Happy New Year!

Here we are at the start of another new year, which is a good time to look back and reflect on the year just gone. 2008 was in many ways a difficult year, but so too was it a year to remember. We started the year with the most difficult situation we have had to face as a charity, which was the post election riots which bought complete chaos, death and destruction to Kenya. For us it meant stretching our horizons to help re-home displaced families. It also meant that for a few months our normal operations had to really scale down and our staff could not move safely around the country. What a start to the year!

On the plus side our work has really grown this past year and once the troubles were put behind us we were able to focus on our core objectives. Because of the troubles we were not able to do as much construction work as we would have liked, but we still were able to open two key new projects: The 'St. Andrews' Abandoned Baby Unit at Kandara Children's home, and the new 'Percy Davies School' for special needs children at Kambiti. We also were pleased to be able to refurbish the Lutheran School in Kibera slum, which had been badly damaged (gutted really) in the riots.

In addition to the building work, we have started a number of new feeding programmes for schools and we now feed several thousand chilren on a daily basis, thanks of course to the generosity of our supporters.

On reflection, I would also comment on the Kibera Football. This is run by an organisation called 'Kibera Mpira Mtaani', which means Kibera Village Football, and is funded through Vision Africa. Following the troubles we were able to get our first tournament underway in the Spring and this did tremendous good in restoring normality and harmony among the community. I was privileged recently to meet with the British High Commissioner in Kibera slum and accompany him on a visit to the football offices. He was very impressed with what they have achieved and this has led to excellent relationships with the high commission and a couple of football matches between them and a Kibera Mpira Mtaani team. See our news pages for reports on this.

Lastly in 2008, I must comment on a highlight for the Vision Africa team - the wedding of Deborah Ross, our Seed of Hope Director, to Moses Mthengi to become Mrs. Deborah Kimathi. It was a real privilege for me to attend and a really happy day for all the families, friends and the Vision Africa team. The name change is taking us all a while to get used to, but our sincerest congratulations go to Debs and Mos. Take a look in our picture gallery for some photos of the event.

Looking forward to 2009 we have other challenges to face. Of course we are all concerned about the impact of the current economic downturn and worried what this may mean for our continued funding. The need is as great as ever and we really don't want to let any of these desparately poor and vulnerable children down.

We also have some staff changes in the wings as our founding Field Director, John Packard, steps down from his Field Director position to start to enjoy his retirement. Of course he will still be around in an advisory capacity for some time to come and we have bestowed the title of Field Director Emeritus upon him. Vera continues as Field Director for a while longer yet and Deborah Kimathi will step up as a new Field Director. Saying 'thank you' to John seems a bit pathetic when I consider all tha John has done for Vision Africa over the years, but we do wish him all the very best for the coming year and pray that God will continue to bless him with good health and energy.

Lastly for this update... Hopefully by now you will have noticed that the look and layout of the Vision Africa web site has changed! I spent a lot of hours in the months running up to Christmas and several days between Christmas and New Year to completely redesign and re-code the site. I hope you'll agree with me that it's an improvement over the old site and easier to navigate too. I would be interested in any feedback on the site and there's a contact form that you can use for this at www.vision-africa.org/information/contact_us.php - choose the website feedback option.

That's it for now. We have a lot to look forward to in 2009 and I hope the year ahead will be kind to you. From all the team at Vision Africa; A very happy New Year.