Collection plate funds African schools

The charity have funded building work in Africa

Two men from north Wales are heading to East Africa to search for land to build a school and a £20,000 resource centre.

Arnold Black and Richard Bingham, from the Community Church in Wrexham, are flying out to Kenya on Monday.

Richard Bingham and Arnold Black fly to Africa

Parishioners from the church have set up Equipe, which has already funded the education of hundreds of children and improved the quality of lives of people across East Africa.

The charity says that 52% of the 30 million people in Kenya now live in poverty and the national wage is 60 pence per day.

Local churchgoers believe that poverty is characterised by the lack of empowerment of people to influence their development needs.

They have sent money to four representatives of similar church groups in Africa who oversee the building of schemes which the residents dictate they need.

Locals reaction

The partnership was the brainchild of Mr Bingham following a holiday to Mombasa in Kenya six years ago.

"I thought we'd made a huge mistake when we went there because you get off at the airport, you're put on a bus and you're driven through the west side of Mombasa," he said.

"It's a slum area, and when we went through it had just had some severe rains, it had been flooded and you can see sewage in the water and children are walking in it.

"Within 20 minutes of getting out of the airport my wife was crying."

Mr Bingham said the local children and their families are overjoyed by the help that they receive.

A child can be sponsored for £20 a month

"The reaction of the people is amazing, my wife will be walking among the children and she will have a child , if not two children, on each finger," he said.

Equipe has already paid the costs of a roof for a meeting room in Mtwapa in Kenya and they will look at purchasing land in the area to build a multi-purpose school, training and community centre.

The project is estimated to cost around £20,000.

Members are also sponsoring a small number of children in four areas of East Africa and they have bought two goats for youngsters in Uganda.

Arnold Black, who has never visited Africa with the charity before, said the work they do is essential.

Enormous need

"We do child sponsorship schemes, we do fund raising for building works and we've set up relationships with people out there.

"We're looking at building nursery schools, business resource training centres and community centres.

"We've also set up barber shops and cycle repair shops - we want the local people to help themselves basically.

"There's an enormous need, all the major charities are working in East Africa but it's basically a black hole and you can pour as much money as you like into it.

"We don't take any admin costs because it's all locally based and we're all volunteers so any money that gets delivered goes straight out there.

"The rural poverty out there is unimaginable, the national wage in Kenya is about 60 pence a day, you can sponsor a child through school for £12 a month," he said.