Your support is felt in Kenya! An update from our visit

Betsy StewartBlog

Alabaster's team poses with the Turkana Women's Group in the Turkana Women's Business & Training Center that you helped build in 2020.

Alabaster International took a small team to Kenya for the first time since July 2019. Our trip led to deepened connections and big vision for what’s next. Here’s what you are helping make possible.

Endonyolasho has its own clinic worker

After nearly a decade of working in the Endonyolasho community, we are so proud that the very first dedicated clinic worker is here! Joel Lemaron, a Maasai clinician, was posted to the clinic at the end of 2019. Since that time, he has built relationships, assessed needs, and established a full-time clinic in the building you helped us launch in 2015. We had a chance to spend time with him and hear about his work, challenges and vision. We’re so excited about partnering with Joel to continue to invest in the health of the people of Endonyolasho.

Mothers bring their babies to the Endonyolasho Community Clinic to receive scheduled immunizations.

We’re building a maternity wing!

During our visit, we were able to meet with the Endonyolasho community and Ministry of Health representative to assess next steps for the Maternity Wing we told you about last spring. We are excited to share that plans will move forward. The plan is to build and launch the new wing in 2022, just in time to mark 10 years of partnership in Endonyolasho. It’s an ambitious project, and donor support will be crucial. We’ll share more with you very soon!

Endonyolasho community leaders stand on the site of the future Maternity Wing.

The Turkana Women’s Business & Training Center

At the beginning of 2020, you heard about the vision of a small group of women in northern Kenya to have a dedicated space to weave mats and sell goods. Your support made it possible to build this space, which we called the Turkana Women’s Stall. On this trip, we got to step inside it and see and hear first-hand how the women are using it, and the difference it’s making. We quickly realized this isn’t just a stall. It’s a business and training center--a new name that reflects the empowerment and pride we saw in the women as they showed us the new space. 

Relief and support during a pandemic

During 2020, your generosity provided COVID relief to families in Endonyolasho and to young pregnant women and their babies in Nairobi. We’ve shared photos and the thanks that these communities sent to us. During our visit, we heard again what a profound help your support was during a time of great need. They won’t forget this act of solidarity. Thank you for helping us remember our friends in Kenya during one of the most trying times any of us have faced.

Empowering girls with sanitary wear

If you are a woman, you likely take for granted how easily you can access sanitary wear. For girls in remote communities in Kenya, it’s not so easy to find or afford. This can mean skipping school during menstruation or being taken advantage of by boys or men who have the means to get pads. The pads you provided can determine a girls future. Pads keep girls safe, in school, and healthy. Thanks to you, Alabaster distributed more than 3,500 pads to girls in two rural primary schools. 

Can you believe there’s more? We have several exciting new projects underway, and we can’t wait to share them with you. Keep following us on social media, subscribe to our newsletter and look for blog posts with more stories and opportunities. You make all of this possible.