Tales From Kenya

Speciality Bites with

Paul Hargreaves

Chief executive of Cotswold Fayre

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Well, I will never again complain about the roads in the UK after driving across Kenya – which involved several near-death experiences.

We did finally make it to the orphanage, but not before coming off the road twice, and with a total of three punctures. Challenging to say the least!

However, being involved in the work at the orphanage has been one of the privileges of my life. These children, largely aids orphans, have absolutely nothing. They eat the same food meal-after-meal, day-after-day, and have no toys or electronic games, but remain cheerful and fun to be with – very humbling.

As I mentioned previously I took my daughter with me, and it was interesting watching her interact and admire these children, whose main aspirations are to survive in this hard culture – very different to her and her peers, who have everything and want more.

I am back in the office now and one of the news headlines driving in was the drought in that part of Africa – the worst for 50 years apparently. We were greeted by thunderstorms and torrential rain when we arrived, which means we were good visitors, but this rain came at the wrong time. They needed it in April and May when the maize crop was growing. As a result the harvest is completely ruined this year, and maize prices throughout the whole country have rocketed from 1,600 Kenyan Shillings per sack to 6,000 this year.

This is why one of my main aims on arriving back is to raise funds for irrigation. The orphanage was given a large area of land which has a river running through the corner. If we can buy a pump, dig trenches and piping, this land could be producing around half of the maize required to feed the children. Some initial costings suggest this could be done for as little as £4,000. If anyone wants to contribute towards this, then please get in touch.

As usual when visiting other cultures, it challenges our own and our own lifestyle, and I am not going to start preaching to you. But I would say that I am very pleased that I have associated my company with a project like this. I have also offered staff members an extra week’s paid annual leave if they spend that extra week helping in the orphanage. Now we have something to get our teeth into, there’s all the more reason.

Have a great week!