majimazuri.org

Welcome to the pages of Maji Mazuri in the UK (MMUK)!

MMUK is the UK branch of Maji Mazuri. We are a registered charity in the UK (#1080544) and we exist solely to support Maji Mazuri’s amazing projects in Kenya. We are run entirely by volunteers who give their time freely; we have no staff or office and all of our trustees cover their own expenses in full whether travelling in the UK or in Kenya, so that every penny you donate to Maji Mazuri UK will be spent on grassroots community projects in Kenya.

There are many ways for UK donors to support Maji Mazuri, taking advantage of Gift Aid tax relief too. You can sponsor a project, child or teacher; You can also donate towards specific urgently-needed items or visit the projects in Kenya and take donations with you. You can give by standing order, BACS transfer, cheque, cash, online or by text message. You can also leave a gift in your Will to make a lasting difference to the lives of some of Kenya’s most vulnerable children and get tax relief!

For amounts of £10 and under, the easiest way to donate is through your mobilephone! Simply text MMUK22 £10 to the number 70070. Your gift will then be transferred into the Maji Mazuri UK bank account by JustTextGiving, and your donation will be added to your monthly phone bill (or subtracted from your phone credit if you're on pay-as-you-go. You can replace £10 with £1, £2 or £5 if you prefer. 

You will get a confirmation text, and the option to add Gift Aid tax relief via a link after you have donated. If you are a UK taxpayer, please do add Gift Aid; it means an extra 25p in every £1 is added to your donation by HMRC at no extra cost to you or us.

If you would like to give more than £10, you can either send a cheque payable to Maji Mazuri UK Trust to Rachel Lindley, c/o St Mary-le-Bow Church, Cheapside, London EC2V 6AU, or you can make an electronic transfer directly into Maji Mazuri's account. Please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for the bank account details. If you are a UK taxpayer, please also email Rachel for a Gift Aid form if you are donating by cheque or electronically.

WHAT DOES MAJI MAZURI UK (MMUK)DO?

MMUK supports Maji Mazuri primarily by:

Fundraising for Maji Mazuri projects in Kenya. Browse this website to read more about all of the projects and hear from people involved on the ground in Kenya, including the inspirational founder and director of Maji Mazuri, Dr Wanjiku Kironyo.

Raising awareness throughout the UK of needs and opportunities in Kenya. We work in areas of staggering deprivation and in conditions many westerners find it difficult to imagine. At the same time, we are privileged to work with local Kenyans with huge resources of talent, skill and dedication to community empowerment and social and economic development. Anyone spending time with our friends in Kenya will realise that there is so much potential to transform lives in Kenya’s poorest communities. We would love you to understand more about the realities of achieving social and economic development in Kenya. Why not invite one of us to give a talk at your school, university, church/place of worship, Rotary Club or any other group? Contact us

Arranging for volunteers from the UK to spend time working in Kenya. Would you like to see Maji Mazuri’s work in Kenya first-hand? It’s a truly inspiring place to visit, you’ll be welcomed warmly, learn lots and find so much hospitality, laughter and talent in the midst of hardship. We can help you identify where your skills might fit and guide you in making all the arrangements. We don’t charge any arrangement fees so you’ll only need to cover your costs (flight, accommodation, insurance, visas, vaccinations and in-country costs (which are relatively low)) – although we’ll encourage you to take a fundraising contribution with you to spend on the projects whilst you’re there. Please contact us [link] if you live in the UK and are interested in finding out more about volunteering opportunities in Kenya. We’ll be delighted to answer your questions and put you in touch with previous volunteers.

HOW DID MAJI MAZURI IN THE UK BEGIN?

Maji Mazuri was established in 1998 by Heidi Konig following her two visits to Kenya in 1994 and 1997. She spent many months volunteering with Maji Mazuri in Kenya and was highly impressed by the energy and commitment of the people involved but soon realised that the projects were limited by lack of funding. She therefore set up a branch of Maji Mazuri in the UK as a UK registered charity (1080544) with the aim of raising funds and awareness in the UK to support Maji Mazuri’s work in Kenya.

Fr. Peter Konig (the current Chair of MMUK) and Robert Costin (trustee) accompanied Heidi on the first MMUK visit to Kenya in 2000 when Heidi led a team of British school students in building a new Maji Mazuri school in the rural Masai village of Kiserian. We have retained our focus on Kiserian School and Farm although we’ve supported the full range of MM projects in Kenya with well over £100,000 since we began.

It has been incredible to see the growth and changes in the MM projects over the years, and perhaps most of all at Kiserian. From the one-storey school we helped to build in 2000 has grown a mixed primary day and boarding school and a secondary girls’ school for around 200 pupils in all. Many of the girls boarding in the secondary section would have been married off in early adolescence had they not been at the school. There’s a bore hole providing water for the whole community, a community clinic, solar-powered electricity for 3 hours each evening and a farm. The farm serves the triple purposes of providing fruit and vegetables for children at the school and other MM projects, generating some income through sales, and operating as an agricultural training centre for young people seeking to return to the land from Nairobi’s slums (reverse migration).

A bio-gas system converts cow manure into gas which is piped to the school kitchen and enables all the children’s food to be cooked! MMUK raised funds to buy additional land at Kiserian in 2007 and a Lions Club in the UK generously funded the purchase of seeds, a cow-shed and some cows. Since then, Rotary Clubs in the USA have been very active in funding the school, clinic and energy developments. Kiserian Maji Mazuri Farm and School is now a real community hub and resource. The next step is to build a vocational training centre on the site for adult education. If you are involved with a Rotary Club or Lions branch, or have an interest in sustainable agriculture or rural community development and education, we’d love to hear from you.

We’ve supported all of Maji Mazuri’s projects in different ways over the years despite our historic focus on Kiserian. The projects are enormously varied; from the wonderfully talented and warm young people and entrepreneurs living in deprivation in Mathare to the engaging orphans and disabled children at Kasarani to the students trying to win back their future at Mathasia School, there is so much exciting work going on and so many more needs. As we look to MMUK’s next 10 years, please join with us in supporting our friends in Kenya. 100% of any donation you give will be spent effectively and accountably in Kenya. Why not visit and see it for yourself? You could be part of the future of MMUK!

WHO’S INVOLVED?

The founding trustees were Alan Rayden (first Chair), Robert Costin and the Revd Peter Konig, with Heidi Konig, the founder of MMUK, acting as treasurer and secretary. All three founding trustees and Heidi remain actively involved and Robert (Director of Music at Ardingly College) has made frequent return visits to Kenya over the years. He notes how much safer it is now than on his first visit in the early 1990s! Richard Morris (formerly Headmaster of Mavumi school in Tanzania) and Rachel Lindley (who works in microfinance and charity fundraising/campaigning in the UK) joined the trustee body formally in 2011 after several years of voluntary involvement in the UK and Kenya. Richard is the link with the new Cambridge group. Rachel is the current secretary/treasurer and spent 6 months volunteering with Maji Mazuri in Kenya in 2006. They both return for short visits whenever time and money permit.

We are delighted to announce the establishment of the Cambridge Maji Mazuri Group, founded in 2011 by a group of fantastic students from Cambridge University dedicated to raising funds for the projects in Kenya and giving their time, energy and skills on volunteer trips. The first trip, with a team mainly from King’s College and Pembroke College, took place in July 2011; read more about their experiences in the Blog below.

We’re already thinking about the next Cambridge trip; if you’re a Cambridge student and would like to be involved, just contact us. Our student volunteer teams often come from low income backgrounds and we offer a number of sponsorship and publicity opportunities in Cambridge University and in Kenya for companies willing to contribute to the students’ costs. Contact us to find out more.

Maji Mazuri UK is the smallest and youngest member of the Maji Mazuri family (which comprises Maji Mazuri USA, Duara (Maji Mazuri in Holland), supporters in Canada and Australia and of course the team in Kenya) but we are growing fast!

As international MM partners, we are united by our passion for Maji Mazuri because we’ve all spent many months  in Kenya and seen first-hand that Maji Mazuri really does give people living in some of Kenya’s poorest communities skills, opportunities, independence and hope for the future. Wanjiku’s home, where international volunteers and partners stay when visiting Kenya, is a hub of like-minded people coming from all corners of the globe to learn, share and contribute together. She herself and her team are inspirational.

We are always open to new ideas and welcome anyone who shares our passion for social and economic development in Kenya. We are sure you have something to offer so please get in touch with us .

GET INVOLVED YOURSELF!

Would you like to get involved with the work of Maji Mazuri in Kenya? Find out more about the projects on this site and choose any or all of the following ways to join with us:

Sponsor a project

Simply choose which project you would like to support from the range on this site, select how much you would like to give each month and then download and complete this form [link]. You will receive a selection of photos from your project every quarter as well as personal updates from some of the children, staff or volunteers involved.

Sponsor a child, student or teacher

To sponsor a child, choose whether you would prefer to sponsor a primary school child (£18/month), a secondary school young person (£38/month) or a university student (£50/month). All of our sponsored children come from very deprived backgrounds and by giving them an education, you’ll be giving them a lifeline out of poverty. You’ll receive a photo of your child and reports on his/her academic progress each term. Please note that your monthly donations will go towards the core costs (chiefly food, clothing and equipment – particularly at present when food prices in Kenya have more than doubled since January 2011) of the project at which your child lives.  Contact us for more details.

We desperately need funding for teachers’ salaries too. By sponsoring a teacher, you’ll be giving a future to 30 children at once! Maji Mazuri cannot afford to pay its teachers the market rate at the moment and it is crucial that we retain high quality staff so please consider sponsoring a teacher today. It costs £50/month to sponsor a teacher; this will cover the teacher’s salary and some equipment. You’ll receive a photo and details of your teacher, and be able to correspond with him/her direct if you wish to do so; this might be of particular interest to teachers and schools in the UK. Contact us for more details.

Why not club together as a family, school, youth group, group of friends or faith community to sponsor a project, child or teacher? We’re always happy to answer any questions you might have. There is no minimum time-commitment for sponsorship although we very much hope you will make this a long-term commitment so that our children and staff have some security and we can budget sustainably.

Make a one-off donation to MMUK

No amount is too great or too small! You can give by BACS transfer ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  for our bank details], cheque payable to Maji Mazuri Trust and sent to Rachel Lindley, 14 Spindlewood Gardens, CR0 5SE or online.

You can now also donate by text message for small instant donations. There are no fees for you or for Maji Mazuri so 100% of your gift will be used to change lives in Kenya. Try it today! Just text MMUK22 £10 to 70070. (You can replace the £10 with £1, £2 or £5 if you prefer, and you can add Gift Aid after you've donated too.)

Don’t forget to Gift Aid your donation if you are a UK taxpayer. This will increase your donation by 25% at no additional cost to either you or us.

Of course you can specify how you would like your donations to be used. Do This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  to find out more. If you can, please also sign up to make a regular donation to Maji Mazuri. This will help us to become sustainable and give our projects and children some security for the future. Funding is very tight at the moment and we really need to increase the number of regular donors giving generously to our work every month.  Please consider joining us. Your gift really will make a difference.

Leaving a gift to charity in your Will is one of the most effective ways to make a lasting difference in Kenya. It’s also tax-effective; since March 2011, if you leave 10% or more of your estate to charity you could pay less inheritance tax. Simply ask your solicitor to insert the following words into your Will:

I give x% of my residuary estate free of all taxes to Maji Mazuri UK, registered charity number 1080544, c/o 14 Spindlewood Gardens, Croydon CR0 5SE, for its charitable work in Kenya. I declare that the receipt of the treasurer or other officer of the charity shall be a sufficient discharge for my executors and trustees.

Of course you are welcome to specify which project your gift should be used to fund, although it is better to leave the gift unrestricted so that Maji Mazuri in Kenya can use it wherever the needs are most urgent at the time. We advise you to consult a solicitor when writing or revising your Will.

You can replace the words ‘x% of my residuary estate’ with £xx if you prefer to leave a fixed lump sum, although leaving a % amount will mean that you don’t need to re-write your Will if your financial circumstances change and you have more or less to leave. It also means your gift will keep pace with inflation and it will be easier for you to take advantage of the inheritance tax incentive.

If you already have a Will, you can add a gift to Mai Mazuri by completing a Codicil form; email us and we’ll send you one. You can also email Rachel if you would like to discuss leaving a gift in your Will in confidence.

Would you like to spend some time working with any or all of our projects in Nairobi? You can see the range of ways you could get involved by browsing this site and reading the blogs of previous volunteers. Whatever your background, skills or experience, you’ll have something to offer and you’ll get so much from the experience. It really can be life-changing.

We can help you identify where your skills might fit and guide you in making all the arrangements. We don’t charge any arrangement fees so you’ll only need to cover your costs (flight, accommodation, insurance, visas, vaccinations and in-country costs (which are relatively low)) – although we’ll encourage you to take a fundraising contribution with you to spend on the projects whilst you’re there.

You can stay for a few days, a few weeks or a few months, and you can specialise in one project (perhaps doing an internship in our rural clinic, urban microfinance programme, farm or one of our schools) or you can spend time with all of them. Whether you have 40 years’ management consultancy experience or just a love of playing with kids, we’ll welcome you with open arms if you have a broad mind and a sense of adventure.

Please contact us  if you live in the UK and are interested in finding out more about volunteering opportunities in Kenya. We’ll be delighted to answer your questions and put you in touch with previous volunteers.

Holding fundraising events

Do you fancy holding a charity dinner? Ball? Auction, brunch, trek, garden party? Set your imagination free; sky-dive? Knit-athon? 24-hour African music and dance festival? Cake stall? Donkey rides? 3-legged race? Why not organise something in your school, college, faith group or any other community in support of Maji Mazuri? We’ll provide information, a speaker and any other input you would like, and we’d love to put your photos on this website afterwards!

Charitable trusts

Do you have contacts in charitable trusts and private foundations? We would love you to introduce us so that we can give a presentation about our work and discover which of our projects match your funding or philanthropic priorities. Contact us to find out more. If you have fundraising skills, we’d love you to help Grace, our volunteer fundraiser, to submit more applications; email us if you can help.

Corporate support

Do you have contacts in Corporate Social Responsibility? We offer companies an easy, effective, fulfilling and fun way to meet your corporate responsibility goals, tailored to suit your corporate priorities and delivering measurable results. Your staff could run fundraising events (black tie dinners, sponsored obstacle courses, auctions of promises in your community), sponsor a project corporately or even visit us in Kenya for an unforgettable team-building, leadership and development course! Contact us to find out more.

Invite us to give a talk on Maji Mazuri 

We love talking about the inspiring work going on every day in Maji Mazuri projects in Kenya! Please invite us to give a short presentation at your school, college, Rotary Club, Lions Club, Mothers’ Union, Sports Association, Brownie or Scouts club, place of worship, office or any other group! We have lots of incredible photos and stories and we can tailor our talk to suit your interests. Contact us to find out more.

Donate goods or equipment

If you have any un-needed educational material(books,text books, wall charts, exercise books, chalk, pencils, pens, crayons etc), furniture (beds, desks), equipment (computers), clothing or toys, and if you (or your company or school) would be willing to pay for the shipping costs, please contact us. We can rarely afford to buy new items and you may have excellently what one of our Kenyan projects needs!

Help to transport donated items to Kenya

(and visit the projects at the same time)

Are you travelling to Nairobi? Do you have room in your suitcase to take some donated clothes or books to our projects? If so, please contact us. The cost of transporting donated items to Kenya can be high, and there is always a risk that parcels go astray. Delivering items on our behalf also gives you the opportunity to see the projects yourself and meet some of the wonderful people involved.

Tell other people about the wonderful work of Maji Mazuri in Kenya!

We are confident that the more people who know about Maji Mazuri, the more people will want to give their time, energy and money to join the campaign to fulfil Kenya’s potential! The excellent work undertaken and the wonderful results achieved in Kenya deserves to be more widely known, and learning about it can enrich the lives of all of us.Of course, we are also keen to enlist the support of more donors and sponsors. You can help by telling your friends and family about Maji Mazuri and encouraging them to browse this site to find out more.

Please contact us if you have any queries or ideas, or if you would like to help Maji Mazuri in any other way.

CONTACT US:

Registered address: c/o Rachel Lindley, 14 Spindlewood Gardens, CR0 5SE.

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .Please don’t hesitate to write or email us with any queries.