2011 THEME : UNLEASHING THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP

Dear Rafiki

It has been a while since welast communicated on this platform of friendship. It is my sincere hope that all of you are doing fine in your endevour.

Personally, I have been ok. Last when I posted here I was preparing to travel for Opportunity Collaboration Conference as well as preparing for my campign for elected office in Kenya. Both events went on successfully. Even though I was not elected to represent my constituents in Kenya's Parliament, I am grateful for the chance given me by my costituents because I learnt alot from this exercise. I am hopeful that come 2012 when I will be seeking to be elected during Kenya's general election, the lessons learnt during the by-election will be meaningful. From the Opportunity Collaboration front, I was able to meet several heads of organizations some of whom have partnered with us in our effort to empower women in Kenya.

Most important I wanted to share that this year on 2nd February, we were priviledged to host World Pulse delegation at our mission house in Nairobi. On this day we marked the 1st year of Rafiki Club and celebrated on the theme Unleashing the Power of Friendship. Amongst those who attended were over 200 women from Nairobi, Lungalunga, Migori and other parts of Kenya.

Why do we need to Unleash The Power of Friendship? Friendship amongst women is an asset that has long been taken for granted. We never realise that it is a gift God-given to us to crown our feminity. Our families, business, professions and life in general thrive because of empowering relations that are filled with uncunditional love.

In this regard, we have chosen to honour friendship by establishing Rafiki Clubs in every neighbourhood in Nairobi, every village in Kenya, every cyber space for women around the globe. You are indeed a member of a powerful movement of women. We aim therefore to:
1. Share skills through peer-to-peer mentoring,
2. Organize exchange programs for women self help groups
3. continue building inter cultural relations and Global friendships
4. Organize Networking retreats for women

Our target this year is to mobilise at laest 500 women to Join the Rafiki Club. Thus I request for your support. Let's start again being active by doing the following

Register as a Rafiki Club member 2011: We have some members who have since stopped writing letters. we understand that the excersise may be demanding. However if you are still interested to being a member of Rafiki Club Kindly write to us on info@projectforafrica.org. Your registration will allow us to know who is a member and who is not since we have women in Kenya writing letters to their matched rafiki but they never receive reply. Please note if you choose to register in 2011, we require that you commit to be active all year round nad at laest send a letter to your Rafiki every once month.

Registration fees: This year we start of with an annual registartion fee of USD 25 for members. Without finances it is difficult to coordinate Rafiki Club activities. Am sure we all agree that if we had a fulltime rafiki coordinator then we would most probably get information on time on what is happening and also get our Club being active. It will be of great help if we all participate in making our Rafiki Clubs being tools for women empowerment. Women in Kenya are paying an annual registartion fee of KSh 500 we hope that our International Rafiki will join in too.

Start A Rafiki Club in your area: For us to reach our mark of 500 Rafiki by end of 2011, We need to invite our girlfriends, mothers, daughters, sisters to join in the movement. Please let us know if you can start a Rafiki Club in your locality, company, university or association. We have room to allow Rafiki Clubs to adopt each other e.g A Rafiki club in Wisconsin University under Rafiki Dr. Araceli Alonso has adopted the Rafiki Club in Lungalunga and together they are collaborating in empowering women with good health.

Ultimately, it is our collective ambition to use the Power of Friendship naturally given to women to advocate for the self empowerment of every women in our circle, so that she can empower other women and be a change maker in her community.

Urafiki Ni Nguvu!!! Friendship is Power

Kind regards

Lin Wafula
Founder /Director, Project Africa
www.projectforafrica.org