By Mansi Kotak & Muskan Singh | Team RKF
Dear GlobalGiving Family,
As we step into the final week of the year, we do so with full hearts and deep gratitude. Christmas is a season rooted in warmth, generosity, and care and because of you, these values are being felt daily by children and families across Kisumu.
Your support throughout the year has ensured that children are fed, girls are empowered, and young students are learning to care for the world around them. In communities where uncertainty is a daily reality, your generosity is turning survival into stability, and hope into action.
Meals Program Update
Since our last report, we have served an additional 20,000 meals, bringing the total to 273,417 meals served since January 2025. This year, those meals have reached communities facing repeated disruption and loss.
Much of our work has been alongside families affected by climate-related disasters, particularly floods that have displaced households, damaged homes, and left many without a stable place to live. In these conditions, access to food is difficult, and hunger is often a daily reality.
Through the School Meals Program, regular meals have become a dependable source of nourishment for many children from vulnerable families. And beyond schools, our Meal Kits continue to support households directly, helping ensure that children keep eating even as families navigate ongoing uncertainties.
Naomi, a widowed mother of five, is one such parent. After floods destroyed her home, she survives on irregular work cleaning omena by the lake, earning about 50 Kenyan shillings (USD 0.35) on some days—and nothing on others.
She shared, “Sometimes, if I don’t earn anything, we all sleep on empty stomachs.” This holiday season, because of your giving, her children will not.
“God bless you. My children will be so happy today.”, she shared after receiving a Meal Kit. These kits do more than fill stomachs, they bring relief to parents carrying the weight of circumstances beyond their control, and moments of joy to families who rarely get to pause and feel it.
This is the power of your giving.
Girls Empowerment Project
Alongside nourishing students and their families, your support is helping girls remain in school and grow in confidence.
In 2025, our Girls’ Empowerment Program reached 773 girls and their mothers across five communities in Kisumu County, creating safe spaces for learning, trust, and open conversation.
Through culturally grounded workshops, mothers and daughters came together to talk openly about menstrual & sexual reproductive health, safety, confidence. For many attending the workshop, this was the first time they could ask questions and share their stories and feel heard.
Each attending girl received a Sanitary Kit inclusive of 5 re-usable pads (lasting 12–18 months) 2 panties, soap and a Girl Talk Booklet, helping her attend school consistently and easing the daily financial pressure on households led largely by single mothers.
More importantly, girls left with renewed confidence knowing their bodies are not barriers to education. By strengthening the bond between mothers and daughters, this program helps girls stay in school, believe in themselves, and continue learning with confidence and hope.
Climate Action Project
The Climate Action project reached 280 students through 18 workshops on sustainability and environmental stewardship. Each student received a seedling, a living reminder of their responsibility toward the planet.
For students facing the realities of flooding, crop loss, and extreme weather, climate education is vital. Their reflections, shared through songs and poems, captured this urgency, with one student reminding us: “We don’t have a Planet B.”
At Korwana Primary School, 120 trees were planted with students, teachers, and community members, building a lasting sense of care and ownership. A community-inspired mural at Central Primary School now brings life to the surrounding, blending creativity, identity, and environmental action.
Through these activities, students are developing environmental awareness, repsonsibility and pride in protecting the communities they call home.
ASANTE ASANTE ASANTE!
Thank you for standing with our community this year and for making this impact possible.
Links:
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