes every few hours. It has been both incredible and very difficult for me to receive these communications for I cannot know what it is like to see the world around me unravel as they have. A questionable election invoked a frustrated violence which has now fallen to general lawlessness, gangs of young boys burning homes, gun shots by day and night. While Nakuru was relatively quiet in comparison to Nairobi and other hot-spots, a recent series of emails and phone calls from my friends have made it clear this remains a very scary time," offers Staats.
Read text messages & emails sent from Nakuru:Staats continues, "While I do not know how to reduce the violence, I do know I have the power to channel funds to the orphanage where I worked, to support the children I came to know and those whom have just arrived. I ask that you consider a donation to Pistis to help purchase blankets, soap, clothing, and food at a time when the prices have risen five-fold and supplies are increasingly hard to obtain due to interrupted distribution channels. This is a critical time for Pistis. We must move to assist them now."
blogs.ydl.net/kai/category/out-of-africa/
All donations will be routed through SPAN to Cameron Dunkin, an executive board member of SPAN who is in Nakuru now, working with Pistis to help accommodate the new arrivals. SPAN will move 95% of all funds received directly to Pistis where its dispersal will be overseen by Cameron, ensuring the full effectiveness of your donation.
Help support the new arrivals to Pistis:
studentprojectafricanetwork.org/donations/
About Student Project Africa Network
Student Project Africa Network (SPAN), founded by Truman Scholar Rebecca Mitchell, offers a conduit between volunteers and Pistis to further the construction of facilities, improve the foundation for education, and give the children hope for something beyond their immediate needs.
For more information, visit www.studentprojectafricanetwork.org
About Terra Soft Solutions, Inc.
As the recognized leader in Linux for Power since 1999, Terra Soft provides Yellow Dog Linux board support for Power architecture chip vendors and OEMs; turn-key, integrated solutions built upon IBM, Mercury, and Sony systems, including the PS3; and cross-architecture Linux applications for high performance computing, including Y-HPC Cluster Construction Suite and the Y-Film Asset Management System.
Terra Soft recently completed the design of a new website for SPAN, implementing a complete server-side communication and project management system to enable SPAN to effectively expand its reach with limited increase in resource expenditure.
For more information, visit www.terrasoftsolutions.com
PS3 is a registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Power is a trademark of IBM. YDL, Y-HPC, and Y-Film are registered trademarks of Terra Soft Solutions. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Additional product and company names mentioned may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
