Quijote Team and Its Solidarity Practice in Kenya

The Albacete association Quijote Team has been carrying out solidarity work in Kenya for four years. During that time they have managed a shelter located in a rural area two hours from the capital of Kenya. Their work has been recognized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as a member of the Cooperation Board of the Albacete City Council.

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The shelter is part of the project called Lisha Childrens, channeling about 100,000 euros, of which 70,000 have been provided by the City of Albacete through the call for aid for cooperation and development projects.

The shelter has received 27 children in situations of serious vulnerability, several of them orphans, offering them dignified treatment and meeting their educational, nutritional and health needs.

"One of the main problems in Kenya is child abandonment. We learned about the project a few years ago, we identified needs on the ground with the help of the local community and, in collaboration with the people coordinating the project (Lisha Mtoto as counterpart, and Kubuka as collaborating partner), from Quijote Team we have raised funds to build bathrooms for the girls, improve bedrooms, kitchen, common areas, living room, we have put new floors and fixed part of the roofs, we have built a small incinerator for waste treatment and the photovoltaic installation of the house", says Romero.

The tweet reads, "Quijote Team ends its work in a Kenyan foster home and is looking for another project to expand its solidarity muscle (Albacete, Society)"

The work with the children does not take them away from their homes. Regular visits to their families of origin are scheduled. The budget provided by Lisha Childrens allows them to have a basic and efficient infrastructure so that the children can develop their potential as individuals and social beings. In this sense, there are children enrolled in special schools, which they attend daily thanks to a means of transportation recently acquired by Quijote Team.

Sustainability strategies have also been implemented, with the sale at a local market of products produced in the vegetable garden of the home. In addition to these improvements, the expenses of the children's caregivers have been covered, and school fees have been paid for all schoolchildren.

During this year 2023, three members of Quijote Team have traveled to the field to check the proper functioning and management of this project, and to audit all the improvements introduced thanks to their funds. On this trip, Quijote Team members brought six laptops and school supplies donated by Redeia to Lisha Children's Home.

Having checked that everything is in order at Lisha Children's Home, the expedition now spends its second week getting to know new projects with which it can be linked in the near future. To this end, they have visited six different projects led by three Spanish NGOs, including several shelters operating in the field. Nyumbani Village, a project that has been operating for more than 30 years, located about three hours from Nairobi, in a totally isolated rural area, and which is self-sufficient in water and electricity, stands out.