Riziki News – April 2019

Dear All,

We have been home from Kenya for a week.  The children at Riziki continue to grow – in all ways.  They are a happy and caring family with the older young people ensuring that the younger ones feel at home.  Progress at school continues to be good.  Just before we left Kenya, Julius got a call from Precious (on a borrowed phone) to say she had done her half term exams at school and had come 21st out of 50 in her class – a good achievement.  Next day Neema also called, very excited – she had come 4th out of about 50!  News of Emmanuel has just arrived – he is 133rd out of 453.  These three are in their first term at secondary school. The new children we took in January have settled in well and feel part of the family. They are enjoying school but still have a lot of catching up to do.

At Riziki we continue to aim for self-sufficiency.  On the farm, crops are growing well, now that we can irrigate from the dam.  The solar pump is performing as expected.  We need to install a raised water storage tank to deliver water when the sun is not shining!  Crops described as ‘local vegetablesʼ are proving popular and we have started to sell the surplus.  We would like to buy a maize grinding mill as the nearest commercial mill is some distance away.  In addition to saving the costs of having our own maize ground, we would also be able to offer to grind maize for our neighbours.  Not only would this provide a small income for Riziki but it would save members of the local community a long walk to have their maize ground.

The new cowshed is being built.  The walls are up and the plastering done.  The welder, Njoroge, has started on the roof and he is also making windows and doors on site.  We are truly grateful to the donors who made this possible.

We have just bought a simple treadle sewing machine which will enable Catherine – who does the cleaning etc – to learn to sew.  She is keen to do this and will be able to do simple repairs to school uniforms etc which soon start to look shabby and a bit tattered!

Points for prayer.  We give thanks that the new children have settled in so well and for the warmth of the older children who help them;  we also give thanks for the dam which should now enable us to have reliable crops;  we pray for rain, especially in northern Kenya where people are suffering acute food shortages and dying.

We have recently made a new video with Gaggia Caffe Shop, based in Elland, featuring Riziki on their website.  This can be accessed on www.gaggiacaffe.tv
Thank you for reading this newsletter.
​Ian & Diana Hogley
 

Riziki News – January 2019
Dear All,
A happy new year to you all.
Julius wrote on January 12th
The Riziki children are now all back in school.  We have taken four new children into the home, all at the request of the children’s department, after being committed by the court of law.

Shalon, Filex, Maxwell and Evans
 
Shalon Wambui is six years old.  Her single mother was imprisoned for neglecting her children.  The three boys are brothers,   Filex Etabo is 7 years old,  Maxwell Lobei is 9 years old and Evans Lokol is 10 years old.  Both parents are dead, the mother having died last May.  Since then they have been with their old and sickly grandmother who is unable to support them.  They were being helped by neighbours before their story reached the children’s department.  Two of the boys and the girl have never been to school.  We want them to join the other Riziki children at St Ceciliaʼs primary school as soon as we can, complete with their uniforms, shoes and school bags.
 
All the children went back to school on 3rd January 2019 both primary and secondary and it is our prayer that they will continue to do well. The three starting their secondary education in form one form went on 7th and 8th of January.
On 7th Liz and I took Neema and Emmanuel to their schools.  Liz wanted to see Lenana school so I dropped her there with Emmanuel and I took Neema to Buru-Buru girl's school  Both schools are in Nairobi.  The whole day was a real headache.  I picked up Liz from Lenana and we got back home at 12.30 am., very tired indeed.  On 8th both of us took Precious to Naivasha girl's school. The three schools are great.

Faith and Collins did not do as well as we had hoped in their final exam KCSE. Faith got a C- and Collins got a D+.  We hope they will be able to join colleges.

In the shamba, we are just about to start harvesting maize and the fields are green with vegetables.  We are now reaping the benefits of our water harvesting dam, allowing us to irrigate the crops, and also our water recycling system.
Now we are through with the schoolsʼ problems, the cowshed work will start next week when we bring in materials.  We trust the work will now have started and we look forward to seeing the completed and occupied cowshed on our next visit!

We thank Julius, Liz and the rest of the team for their dedicated service to the whole Riziki family.
 
We are all most grateful to our many faithful friend for all the support, spiritual and financial, and for the comments we receive from you, following our newsletters.  Thank you for reading this newsletter. Ian & Diana Hogley

Riziki News – December 2018
Dear All,
The school year in Kenya has finished.  The Riziki children have returned to their relatives or guardians for the required annual visit so the home is very quiet!  Our new social worker has settled in.  We now have three ladies at Riziki called Elizabeth which I shall find very confusing.  We have Liz, our assistant director, Elizabeth the cook and Liz, the social worker!

Julius writes
All the children performed well in school both primary and secondary, their performance was very encouraging indeed.  The three children who sat for K.C.P.E this year passed well.  Emmanuel had 403 marks out of 500, Neema got 384 marks and Precious got 382 marks.  Faith and Collins finished doing their K.C.S.E and we wait for their results to be out sometime in December. Lucy's conclusion of her course is delayed because of a college problem with the whole class.

Some of the children have been sick with various complaints but were taken to hospital and treated and now they are all doing well. Neema's hand problem recurred but now she is well again.  Faith fell sick just before the exams, but she was treated and went back to school and managed to sit for the papers.  Grace's ear problem has recurred, and she was put on medication.

Regarding the irrigation; we are still laying more pipes to let the water get to all the crops and we hope and trust that the results of the hard   work will be good.    Liz has planted a lot of native vegetables - e.g. cowpeas and others; some of the them are planted in the greenhouse and the others are out in the fields.  She is using the dam water.  Soon we will be harvesting the maize you left in the shamba.

On 20th October a family from Nakuru with a group of 25 primary school children visited Riziki.  The children spent the day together playing games and doing Bible study and quizzes.  They had great fun.

On 27th October we organised prayers for the three doing K.C.P.E. exams.  We invited our church pastor for the occasion and a group of friends from Nairobi attended.  It was wonderful.

On 17th November that young man in a wheelchair came with more friends and he had good time with the children playing indoor games.  He seems to love the children.

Liz organised a children’s church on 24th November and over 200 children of upper primary and secondary school from the community attended.  She had a big group of youths from Happy Church who had volunteered to help her to teach the children and it was wonderful.  All the children enjoyed it so much that some of them did not want to go back to their homes!  They stayed as late as 7.30pm, being persuaded to go home when Esther and I arrived at that time and found the situation.  Esther played a big part to persuade them to go home.

On 25th November Emmanuel, Neema and Precious were invited by the director of St. Cecilia to attend a prize giving to those who performed well and got 400 marks and above.

The children went to their relatives on 8th December.  On the evening of the 7th we held a Christmas party for them with Christmas carols, we also used the occasion for thanksgiving prayers because of the success of the 3 children.

We managed to take Peter, the builder, and Njoroge, the metal welder, to Miti Mingi Village to see the cowshed we like and later they both produced quotations for building ours.  We plan to start the construction work in January 2019 after the cabbages which are in the area have been removed but the delivering of the materials is going to start in December 2018.

We have managed to buy shoes from Amie for all the children and we hope that they will be good shoes.  Aime is from Miti Mingi Village, a large children’s centre, just outside Nakuru.
 
Later Julius wrote again.
Bwana Yesu Asifiwe, (Praise The Lord Jesus). We trust that you are all well.  Thank you very much for the good work all of you are doing.

The three children have been chosen to join very good schools, Emmanuel will go to Lenana School in Nairobi, Neema will go to Buru Buru Girls School in Nairobi and Precious will go to Naivasha Girls Secondary School in Naivasha.

The children will come back on 29th December so as to prepare themselves to go to school on 3rd January 2019, God willing.

Due to the new Government traffic rules under NTSA we need to prepare the Minibus KAS 263F for police inspection towards the end of this month.  It needs work costing over £1000 to meet the requirements!

God is great and with Him all things are possible.  We thank Him for giving us rain - we have had rains in the last few days and the fields are green with plenty of vegetables. The dam was filled again on Monday after heavy rain.
Please pass our sincere greetings to all the family and friends.  We wish you all A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2019
Julius & Esther
 
Liz (Kivindyo) has also written
It has been busy days down here trying to get the farm up and running so we can make proper use of the dam water.  On the day the director wrote we only had one person working at the farm, Wycliffe, but we had to quickly hire another to help with the load of the work and so Eric joined Riziki on Tuesday this week and work seems to be progressing fine and there is plenty of it.

Liz (S.W.) is doing fine.  She has quite a bit she needs to adjust to, but I am patient to see how she will fair, with a bit of training.  She and the children worked on various Christmas decorations and the children really enjoyed doing them. They also looked great on the tables for the Christmas party.

I was not able to bake this Christmas because we had an accident with the oven door, the top glass shattered as it was being cleaned, and I was not too sure if it can be used that way, without the glass covering.

Liz and I are the ones left in the house this December as Elizabeth (cook) and Catherine took their leave days this month. Liz has been busy writing reports as we need to renew some the children's committals in January and February. 

Next week we go to court to see if we can commit three boys and a girl.  I will give you more details on them when they get committed.  Sometimes it’s not a straight forward process. If they are placed with Riziki we will have 4 new faces in January.  Exciting!  The plan is to have 10 new faces.  However, this is dependent on the government placing the children with us.

Tony has been using a lot of his free time this holiday, sketching.  I believe with a bit of guidance and encouragement he might do something great with his interest in all things art.  See below two of my favourite sketches. Liz

Thank you for reading this newsletter.  We give thanks to all our supporters for gifts which enable Riziki to move forwards, Ian & Diana Hogley

Riziki News – October 2018
Dear All,
We have been home from Kenya for a couple of weeks, with many pictures from Riziki. Our previous short newsletter was a picture of the new dam, full to the brim after one night of rain and holding 800 cubic metres of water.

We have bought a solar powered water pump so that this water can be moved to wherever it is needed for irrigation.  Our filtration system for recycling our used household water is also working so the same pump can deliver that cleaned water back to its high level storage tank.

The water from the road should allow us to grow good crops all the year round. We know we can produce crops for sale when food is in short supply in the neighbourhood.

Some of the crops we grow are; Onions, Cabbages, Cassava and Kale. We also grow maize and beans which are dried before storing in silos.  These provide the basic food for the children, supplemented by the other vegetables we grow.

The children have very long school days, which include Saturday, so during the school week the Riziki compound only has children from early evening till next morning.  The older children do not get home from school till about 8pm!  On a Sunday they attend the local church and then enjoy much freedom to play as they please in the afternoon.

We are about to replace our basic cowshed with a larger and easier to clean, simple structure. This change will enable us to keep more cows in better conditions and will be easy to extend if appropriate in the future.  Our next capital project is to build a new barn as our storage situation for hay and other crops is critical.

Two of our young people are about to sit their KCSE exams, completing their secondary education.  Three of our primary children also sit for their KCPE exams, and will then go on to secondary schools, depending on their results. They are in our prayers at this important time in their lives.  
 
Thank you for reading this newsletter.  We give thanks to all our supporters for gifts which enable Riziki to move forwards,
 
Ian & Diana Hogley


 

Riziki News – July 2018
Dear All,
Greetings from southern Germany where we are having a few days with our youngest son.  While he is at work there is time to write this newsletter without distractions!

On July 8th, Liz wrote
I pray all is well with everyone. It has been a busy couple of months at Riziki and I am happy to finally get a chance to properly write a detailed email and not just responses.
April was a busy holiday for us; the children were at home for four weeks, during which time we managed to get a lot done. As we had discussed, we engaged with two lady counsellors to help us address some of the counselling needs we have - the holiday period proved to be the best time for non- urgent issues and so we are hoping to continue this in August. 

The children are all well. They just completed a mid-term break. I was not able to spend any time with them as I was at home recovering from a motorbike accident that left me with soft tissue injury on both legs, one more severe than the other. However, I was able to spend some time with Faith this week while she was out of school for two days with Pneumonia. She seems well prepared and ready for the final exams in November and we are very hopeful she will do well. Apart from academics, she has been involved at school in generating ideas for an app. This was a competition, sponsored by Safaricom, and she, together with a few other girls in school, presented ideas for an app that would help patients access fast medical care from doctors. The idea took second place after one for farmers. Faith was very disappointed in this and is very keen on wanting to follow up on this idea after school and see where it goes. I am personally very glad to see her keen on other things outside academics!

We have not settled on a social worker yet and we will be re-advertising the position next week. The one we have currently has health problems that are hindering her from carrying out her job effectively. She disclosed her health problems two days after getting the job and after observing her for two months, she, unfortunately, does not have the energy needed to be responsible for children. So we are back to going through mountains of job applications and interviews.

I am happy to report the water recycling project is going well and we seem to be getting water! It is coming in slowly but it is there. Praise God! I am also very excited about the water surface harvesting and we should have a significant improvement on how we deal with drought months if we get them next year.  A big thank you and God bless you for backing this project.  We needed to do it this year with the heavy rainfalls as we have no guarantee of such heavy long rains next year, Asante sana.

Speaking of rainfall, we are taking advantage of the two seasons of rainfall. After removing beans we planted a crop of maize immediately, just to take advantage of the extra months of rainfall that we don't normally get. The beans harvest was good. Our rough estimate is probably 12-14 bags. We are still cleaning and drying them so we will know the final number when we are ready to store. Moses has taken a break. He took his annual leave from yesterday and went to see his family in Bungoma; he has not been with them for 8 months. Fred is in charge now!

In August we are looking forward to receiving Crystal a volunteer from the United States. She will be staying with the Director, Mr Kivindyo, and spending time with the kids during the day. This August we are also going to the Masai Mara National Reserve!  We have not told the kids yet but am sure we will not be able to contain the excitement. The dates are 16th-19th, Crystal will be joining us.
That is all for now. A big thank you to all involved for all you do.  Asante Sana and a Big God Bless you!
Liz
 
On June 12th Julius wrote
All the children continue to do well in school both primary and secondary, their performance is very encouraging indeed. They are all well except that Phyllis who fell sick complaining of stomachache. She was taken to Kabarak hospital and she was treated.  Next day, while in school, she was still complaining of the same. I was called by the headteacher at around 8pm so I took her to Valley hospital where she was admitted for two days.

On 6th June Liz was hit by a motorbike.  Fortunately her legs were not broken but one needed bandage support and she is recovering.
                                                            
We planted early, before the rains.  This time we decided to plant more beans than maize and we are expecting to harvest quite a number of bags.  Attached are pictures of the beans being dried and also shelling the beans; the other crops are doing well.

In April during the school holiday Liz organised a children church and 280 children of upper primary and secondary from the community attended she had a group youths from happy church who volunteered to help her teach the children and it was wonderful all the children enjoyed very much, Diana's beanbags were used during the games.

We are planning to visit Amy when Liz's leg is able to walk and after the visit we will be in a position to talk about the shoes and the quotation for the cowshed. We plan to take Peter with us for him to see the cowshed and take measurements.

About the cleaning water system.  The construction work is complete.  Now they are removing the poles and timber which were used to support the concrete slab. Then the tank will be cleaned and we will wait for the water to flow through the sand and ballast and into the tank. After that we will install a water pump and the necessary pipes. The fundi said that it will take 2 months for the water to pass through to the tank.

The school van was hit by two tragedies in April.  The gearbox got damaged and we bought a another one and then on the schools opening day the engine seized and we were forced to buy another cylinder head.  These two cost a lot of money  During the repairing of the engine we hired a matatu to transport the children to school for 3 days morning and evening.

July 5th.  The cleaning water system has shown signs of water starting to go through so we wait and see then we will install the water pump and put the system on work.

The surface water dam work started recently and the work of digging is progressing well.  A liner will be installed next week so no water will ever drain in the ground.

Thank you very much for the good work you have continued to do may God bless you all.

Please greet all in the family and friends. We thank you most sincerely for the good work you are all doing for the sake of the children May God bless you all abundantly.
Julius & Esther

Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter.  Your interest in Riziki is much appreciated.  Without your help, Riziki could not exist. 
 
Ian & Diana Hogley
 

Riziki News – May 2018

Dear All,

Greetings to all our readers.  We appreciate your interest in Riziki, your prayers and your financial contributions, without which it would be impossible to give the Riziki children the love, care and education they currently receive.  Our supporters are found from Scotland, to the South East, the South West and Northern Ireland.  There is help from within Kenya and other countries too.  For this support, all involved with Riziki praise God.

When we wrote in March there had been some heavy rain in Nakuru after a very prolonged drought.  That rain has continued over much of Kenya.  Unfortunately there have been severe problems in Nairobi with flooding causing buildings to collapse, and near Nakuru, at Solai, a dam burst caused the deaths of some 47 people.  This was about 30 miles from Riziki which was not affected.  Much further east, on the Tana River, the biggest hydro power dam is overflowing which is a big life threat to the people living on the lower part of Tana River.  The Government has advised them to move to higher ground. 

Unfortunately, our social worker/houseparent had to leave in mid-March and we have not yet found a suitable replacement.  Elizabeth, the cook, and Catherine, the cleaner, are kindly sharing the responsibility of staying at Riziki overnight until a replacement is found. Julius said “God is going to give us a new social worker - we only need to pray and trust.  We know He is able to do all things.

The water-cleaning system is almost complete.   We then need to install a pump and pipes to take the cleaned water to storage. 
 
Another concern is that there is a lot of water flowing into Riziki from the road and we all are of the opinion that we should build a dam to harvest that water which will be of great advantage when the rains are not there. The size will be 20m x 10m x 3m.  It will roughly be Ksh 460,000 (£3000+) for digging of the hole, the materials, the labour and other items.  We have a quotation from G. North & Son the greenhouse people who will supply materials and installation.“   We intend to consider this project further as and when funds are available!  You will appreciate that Kenya, like much of the world, is experiencing more extremes of weather and we are doing our best to work with this.
Compiled from emails from Julius
 
The winter quiz was very popular.  If you would like the answers, please let me know and I will make sure you get them (If you have asked already and not got them then just remind me please!)
 
Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter.  Your interest in Riziki is much appreciated.  Without your help, Riziki could not exist.

If you do not wish to receive this newsletter, please let me know and we will remove you from the mailing list.
                   Ian & Diana Hogley

​Riziki News – March 2018
Dear All,
We returned home from Kenya a few days ago after spending time at Riziki with visits to several children’s homes, other projects and a lovely time of relaxation at the coast.
Julius continues to be totally committed to the children in his care.  One of our girls complained of a painful arm so Julius took her to hospital where she was admitted with cellulitis.  He insisted on visiting her every day she was there which meant a round trip of sixty miles each time.
At Riziki we saw the newly refurbished cottage which is now suitable to house the older boys during school holidays or for simple visitor accomodation at other times.  A tiled floor has been installed and the walls have been plastered and painted.  Further furniture will be added ready for use in the next school holidays.
Liz has supervised improvements in the shamba (garden) with well prepared vegetable beds, deeply dug and manured ready for planting.  This should improve the water retention in the soil and feed the crops.  In spite of the poor rainfall in recent years we have managed to harvest enough maize and beans to fill our silos with sufficient maize to feed the children for at least two years.  This year we intend to grow more cattle feed and less maize.  The children really enjoyed two days of planting beans (first thing in the morning and late afternoon while it was cooler) in anticipation of the rain, which duly arrived.  We pray it will continue to rain. In the last newsletter I mentioned that we grew sorghum for the first time.  This is mixed with dried cassava and sweet potatoes and then ground into flour.  The resulting porridge has proved to be very popular and nutritious.  A good crop of tomatoes in the green- house was just ripening when we left.  It appears to be the best crop ever.  Liz plans to try sun-drying some of our surplus tomatoes and possibly bananas as a means of storing them.  She also reckons that this year’s drought is even worse than last year.  If the weather pattern continues it will be only possible to get one harvest each year instead of two. 
Without prolonged rains Riziki has a major water problem.  It has proved impossible to install a new water pipe from the nearest mains water supply;  drilling down 250 metres also failed to find water and our large underground water tanks (9 000 m³ and 20 000 m³) can only store water when it rains! Guttering on all buildings collects whatever rain falls on them.  During times of drought we have to buy water, delivered by road tankers, costing Ksh 36 000 (about £250) each month.  (Our household bill here is £21 per month!)  Most of the water we use each month is at present thrown away into the cesspit after being used for laundry, personal washing and cooking.  Following a suggestion from the man who empties the cesspit, using a vehicle he calls 'honey sucker', we plan to build a simple filtration system and divert all the waste water (except that which flushes the toilets) through it.  We can then reuse the water many times in the laundry and also in the greenhouse.  We estimate that we can re-use between 50% and 80% of the water we buy!  In addition, the cesspit will only need to be emptied every few years instead of every three months.  This innovation will be phase one of a four phase development plan to try to make Riziki self-sufficient.
As funds become available we hope to move on to further projects in three more phases.
In phase two a new cowshed will be built behind the existing shed, parallel to the greenhouse, next to the water recycling plant. It will be a simple structure, big enough for six or eight cows but able to be extended easily if and when needed. Provision for calves will be included.
Phase three:- After removal of the old cowshed a new barn will be built adjacent to the existing barn which contains the maize and bean storage silos. The new barn will be for storing cattle feed which we plan to grow in larger quantity.  Cattle food gets very expensive in times of drought.
Phase four:- When the new cowshed and the water treatment plant are in use we should have sufficient water and manure to service a biogas plant. This should produce ample gas for our cooking and water heating needs and eliminate the need to buy firewood.
We have planned these structures together as the position of each one affects the others.  It is our vision to see Riziki become self-sufficient while we are still able to be active.  It is a challenge to keep up with changing weather patterns.
Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter.  Your interest in Riziki is much appreciated.  Without your help, Riziki could not exist.                   Ian & Diana Hogley
 
For donations from within UK:-
The best way to make a donation to Riziki is through The Aenon Trust. This a UK charity which facilitates giving to projects including several children's homes in Kenya. Donations by UK taxpayers may be Gift Aided through The Aenon Trust. All such giftings are transferred to the projects in full by the Trust, with no deductions
Cheques should be made payable to The Aenon Trust and sent to:-
Mr A.E.Nicholls MBE FRGS, 137 Belvedere Road, Bexleyheath, Kent, DA7 4PA , with a note saying the gift is for Riziki. Allan's email is nicholls_allan@hotmail.com
Direct payments can be made to:- NATWEST BANK, Bexleyheath, Sort Code 51-70-14, for the credit of The Aenon Trust, Account No 36591483.  If using this method an email should be sent to Allan to let him know the gift is for Riziki. 
If preferred, gifts may be sent through us at Wayfields, Briar Court, HOLMFIRTH, HD9 2JJ.
Donations from outside UK may be sent to either Mr Nicholls or ourselves at the above addresses.
Regular donations can be made by Standing Orders. I can supply Gift Aid declaration forms or Standing Order forms, for regular donations, if desired.
 
Gaggia Caffe Shop, based in Elland has a feature on Riziki on their website.  This can be accessed on www.gaggiacaffe.tv.     Our own Riziki website is accessed on  www.riziki.org.uk.
 
(Ian & Diana Hogley, 'Wayfields', Br iar Court, HOLMFIRTH, HD92JJ, UK.  Tel 01484 680634. hogleyian@gmail.com.)

Dear All,
This is a brief up-date before we visit Kenya next month.  More detailed news and pictures will appear after our return.
 
On Christmas Day Julius wrote:
Merry Christmas to you all.
We thank God for keeping us all safe despite the ups and downs in life but we are not complaining.
Just inform you that the renovation of the old house is now complete and it looks very smart but the shelves for  the store house will be done in January 2018, God willing.
Thanks a lot for everything.  May God bless you all for the good work you have continued to do over the years.
Pictures of the completed work should appear next newsletter.
 
On January 11th Julius wrote again:
Happy New Year 2018
Praise be to the Almighty God. We hope that you are all well. Thanks a lot for your emails and the Riziki Quiz.  It looks very interesting and I hope that many people will take part.  (I have enjoyed a few hours tackling this quiz and almost completed it – about six questions still waiting for what I consider to be satisfactory answers.  Do have a go when you have some spare time. - Ian)
The Riziki children are all well and went back to school on 3rd January 2018
Sorry to inform you that Ann did not perform as well as we had hoped in the KCPE (Kenya Certificate of Primary Education) exams.  She got 248 marks out of 500 and she was not called to any school but we are trying hard to find a school for her.  (In spite of her medical problems, Ann has worked to the best of her ability and deserves to continue her education)
About the cow shed.  It is still needed.  The only thing is that we have not been able to get a planner.  We tried Peter the builder but he was not able to plan a good thing so we are waiting and searching.
Thank you very much indeed for efforts not in vain God bless you all.
Julius & Esther
 
On January 16th Liz wrote:
Hi Ian and Diana
Happy New Year. Its been a busy two weeks getting everyone back to school. The last one being Ann who got a local boarding school that Elizabeth helped us find. She reported on Friday and it was such a hectic, long hot day we forgot to take the pictures😊.
Its hot, dry and everything green is starting to dry up. The tomatoes in the green house are coming up well and we expect to harvest in two weeks or less. 
In good news of the year we were able to harvest one bag (90kg) of sorghum that will see us remove porridge flour from the budget for at least half the year and the next harvest will hopefully see us end the year without buying flour. This was an initiative by Moses that we are proud of.  (Moses is our gardener who works very hard for Riziki.)
In other news we are talking to some people about recycling the waste washing water to see if we can reduce our water consumption, especially in these dry months, but all year generally. Will let you know how it goes.
I am out tomorrow visiting farms to see, and get ideas of, economical cow shed structures.
That's all from my end.😊
 
Blessings
Liz
 
On January 18th Julius wrote again:
Dear Ian & Diana,
Praise be to the Almighty God we all thank Him for keeping us safe. The Riziki children are also well despite a few cases of sickness here and there but none of them is serious.
As Liz mention we managed to get a school for Ann through Elizabeth’s connections and she reported on 12th January 2018
One of the cows gave birth to a male calf a few days ago.  (Our cows seem to have difficulty producing female calves!)
It is too hot, very dusty and very dry but we hope rains will come one day God willing.
Julius & Esther
 
Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter.  Your interest in Riziki is much appreciated.  Without your help, Riziki could not exist.

Riziki News – December 2017
Dear All,
News came from Kenya just after I had sent out the October newsletter, so I include it here:
On October 19th, Julius wrote
All the children continue to do well in school both primary and secondary, their performance is very encouraging indeed.  Ann Wanjiku is sitting for her KCPE exam this year in November 2017 and we hope that she will do well to qualify for secondary school.
Alex Mwaniki fell sick in school on 16th September.  He complained of stomach-ache and was taken to Kabarak.  After a stool test, nothing was found.  Next day, when  I went to Riziki, I found that he was still in pain so I asked Sarah to take him back on the Monday.  At around 11am, Sarah called me from the hospital.  She said Alex's case was an emergency and he needed to be taken to a bigger hospital.  The doctors wanted to call for an ambulance but Sarah told them that I was on the way.
When I arrived I found Alex on a recovery bed with a drip.  After a little chat with the doctor he gave us a written report and we left for St. Mary's hospital where he was admitted after a scan showed that his appendix was swollen and about to burst.  It was removed immediately and he stayed in hospital for 3 days.  The wound is healing, but slowly.  He goes for dressing alternate days at Kabarak.
About my eye: I had an appointment for body tests on 21st September but I postponed because Alex was leaving the hospital on that day. On 22nd  I went and all the tests were done and results were negative.  I was given eye drops to use for 3 days before the surgery which was on 25th.  It was done succesfully and on 26th  I went back for the check up, after which the eye was covered to be opened only when putting medicine in.  I was instructed to avoid computer and any other very bright lights for a period of 2 weeks or so. On 10th October, I went back for check up and the doctors said it was healing well. To my suprise I was told that there was a stitch to be removed from the right eye which was operated on in 2015 and they removed it.
In August during the school holiday Liz organised a children's church and 250 children of upper primary and secondary from the community attended and it was great.
On 24th September the children were invited by a church in Nakuru to join them for a church day out.  They went to Bahati, on the way to Nyahururu, and stayed the whole day.  They were given food and drinks, and enjoyed themselves very much.
On Thursday 5th October 2017 in the afternoon  a group of twelve KPLC (Kenya Power & Light) staff visited Riziki.  They brought with them some gifts and on top of the gifts they cleared a power bill of  KES. 16,000.  They had a good time with the children, who had left school earlier at 3.30pm, immediately after classes, so as to welcome the visitors who had told us they were coming. We thank God for their generousity.
In August the Solar system broke down – the inverter got burnt out and we were forced to buy another one.  In September the house chimney was once again blown by the wind.  A new one has replaced it from the stove inside the kitchen to the top.
In September the Solar batteries stopped to work.  We stayed without the solar until October when we negotiated a deal with Chloride Exide Batteries Nakuru to give us 3 batteries on an invoice to pay after 30 days.  The price is KES.97,200/-, including VAT and installation cable  They said the new batteries will last longer than the normal black batteries.
I have also received the end of year school reports which show that nearly all the children are making very good progress with one being the best in the year and several others in high places

Julius wrote this week (mid-December):-
Praise be to the Almighty God. We hope that you are all well. Thanks a lot for your emails and the Christmas news letter; also thank you for the Christmas card you sent to the children.
We thank God for keeping us all safe despite the many things which have been happening since August 8th 2017 we thank God the country is still calm.
The Riziki children went to their relatives on Sunday the 10th December 2017 and they will come back on 31st December to prepare for school on 3rd January 2018, God willing.
I am pleased to inform you that the outhouse (original buildings) renovation started on 6th December  when the materials were bought but the work commenced on the 7th and is still continuing we hope that the work will be completed next week. 

WE ALL WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2018.

Liz wrote also:-   
November was quite busy for us and the children, especially as they were engaged in harvesting the maize. The big boys worked every day from 7am to 1pm cutting maize stalks down while the other children followed from 10am to 1pm removing cobs from the stalks. They worked well together everyday and we were able to get all the maize from the shamba, dry it and store. We successfully stored 33bags of maize in the silos before the children left for home.
All is well with the farm. We have a new crop of tomatoes in the green house waiting for February -March a good market period for tomatoes. We also have some butter nut and potatoes and a small portion of late beans.
We decided to keep the bull and probably slaughter it ourselves for meat. Well, that has not been fully decided yet. We expect a new cow in January and so am really looking forward to the new cowshed and some extra space to store hay.  We have been lucky to have a bit of rain towards end of the year so we were able to store a reasonable amount of hay.
We had an end of year party for the kids. We invited some of the people who have either volunteered or worked with us this year. We had lunch during the day and a brief carol service in the evening, which the kids ran beautifully (considering they had only one week of practice). We had decorations up as well as the tree, which Tony and Richard were responsible for and did an awesome job.
I have pictures but I have been having trouble sending through yahoo some of them don't get through and those that do take too long to load.
All staff are on a break till 29th, except Moses, who is holding the fort. 
That is all from my end. I wish you and all Riziki supporters a Blessed Christmas. We appreciate all of you.
Baraka,
Liz
 
Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter.  Your interest in Riziki is much appreciated.  Without your help, Riziki could not exist.

​Ian & Diana Hogley

​Riziki News – October 2017
Dear All,
For many months, Riziki has faced challenging times.  The lack of rain for a long period led to water shortages for much of Kenya.  In turn, this has meant that crops have failed and the costs of food for people and cattle have rocketed.  Riziki does not have mains water and relies on rain water, collected from the rooves into two large underground tanks, for all its water supplies, needed for irrigation, washing and drinking.  When there is no rain we must buy water delivered by road tankers.  The price of such water increased significantly as the drought became more severe.  In the UK we cannot imagine drought which is experienced regularly in much of Africa, but it leads to severe devastation of the land and all that entails.  We are delighted to hear from Liz that rain has returned to the Nakuru region.
She wrote on October 2nd:
I am writing from Riziki today sitting on the back porch on a nice sunny morning.  Everything is green again (thanks to the rains we have been having) and Moses and Joel are working the machine preparing cow feed for the month.
We thank you all for your prayers that I believe protected our maize crop this year. It survived the long drought and a possible army worm infestation and considering none of our neighbours have a good maize crop, we thank God and are looking forward to harvesting mid to end November.
In the last month and half we have been working hard to fill the freezer with vegetables from the farm and have attempted successfully freezing cabbages, of which we had plenty, and kale. So right now we have cabbages, kale and tomatoes in the freezer ready for the dry Jan-Apr period.
In the last month we have also had dairy cow management training and support from an extension officer (not sure if this is what they call them) from Coopers Kenya (for free) and we are working on a lot of what we learnt. Moses and Joel have given very good support to these changes for which am grateful to God.
All cows are in-calf and we expect three new cows next year.  If all are heifers we will then have six milking cows. This means we need to consider building a more spacious cow shed and hay barn.
We are just finishing a tomato crop in the green house and we plan to turn and treat the soil and have a new crop at the beginning of November.
 
Julius has been having a tough time recently with his health.  His blood pressure has been erratic and he has been waiting for further eye surgery.  He has postponed this several times, putting the needs of the children before his own.  I spoke to him this week, at home, where he is recuperating from the latest surgery.  He is banned from using his computer and we are pleased that it seems he is observing the ban.
Again, Liz said:
All is well with Riziki except for a few illnesses here and there with the children all are fine and doing well in school.  Any more details Mr. Kivindyo will fill you in once he gets better.  He had his eye surgery last week; we thank God that his blood pressure stabilised long enough to allow this, so now he is grounded for another week or so for recovery.
Blessings,  Liz
We are still awaiting the refurbishment of the old houses but again the workman has promised to start imminently.
We were very touched last month by the support and help we received at our fund-raising coffee morning and afternoon tea, held on a rainy day in our rather small house.  Thanks to all who came and made the day so successful by their hard work and/or their donations.
Prayer points
1.    Thanks that crops have grown at Riziki and that the staff have found ways of preserving them.
2.    For Julius' health, especially for complete recovery from his eye surgery.
3.    For peace in Kenya as the re-run of the presidential election draws near, or not.
 
Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter.  Your interest in Riziki is much appreciated.  Without your help, Riziki could not exist.                   Ian & Diana Hogley.
 
 
 
For donations from within UK:-
The best way to make a donation to Riziki is through The Aenon Trust. This a UK charity which facilitates giving to projects including several children's homes in Kenya. Donations by UK taxpayers may be Gift Aided through The Aenon Trust. All such giftings are transferred to the projects in full by the Trust, with no deductions
Cheques should be made payable to The Aenon Trust and sent to:-
Mr A.E.Nicholls MBE FRGS, 137 Belvedere Road, Bexleyheath, Kent, DA7 4PA , with a note saying the gift is for Riziki. Allan's email is nicholls_allan@hotmail.com
Direct payments can be made to:- NATWEST BANK, Bexleyheath, Sort Code 51-70-14, for the credit of The Aenon Trust, Account No 36591483.  If using this method an email should be sent to Allan to let him know the gift is for Riziki. 
If preferred, gifts may be sent through us at Wayfields, Briar Court, HOLMFIRTH, HD9 2JJ.
Donations from outside UK may be sent to either Mr Nicholls or ourselves at the above addresses.
Regular donations can be made by Standing Orders. I can supply Gift Aid declaration forms or Standing Order forms, for regular donations, if desired.
 
Gaggia Caffe Shop, based in Elland has a feature on Riziki on their website.  This can be accessed on www.gaggiacaffe.tv.     Our own Riziki website is accessed on  www.riziki.org.uk.
 
 
 
(Ian & Diana Hogley, 'Wayfields', Br iar Court, HOLMFIRTH, HD92JJ, UK.  Tel 01484 680634. hogleyian@gmail.com.)