IcFEM Gap Volunteers

The Mission also supplies lorry transport services. Initially to help with the need to move supplies around for the Mission, the lorry was 'rescued' and rebuilt, but this has extended to provide a service for the wider community at an affordable price. As part of our service we supply sand, pebbles and other building products. The objectives of the lorry service are;

• to provide an affordable goods transport service to the Mission and community
• to help raise funds for the work of the Mission

The lorry service is a very busy income generating scheme and we sometimes struggle to be of service to all that ask. Extra hands for loading and unloading would make our service more efficient and allow us to serve more customers. You would benefit from this as you'll be observing first hand the development of Western Province as well as making new friends, learning Kiswahili, getting to learn the Kenyan culture and you'll get to know about the Mission work. The sight of a Mzungu (white person) doing manual work always encourages the local people and often brings out the best in their sense of humour!

The aim of the book and stationary project is to provide spiritual, school and other relevant materials to individuals and organisations in the area and at the same time raise funds needed to support the IcFEM Mission. Our objectives are:

• to establish orders from target groups
• to identify and create ongoing relationships with suppliers with similar values
• to make products available at affordable prices
• to pass on all profit to the Mission for its charitable Christian development activities

We supply books and stationary to 5 schools within the Bungoma District which we need students to help with. One of the challenges which we have with any type of sales is that some of the customers don't pay for the goods on time, so what we have to do is to follow the sales up and collect the debts which people owe us. Other than selling books within the book shop and at schools we are also wanting to start visiting churches and setting up bookstalls, called the 'Church Best - Field Sale'.

The benefits which you could bring to the book shop are:

• the shop can always benefit from new ideas.
• working within the community e.g. schools, colleges, churches will be helping to raise the reading ability in the Bungoma District which helps to build individuals' literacy levels.
• the level of knowledge will increase within the community
• ales will hopefully increase

Maintaining stock records in such an activity is also difficult, so if you have any skills in Microsoft Access to help us establish a database that would be an added benefit.

The tailoring shop aims to be involved in the production of school uniforms and clothes for adults and children with the focus of bringing income to the Mission and helping the community to get these products at an affordable price. Concerning the gap year programme we have three focal points that you the student can assist with:

• Costumes for the drama club
• Production of clothes for the elderly and orphans
• General tailoring within the shop

The tailoring shop can be very busy before the children start each term of school and the team normally needs extra hands to make the uniforms. During December the team was staying at work until 8:00 each night to finish the work, so that the children could have their uniform before they started the new year. The areas where you can be working in are listed below:

• Cutting of material
• Buying materials
• Cataloging
• Sewing buttons
• Ironing
• Packing
• Overlocking - sewing the hems
• Distributing the finished items
• Marketing the services to local schools

The objectives of the uniform and cloth project are;

• To increase income for the Mission
• To raise the Mission project profile
• To reach head teachers, bursars, store keepers and tailors with the gospel
• To provide well made school uniform and quality cloth at an affordable price
• To help regulate pricing of school uniforms, cloth and other supplies from extortionate practices common in local markets
• To create employment opportunities especially to needy qualified tailors
• To help identify needy cases (orphans) in schools and to provide uniforms

For some children the school uniform is the first new clothes they will get. School children want to look smart and this service contributes to them doing so.