About FDC

FRIENDS OF DAGORETTI CHILDREN

Friends of Dagoretti Children (FDC) is a Kenya registered charitable society. It is a people centred development organisation with no religious or political affiliations.

The objective of FDC is to support disadvantaged families and to try to instill an understanding of the value of education, leading to self sufficiency.

This is achieved by:

·     Assessing each applicant at the family level in order to establish the level of need.

·     Identifying the most deserving candidates and facilitating their placement in the relevant institutions.

·  Carrying out regular assessments of the beneficiaries’ performances to determine the student's progress as well as the family's contribution. (Continued provision of funding for any child is dependent on the effort, progress and commitment of both the student and the family.)

·    Conducting a periodic re-evaluation of personal and family details from the information gathered in the assessment process.

OUR STUDENTS

Currently we have 52 young people on our programme - 31 girls, 21 boys.

• 18 are in secondary schools
• 34 are in work experience or tertiary courses

·     Those taken on are not necessarily orphans nor are they necessarily the very brightest of the bright. They must, however, have achieved 300 or more marks in KCPE, be needy and hungry for education.

·      Only those who achieve the required marks go to Government Universities. The others do courses at Diploma level through Polytechnics, other Technical Colleges or Vocational Colleges.

·      Our aim is to achieve a breadwinner for each family through useful, practical and employable qualifications.

·      To date we have in the workplace: a hairdresser, a Clinical Medical Officer, a university graduate working for Technoserve, a polytechnic graduate working for Power Tronics, a teacher, a Mater-trained nurse, a 3 D specialist and an accountancy graduate working for Governors' Camp. Three are also working in local restaurants.

·      Our commitment is to help each beneficiary, through education, to gain the tools with which to earn a living but we do NOT promise to find them employment. We do, however, work hard to find them internships as a starting point.

·      It takes a minimum of 8 years to see a student through to the workplace. This explains why we haven’t many in full employment yet since we only began in 2003!

FUNDING

• Many of the students have individual sponsors, often friends or family of committee members.
• We have some corporate sponsors such as Platinum Credit, CMC Motors, REA Vipingo Plantations and Summit Recruitment & Search.
• Others include Karen Club Charity Golf Day, South African Women's Association, CMC Motors, Kenya Charity Sweepstake, Lomas & Lomas, an Anonymous Donor, Governors’ Camp Collection, Hemingways Collection, Elewana Collection, Safari Collection, Karen Provision Stores, DT Dobie, Talisman Restaurant, Air Kenya, Safarilink, Lapigems, Gil Oil.
• Through strenuous efforts of committee members the Karen business community is being targeted.
• Our only paid part-time employee is our excellent social worker Catherine Gachui, whose salary is funded by donations.

THE COMMITTEE    

Chairman
Katharine Gunson

Vice Chairman
Lydiah Wachira

Secretary
Louise Roest

Treasurer
Gerry Downes

Fundraising 
Linda Cuthbert
Charlie Taylor

Members
Mary McNaughtan

Wendy Turmel
Consolata Kunyada

+

Social Worker

Catherine Gachui

             

+

The fundraising team - Charlie, Wendy, Louise and Linda