New Year honours recognises KST Chairman.
We are delighted to announce that Col Harry Vialou Clark, our dedicated chairman, was awarded the MBE in the 2012 New Year Honours in recognition of his extraordinary services to education in Kenya. We all offer him our sincere congratulations for this well deserved honour.
The Foglieta Big Snow Challenge.
The Foglieta Mountain in the French Alps is home to some of the most awesome off piste descents in the Europe. The descents are all the more special, because they are long (1.8 kms vertical) and steep (up to 40%) but also because the only way to get to them is by taking a circa 500 metre vertical climb with your skis and other kit on your back along a 2 km icy ridge. This entails over an hour of extreme physical exercise at up to 3,000 metres of altitude, not helped by the 22.5 kilos of additional weight one carries, what with skis, poles, boots, helmet, ABS bag, shovel, probe, water and other back country essentials!
Nicholas standing on the ridge leading up to the Foglietta where a large wooden cross has been erected to protect the villages below from avalanches.
Behind him, a 100 metre almost vertical drop.
Solveigh is a corporate sponsor of this event.
Nicholas Walker has decided to take on this amazing challenge to raise money towards the Woodard Langalanga Secondary School project that is currently under way.
To date Woodard Schools have raised £112,053 and The Kariandusi School Trust has raised a further £20,000 amounting to a little over half our target, but funds are urgently needed to continue and complete the school. Phase 1 is now complete, enabling the first 90 pupils to enrol in February 2012, but the finished school is designed to educate 540 pupils.
Nicholas writes: "My wife Annabel and I will pay for all the costs associated with staging the fund raising event and will contribute one Euro, Pound or Dollar for each and every Euro, Pound or Dollar contributed by you. At time when our incomes and savings have taken a big hit, we appreciate that this is a “big ask” and the timing is horrible but life must go on as the challenges in the third world are as raw and immediate as ever.
As on other occasions, I will endeavour to make this fun and interesting for the sponsors by sending via email live photos, progress reports and maybe the odd video clips as the Challenge proceeds so you can see how me and my French guide companion are getting on and whether or not we actually succeed. I hope these images will give you a sense of the beauty and awesomeness of one of France’s greatest and most challenging mountains. It will also show how we cope with what is a really, really big physical and mental challenge. The target dates for the Challenge are Friday 3rd to Friday 10th of February depending on snow conditions and weather".
KST is very grateful to Nicholas for his commitment to the Woodard Langalanga project, and we wish him every success with his challenge. If you would like to pledge your support for this extraordinary challenge, please go to: www.justgiving.com/foglietabigsnowchallenge2.
Woodard Langalanga Secondary School - Real hope for the future.
As the majority of Woodard Schools are gearing up to raise funds this term for the Woodard Langalanga Secondary School, there will be a National Service of Thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey on the 24 November to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Nathaniel Woodard's birth.
The collection at the service will be for the benefit of the WLSS school so it is hopeful that this will greatly help to raise the target sum of £250,000. Brendan Clover, the Senior Provost of Woodard, expects the Abbey to be full with 2,100 people in attendance. The good news is that we are on programme to open the brand new secondary school in February 2012.
We're going to have a ball!!
Watch this space for news of our next KST ball, which will take place sometime in 2012. Dates will be announced shortly. Even if things are tough generally, a KST Ball is guaranteed to brighten your social life, and the daily lives of countless Kenyan children too.
2010 Events
African Queen Ball 6th November 2010
We are delighted to announce that the 3rd Kariandusi School Trust Ball will be held
on: 6th November 2010 at: Trinity Park, Felixstowe Road, Ipswich
Tickets: £55 per guest. Tables of 10 or 12.
Please email paula@ps-events.co.uk
Update: We raised £16,000 and launched our Food for Thought programme. Read more.
2009 Events
Dragoman 3 Peaks Challenge
27/28 June 2009.
Congratulations to the brave team from Dragoman who took on the Three Peaks challenge to raise money for the KST Karunga School build. This strenuous challenge involved climbing Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon, hiking about 26 miles in total, within a 26 hour period. They have already raised over £500 to go towards Karunga Primary School, but any more donations in praise of their fantastic achievement would still be very welcome and can be made through their donations page on www.justgiving.com/drago-challenge
Debenham Friends in Deed 24 hour Musicathon
04/05 July 2009.
Friends in Deed are a group of teenagers who have pledged to raise money for KST through energy and initiative. They showed incredible dedication and stamina to successfully perform a 24 hour musicathon of non-stop music in St Mary Magdalen Church, Debenham and have raised an impressive amount of money by their commitment and effort. These young people are showing the children in KST schools in Kenya just how much they care. Congratulations and very well done, Friends in Deed!
Fun Run/Walk. 27th September 2009.
Start at 10am from Sutton Village Hall, near Woodbridge, Suffolk.
A 5km, 10km along with a ½ marathon 21km for the more ambitious runners.
Sponsorship incentives will be offered for those raising the most funds from Sponsorship.
£10 covers entry for adults and £5 for children under 14.
All adults will receive a T-Shirt on completion and children a medal and certificate.
For information or an entry form please contact Paula Slater at paula@ps-events.co.uk
A bar and hog roast/BBQ would be offered from 12 – 4pm.
Water stops will be on route. First aiders will be present.
Sponsored Fun Run/Walk Entry form.
KST Great dinner party night
14 November 2009.
Would you like to be the hostess (or host!) with the mostest for one night?
Each host or hostess wishing to support Kariandusi School Trust would sign up to having a dinner party for friends and would charge each guest £10 for attending - a bargain, and great fun. All parties would be held on 14th November. It is a simple idea but with lots of support could make a great deal of money for the Karunga Primary School Project. Each host or hostess would be entered into a draw for a prize. What are you waiting for?
Please contact us if you would like to help organise an event, or if you have any other fundraising event ideas.
2008 Events
During 2008 all our activities have been concentrated on starting the new school projects in Kenya.
2007 Events
Kariandusi White Highland Ball
2006 Events
Kariandusi White Mischief Ball
During the summer of 2006 we saw the first of the Kariandusi fund raising parties. We would like to announce that we raised a MASSIVE £22,631.17 which was way beyond any of our expectations. Thank you so much to the committee, to all who came along and to the amazing generosity of the donors of the prizes and to those who got out their cheque-books. Thank you one and all.
The Cycle Challenge Rides 2005 and 2006
The Cycle Challenge Rides are a 6 day, 280km cycle trip along dirt roads, across game reserves, riding with giraffes and zebra, through small villages up the Rift Valley of Kenya. They are certainly an endurance test and we are very lucky to have had such an amazing take up on these events over the last two years. The high point of the ride is arriving at one of the schools
The riders have one and all come back immensely moved by their efforts and by the reception by the African school children.
Kariandusi Kenyan Cycle Challenge 2006
10 days UK to UK
Once again Suffolk was in the forefront of the rides, but the good news last year was that we had more riders from elsewhere. Well done to the 15 riders who managed this amazing ride and thanks to John Etherington and has Escape Adventures crew for running two very successful trips.
In 2006 the rides were in September and were organised to raise money to help build Simba Primary School, the third of the KST projects
The total amount raised was around about £27,000 which is absolutely amazing!
Thank you so much to you all for this fantastic effort.
Kariandusi Cycle Challenge 2006 - First departure
On the first trip we had five charity riders who were joined by two others clients of Escape Adventures. The trip was a fantastic success and despite the huge final days ride of 100 kms, we believe that all the group had a great time. Reports from Bill Cootes suggest that it was indeed harder than he had expected, but well worth all the blood, sweat and tears. On behalf of the Kariandusi School Trust, we would like to say a huge thank you to the following for their great efforts
Lizzie Richardson, Simon Williams, Nigel Maxwell, Jennifer Forster and Bill Cootes. Well done to you all and we hope you all enjoyed it. Here are a few photos of the event, please send us any digital pics that you have and we will put them up onm the site.
2005 Events
Kariandusi Kenyan Cycle Challenge 2005
Well, we did it, the first ever Kariandusi Cycle Challenge. Correction, THEY did it. Who are they? 16 of Suffolk's finest. Even that's not entirely true, as there were a couple of riders not from Suffolk, but for the sake of a good story lets call them Suffolk's finest.
The 2005 rides were to raise funds for the Langa Langa Primary School
Kariandusi Kenyan Cycle Challenge 2005
10 days UK to UK
It’s unbelievable what 15 rookies can achieve. Thanks to their get up and go or perhaps to their wonderful naivety, they raised a shed load of money by cycling 270 kms in 5 days up and down the Rift Valley. The whole trip including flights to and from Nairobi took 10 days including a day to adjust in Nairobi and a day of
safari in Nakuru National Park.
To get any idea of what this trip was like, think mountain biking on a beach or down a dried out highland stream. Don’t think flat tarmac, don’t even think rolling English countryside. We are talking serious biking here and yet these rank amateurs went out there with big smiles and came back ten days later with even bigger smiles, lots of bruises and loads of stories. it wasn’t all hard going but no one should underestimate what these guys did. For us mere mortals, we can only look on with admiration.
A HUGE THANK YOU from all of us at Kariandusi and an even bigger thank you from the community of Langalanga. To all those who went we salute you.
Thanks to Annie Owen (she did the ride twice), Sharon McVeigh, Bernadette Slee, Wendy Pontin, Finn Curry, Paula Slater, Heather Durie, Emma Buckmaster, Robyn Childs, Gillian Gill, Rhona Allen, Melanie Rowe, Rosey Walker, Jill Norris, and Steven Johnstone. Thanks for everything.
Its always best to keep the punch line until the end and these guys line certainly packed a huge punch, £39,150s worth of big punch to be precise. Yes, they managed to raise after costs a STAGGERING £39,150 to go towards the construction and refurbishment of Langalanga School.