Kenya: Year of Storm – AllAfrica.com

Posted by christine, December 28, 2009

For many Kenyan households, the year 2009 cannot end soon enough.

Even with indications that the economy which last year suffered its worst slowdown in five years is revving back to recovery, it has been a year of surviving one day at a time for many families in the midst of a prolonged drought that left in its wake acute food shortage, high inflation, water and power rationing.

Perhaps it was the World Bank’s country director, Johannes Zutt, who captured the puzzle of growth and pain correctly when he concluded that “Kenya’s economy had weathered the storm and is still standing but only standing still.”

This edition offers insights into sectors that are expected to lead Kenya’s path to recovery and whether next year’s predicted growth rate of 3.5 per cent will translate into a better economic well being for Kenyans. - from AllAfrica.com

Have Questions for Skiff or Char?

Posted by christine,

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In their Christmas Day Behind-the-Scenes Webisode 10 on The Mocha Club Experience, Skiff and Char ask if any of you have questions for them.  Here’s your chance to post questions for the guys, and they’ll answer them in the next behind-the-scenes webisode. So ask away!  Just post a comment below and the guys will be checking them from Africa.

The Mocha Club Experience: Starting November 1, 2009, Seattle Pacific University recent graduates Daniel “Skiff” Skiffington and Charlie “Char” Beck visit all of Mocha Club’s current projects in 7 countries and take Mocha Club supporters and friends on a three-month virtual adventure to experience real life in Africa. Stay tuned for regular updates!

Summer 2010 Trips to Africa with Mocha Club!

Posted by christine, December 26, 2009

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Mocha Club has joined up again with 963 Missions to provide several short-term trip opportunities in 2010 for you to travel to a country in Africa with other Mocha Club members and friends. We want you right there in the middle of it all to see firsthand what giving up 2 mochas a month can do.

Each trip will be a mixture of serving and spending time with the African people. You’ll help with the projects and most importantly experience lives being changed!

Teams are being assembled immediately! All necessary info, applications, and documents are available through the 963 Missions website.

Don’t wait to turn in your application!

2010 TRIP CHOICES…

K E N Y A . . .scaled_e1261498129

Tentative Dates:
Trip #1: May 15 – 28, 2010
Trip #2: May 27 – June 9, 2010
(dates could vary 1-2 days on each side)

Trip Description:
Mocha Club supports numerous projects around Nairobi and even outside the city. Our team will spend time visiting and serving at projects in the Kibera slum, the second largest slum in Africa. One project is a job-training school that was just established this past year. The team will then travel outside the city to visit the village of Kitui where Mocha Club is supporting orphans as well as a feeding program for the community during the current famine. Due to the nature of this trip, applicants should be ready to “rough it” just a bit! We will be staying in a village setting for about half the trip.

Trip Cost: Approximately $3,150

Team Size: Average size of 15; No more than 17

* * *

E T H I O P I A . . .e1261498700

Trip Description:
Our team will travel to the capital city, Addis Ababa, to visit and serve various MC projects in the area: 1) Women At Risk – This is a project in Nazaret that rescues women from the growing world of prostitution and offers them a 10-month rehabilitation program including social, personal, and spiritual as well as job training. We’ll spend time with these women and hear their stories of how this project has changed their lives. 2) Ambo School & Street Boys – We’ll travel to another small town in Ethiopia to visit a church that operates a school for 250 children. Our team will return there again this year to organize an English summer camp. We’ll also visit a second MC project supporting the large local street boy population. Our team will organize games/activities and further build the relationship with these boys.

2 week options . . .

Tentative Dates:
Trip #1: July 28 – August 10, 2010
Trip #2: August 9 – 22, 2010
(dates could vary 1-2 days on each side)

Trip Cost: Approximately $3,100

Team Size: Average size of 15; No more than 17

1 month option . . .

Tentative Dates:
July 28 – August 23, 2010
(dates could vary 1-2 days on each side)

Trip Cost: Approximately $3,900

Team Size: No more than 12

* * *

How would I fund my trip?

1) Raise support. Send out letters and ask your friends and family to help you get to Africa by contributing financially. We have an airtight system through which we’ve helped a ton of other people accomplish this, and we can help you too! 963 can help you with other fundraising options too if you need additional assistance.

2) Pay for the trip yourself.

DON’T WAIT TO RESPOND . . . TRIPS WILL FILL UP FAST!

Get More Info and/or fill out an application.

** If you are not yet 100% sure you want to go, email us at mochaclubtrips@mochaclub.org and let us know which trip you are interested in, as spots will be filling up fast. That way, we can give you updates on the number of spots left on the trip you are interested in.

How to Build a Well: The Mocha Club Experience

Posted by christine, December 22, 2009

Char & Skiff share footage from Darfur, Sudan and explain how Mocha Club drills wells there…

The Mocha Club Experience: Starting November 1, 2009, Seattle Pacific University recent graduates Daniel “Skiff” Skiffington and Charlie “Char” Beck visit all of Mocha Club’s current projects in 7 countries and take Mocha Club supporters and friends on a three-month virtual adventure to experience real life in Africa. Stay tuned for regular updates!

The Reality for Many of Ethiopia’s Women: How Prostitution Plagues a Nation

Posted by christine, December 21, 2009

by Daniel “Skiff” Skiffington

On the streets

Prostitute on the streets of Addis Ababa

The streets of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia bustle with activity during the day.  Shoppers crowd markets, taxi cabs dash across busy streets and Arabian-style music booms from office towers.  For the most part, Addis seems to be an ordinary city.  But as the sun sets, remaining illusions of normalcy disappear.  Young girls, some between the ages of 12 and 15, line city streets in hopes of finding a customer or two for the night.

What makes Addis different than cities in the U.S. with prostitution problems?  The answer lies in the statistics.  More than 150,000 women walk the streets each night.  Many charge $1 per trick, making them accessible to both Ethiopians and those on business from the West.  In many ways, prostitution here is a result of poverty.  Unemployment is over 50 percent.  Ask a woman to leave the streets and she might go months, years or even decades without work.

Through a partnership with an organization called Women at Risk, Mocha Club supports those wanting to leave the life of being a prostitute or “sex worker.”   The idea is simple: befriend women and encourage them to live a better life.  The actual process is much more complicated.  Through the dedication of local staff members and volunteers, Women At Risk’s goal is to get these women off the streets, counsel them, and equip them with job training so they are empowered to support themselves and their children in a new way, encouraging them to leave behind the life of prostitution forever.  We’ll spend the next week with the organization and the people it helps.  Stay tuned.

The Mocha Club Experience: Starting November 1, 2009, Seattle Pacific University recent graduates Daniel “Skiff” Skiffington and Charlie “Char” Beck visit all of Mocha Club’s current projects in 7 countries and take Mocha Club supporters and friends on a three-month virtual adventure to experience real life in Africa. Stay tuned for regular updates!

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