FEBRUARY NEWSLETTER

Dear Supporter,

We hope this months newsletter finds you all well and healthy.

We are thrilled to announce that our “Back To School” programme providing Psychological and Educational support to 100 children aged 5-15, to prepare them to re enter the school environment has been successfully launched thanks to the amazing response to our appeal last month.

THANK YOU for the support and we can’t wait to share the children’s progress over the coming months.

Our teacher and Social Worker have put together a fabulous programme and are working for 3.5 hrs a day in the local parks with 2 groups each day from 6 different communities.

We hope to extend the programme and give the children support after school for the rest of the year to help them catch up to their age appropriate academic level and receive the emotional support to ensure they re enter society with sufficient pastoral guidance.

We will also be running Sex Education and Anti – Bullying programmes in the schools where the children will be attending. To ensure we are able to do this, we need to double the target, so please, keep on giving!! This is an amazing cause supporting 100 children, 6 schools and the communities where they are based.

If you’d like to help, please DONATE.

As little as £2 goes a long way and pays for a child’s book and pens to join the programme.

THANK YOU from all of us at Kiya Survivors, your support means the world.

Suzy and the team x

MAMA COCHA

An exciting start to the years therapy programmes as we welcome an additional Physiotherapist and Speech therapist to the team, Eliana.

Eliana is from a neighbouring village and has experience working with children and adults and her motivation and energy has been received with much gratitude by us all.

Claudia and Eliana are working with 20 patients currently and are providing a vital service for many families. The idea is to work more intensely with less patients so that progress is achieved over a shorter period, allowing them to leave the programme and for more children who are currently on the waiting list, to join.

One of their patients, Vivian, is 12-years old and has been receiving therapy and support from us.

She was born with mild mental retardation and language problems. She lives with her older brother and her Mum, who is a single parent and provides for the family by cleaning houses.

Lourdes, Vivian’s Mother, has been doing a great job of inclusion with her daughter, she never stopped taking her to the regular school despite the challenges she has had to face in a state school that was not prepared for children with special needs.

She has never given up and continues to show how much Vivian can learn with the right support.

This year, Vivian will enter secondary school and the fears of new challenges after being at home for so long, are a reality, but although she is always willing to face them, this time, she seeks help from us so that Vivian feels more secure in her communication.

We are going to improve her pronunciation, reinforce the cognitive area and give her tools to manage her emotions and anxiety so she can go back to school prepared and ready.

She is included in the “Back to School Programme”.

Her Mother tells us:
“When Vivian was little and she was diagnosed, I took her to Mama Cocha and they helped her a lot with her with Physiotherapy… and now that my daughter is about to enter high school I am excited but also very scared… however, I know that I have you guys to guide me, help me reinforce Vivian, so I am happy and grateful that Kiya are in Mancora and that they can help us.“

Another real life example of the need to keep on with our projects, programmes and belief in the communities we serve along with the importance of offering support to prepare parents and students to get back to school this March.

Good luck going back to school Vivian!

ACTIVE KIYA GETS ACTIVE!!

Active Kiya gets Active once again!

We are excited to be able to start planning some fun and active Kiya fund raising events again this year, the first and foremost being THE BIG HALF LONDON MARATHON!

We already have 2 eager and determined runners but are still offering 1 more place for anyone else keen to set themselves an exciting active challenge for 2022.

Is that person you?

We are also organising a 3 day mountain trek in Spain, THE TRES PICOS CHALLENGE!

We will be hiking to the 3 highest peaks in the Sierra Nevada over 3 days, sleeping under the stars and immersing ourselves in the incredible landscape!

There are only 4 spaces left so if you’re interested, get in touch quickly!

*If you are in Spain already and don’t need accommodation other than on the trek, there is a reduction to the cost.*

For more information on either of 2022’s exciting ACTIVE events, drop us a message: active@kiyasurvivors.org 

THE RAINBOW CHILDREN

Matildes Dreams for 2022:

“I want to see the whole world, I want to travel a lot, meet many people, and I know that for this I have to start with something very important… I have to study languages, I have to learn because that way it will make it more fun for me to communicate, in fact I have already started learning English and German and I like it… when I can apply for the visa I will do it because I am going after my dreams.

But I am also aware that I must prepare for a professional career in case plan A fails me, my plan B is to study business administration.
But I also really like professional makeup, manicures and pedicures, so I’m also looking to volunteer soon in a beauty salon to confirm my talent or maybe I’ll realize that’s not what I want…

Soon I want to work and be independent and together with my brothers help us whenever we are near or far because I love my brothers very much and they love me. We are a family.“

NEW TRUSTEE

We are very proud of our amazing Treasurer, Ben Hyde, for spreading his wings and starting his own business, however, we are also sad that this means he will be leaving the board.

Ben has been with Kiya for half a decade and his financial advise, guidance and expertise has been a HUGE help and much appreciated by us all.

Ben cycled the London to Brighton back in 2019 for Kiya along with a dedicated team of supporters and was always willing to go the extra mile to help, literally!

Thank you Ben, good luck, you will be missed!

Kiya is now actively looking for a new Treasurer to fill the gap and help lead us forward in the finance department.

If you have an accountancy/financial background and feel you have what it takes to join the KIYA board of Directors, we’d love to hear from you.

SUMMARY OF THE MONTH

A positive start to the new year with new team members, projects and patients.

We are also proud to say that we have secured the BASIC running costs for the year thanks to ongoing sponsorship from long term supporters including CIS and the Vistness family along with our dedicated child sponsors. We can’t thank you enough!

Our fund raising target for 2022 now stands at £25,000 so we can:

• Employ Henry, our Psychologist, on a full time contract so he can run the Sex Education and Anti-Bullying programmes in 6 schools as well as his workshops and one to one sessions
• Run the Back to School Programme for 14.5 months
• Purchase 2 quad bikes so our teams can move around easier. The donation we had for this was just before COVID-19 and we elected to use the funds, with the donors permission, to kick off the all important life box appeal, so this is still a much needed asset for the on the ground team
• Fund the opening of a new physical centre in Mama Cocha
• Provide emergency / ongoing funds for families in need of medical assessments/operations

We have some exciting plans ahead in order to start working towards this target including our ACTIVE events, grant applications and fundraisers.

If you feel you can contribute to this years target, or would like to volunteer with us to help us run more events, write grants with us or get involved with the existing events, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

That’s it from us this month!

Thanks for all your support,

– Suzy and the Kiya Team x