Last blog entry!

Dear Friends,

this will be the last post on this site, boing forward, please follow us on: http://blog.cbsm-kimilili.org/

Thank you so much for all your support throughout the past year. We look forward to 2012 with big plans to further improve the situation of our 250 CBSM School children.

Here is an update for you:

NEWS:

• Introducing the Newsletter:
  Great news from CBSM Kimilili: We would like to introduce our bi-annual Newsletter informing you about the progress at CBSM. If you would like to get on the distribution list, please email us on info@cbsm-kimilili.org

• Next trip to Kimilili / Kenya:Our second trip to Kimilili will take place end of December 2011. We are very excited about going back to see all our friends and we are pleased to announce that this time 6 keen volunteers will be joining us. A big thank you to Astrid Kühne, Ursula Kühne, Daniel Diederichs, Steve Hinske, Ulrike Richter and William Ellis for voluntarily supporting the work onsite.
  Our big goal is to start the building of a proper school made out of bricks and cement to replace the current mud structure. Come and follow our adventure on our blog: www.blog.cbsm-kimilili.org

• CBSM Kimilili School on Google map:
  You can now see our school on google maps. Just go to www.google.ch/maps and type in “Kimilili Kenya” and once on the site: add “CBSM”.

MAJOR MILESTONES:

Nine months have passed since our first trip to Kimilili.
During the 4 weeks in Kenya, thanks to the huge support received from friends, family and colleagues, we have achieved much more than we could have imagined; bringing lasting improvements for the 250 kids at CBSM. However, this has only been the first step on the long journey and so much more needs to be done to further transform CBSM School into a sustainable, high-quality school.
Since our return in February 2010, major milestones have been reached enabling us to further support CBSM School even from afar.

• Founded the trust CBSM Kimilili
  CBSM Kimilili was founded in July 2011 under the umbrella of the Rütli Foundation (Rütlistiftung). The Rütlistiftung is a foundation for relief projects of the Reichmuth & Co Bank in Luzern. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Rütli Foundation for supporting us with all our questions and requests. Their support has been fundamental to establish the right structure to further support CBSM Kimilili. Thank you very much!

• Community Investment Partnership Deloitte
  Deloitte Consulting was looking for new Charity Partners to build up the Community Investment Programme in Switzerland. Due to the huge support from our colleagues, CBSM Kimilili got elected to become one of four official Charity Partners. Thank you to all of you, who supported us. We are grateful for this huge opportunity!

• Food program – In answer to East African drought
  In response to the East African drought which led to rapid food-price inflation, a food program was temporarily set-up sustaining the provision of school lunches for the children at CBSM. These extra costs were covered by our generous friends and colleagues. Thank you!

• Collecting donations at “Streetparade”
  On August 13th 2011 the famous “Streetparade” event took place in Zurich. Our team understood this as a great opportunity to ask people for donations for CBSM Kimilili. Lots of friends joined in who were willing to support the CBSM project. The overall response was very positive and we collected CHF 800. Thanks to all of our friends. It was a great and really fun event!

• New volunteers joined the CBSM team
  We would like to take the opportunity to introduce new Team Members voluntarily supporting CBSM:
  Andreas Jordan already started to brighten up our days with encouraging emails while we were still in Kenya. After our return he voluntarily constructed a great homepage (www.cbsm-kimilili.org) which has already attracted more than 10’000 visitors during the first 5 months. Thank you very much Andy, without you we would not be where we are today!
  The homepage also brought us to the attention of Philipp Vater, who contacted us immediately wishing to support CBSM. Philipp is a certified Auditor and he is now responsible for the Financials of CBSM. He built up the accounting system for CBSM and ensures that the investment flows are properly documented. He furthermore supports all of our additional activities.
  Florian Brodmann is the newest member of the team. He is responsible for all marketing activities, broadening the awareness of CBSM. He also supports the organisation of events.
  A big thank you to our new joiners. All work performed for CBSM is totally on a voluntarily basis with no payments involved. It is time for a big thank you for supporting our 250 children in Kenya. Your contribution will provide many children a chance to improve their living conditions by building on a solid education! If you have an expertise which you would like to offer, please get in touch, we would love to hear from you!

UPCOMING EVENTS:

• 2nd Kimilili trip:
  We are going back to Kimilili in December 2011! This time, colleagues and friends are joining and we will be posting our adventures and achievements on our website: www.cbsm-kimilili.org. Come and follow us!

• IT Collection:
  Due to the huge success last year and the great need in Kenya, we are starting our second IT collection campaign. If you have old laptops, digital cameras or cell phones that you don’t need anymore, put them back to good use and donate them to CBSM. These electronic devices are a great opportunity for our friends in Kimilili to improve on communication and make more people aware of their situation. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to support our campaign.

Finally we just want to say THANK YOU! It is inspiring to see how many of you support a good cause!

Best wishes, your CBSM Team Alex, Agnes, Andy, Florian & Philipp