Being a musician has opened many doors for me. I am very fortunate that with my career I get to perform in front of thousands of people across the world each year; and so I use this as an opportunity to spread the word about the children I work with in Kenya and to fundraise and encourage my fans to get involved and make a difference. 

For the past 7 years I have worked alongside a fantastic charity called Moving Mountains in a slum community town called Embu. Embu is a few hours drive north of Nairobi, quite close to Mount Kenya which on a clear day can be seen on the horizon from the edge of the town. It is a busy market town and so typically African to look at with women draped in colourful clothes, their babies wrapped across their backs, selling bananas and pineapples from the edge of the road in a landscape of orange dust. Away from the high street though, are the slums. 

I remember walking through the slums for the first time and just being horrified at the living conditions; the sewage, the lack of sanitation, the lack of shelter when it rains and water leaks through the corrugated iron roofs. Children; thousands and thousands of them, wearing rags, with runny noses, so skinny but many with rounded tummies from malnutrition, no shoes on their feet wander the streets. Some of them as young as three of four clutch small bottles of glue in their hands. Glue is a big problem in Embu. Poverty has made life so hard that for an orphaned child, glue can seem a much easier escape from their daily hardships than the walk to school, hungry and thirsty, with bare feet. A third of these children are orphans, many are HIV positive and all of them live in dire poverty and hardship. It is inhumane and it is heartbreaking. 

Moving Mountains do an incredible job of running a ‘Rescue Centre for street children’ in Embu. They make sure street children get a meal each day and help to get children off of the streets, off of glue and into school. That’s where we come in; we being YOU and I…

Each year I help organise projects at primary schools in Embu which benefit thousands of children. The aim is to bring these schools up to western standards and also to make school fun and rewarding so that children chose not to drop out. With a Primary Education, these children can then go on to secondary school, or will be qualified to get a job outside of the slum. The projects have been a huge success. We have renovated classrooms to make room for more children to join. We have provided the schools with reading and writing materials and arts and crafts facilities; many of these children had never owned their own pencil before let alone access to glue, paper, crayons and colouring pencils. Can you imagine the joy and the smiles that a pack of crayons could give? We provided sports equipment and built a basketball court. We provided musical instruments (Guitars, Drums, Piano, Harmonicas and Recorders) and music education. I was so proud recently when a big group of ‘slum’ children from ‘County Primary School’ in Embu entered a National music competition. This involved sending them all off on a bus to Nairobi which was very exciting for these children most of whom had never left their town before. They competed against private schools and wealthy boarding schools and as a group reached the finals, a feat unheard of for a ‘slum’ school. We have also introduced working toilets, and running tap water to the school’s which has made a big difference. 

I really want to reach out and help more children and more schools in Embu. Currently, I am supporting two school in Embu: Urban Primary and County Primary. There are 1000 children at each school. Over the next few years, I will work with Moving Mountains to give these children and more a good education, safety, fun opportunities, and a brighter future; but in order to achieve this I really do need your help! 

Please, If you are in a position to give, donate now! 

Love and Thanks

Dani Wilde 

WWW.MOVINGMOUNTAINSTRUST.COM