News

It’s hard to know how much is spent on average per child in the UK at Christmas.  Figures quoted on Mumsnet from 2018 suggested it is a little over £300. 

In all the conversations I have with the brilliant people who support Educate the Kids, it never ceases to amaze me how they each bring slightly different insights and thus help to expand our knowledge about this most remarkable charity.  Liz Grant has perhaps more insights than most, as she has been involved from the very start (or last century as she puts it!).

With the Singing Kids performing with their usual sparkle and enthusiasm all over the UK, BBC Radio Nottingham asked Jordan Wilkey in to tell their listeners something about them and the Educate the Kids charity. Jordan and his family hosted some of the kids in 2006 and then went to live in Kenya for a year. He is organising the kids visit to Derby (again) this year and is clearly a radio "natural"!

At the time of writing, the temperature in Mesa, Arizona, where Dean and Catherine Leonard live was c. 45C.  That’s a lot hotter than the weather in the town they used to live in - Tong, near Bradford in the north of England.  Dean and Cathryn had wanted to move to the US or Canada...

Once again, Educate the Kids is taking part in the amazing event that is the Edinburgh Kiltwalk.  Last year, we raised lots of money and this year we’d like to make even more, so no pressure!If you’re young, old or just somewhere in between, please come along and join our team. The event is on 15thSeptember and we’re doing the “Wee Wander” of just five miles, so it’s not too difficult and if I can do it then everyone can! 

We’ve interviewed a wide range of supporters of Educate the Kids in the last year.  Without exception, every single one has paid tribute to the lady who, more than anyone, has been the originator and driving force behind this singular charity.  Consequently, when her daughter said, “why don’t you interview mum?” it seemed such an obvious thing to do that I wondered why we hadn’t thought of it before. 

Educate the Kids has a small number of supporters in the US (we’d like more though, so please do tell everyone you know if you are on that side of the pond!).  Karen Betten (pictured above with Maureen and one of the children in Kenya), who lives in Utah, knows Yvonne and Maureen (the founder of the charity) personally, having met them over 26 years ago while serving as a missionary in Scotland ...

I was a slow convert. For years, I had watched these Kenyan children come to our country but didn’t get involved.  My mum hosted some of them from the very first “Singing Kids” tour and sponsored a child for years.  Each tour came and went with different children but still I didn’t feel inclined to take part. Then, in 2016, the kids were in the Stirling/Alloa area, near to where my family have a restaurant....

One of the best things about Educate the Kids is the wide variety of people who support us. As the phrase has it, we’re of all faiths and none, but we’re all united by our desire to help the children who are the focus of our efforts.

Barbara Bryceland lives in Falkirk and is a professional singer who has appeared on X-Factor, the Voice and in the pages of many newspapers throughout Scotland. She has been involved with Educate the Kids for many years and has assisted massively in the Singing Kids tours, both with fundraising and helping organise those who provide accommodation and assistance to the children when they come to central Scotland. She kindly gave up a little of her time recently to explain how she got involved.

In my last blog, I described how I was lucky enough to get a place at Jolaurabi school and then was able to travel to the UK where my education continued. Since then, I have been fortunate enough to attend Nairobi University.

If you were with me last time, I was explaining how my family could not afford to send me to school when I was a young boy. Then I met Maureen while I was walking around the village and she had told me to be at the school the next day at 9.00 am…

My name is Totally Mashombo. I’m the oldest of a family of six children. I grew up in a very humble circumstances in a village called Utange in Kenya, which is some kilometres away from Mombasa city on the coastal region of Kenya.

Esther Wilkey lives in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire. She has six children, a number of whom are young adults now, and works at Bradford College, teaching English to 16–18 year old asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants.

“At the time I first got involved with Educate the Kids I was a stay-at-home mum. I was asked to look after four of the kids in the choir when they came to our area...