Dear friends of Heart in Africa,
It was a turbulent year – also for our heart project, the “Nice View” children’s village in Kenya. A year with many highs and also lows … overshadowed by the unexpected death of Papa Ediwho left a big gap. Despite this heavy blow, we continued with united forces. The started projects were completed and the Nice View family continued to grow – three more young children were taken into care and have found a new home in the warmth of the large family.
We would like to give you a short review of our association year…
Our fifth year as an association
Review of the year 2024
Visit to the Nice View Children's Village
In January, we were able to visit the children’s village as the highlight of our private trip to Kenya. As always, we were welcomed with a bright, warm-hearted smile and it was like coming home to the big Nice View family.
A lot has happened at Nice View since our last visit. For example, a new building has been erected, providing additional classrooms, and homeschooling is now available for the oldest children.
Before our trip, we started a collection for well-preserved sports shoes in our private environment. We arrived at the children’s village with two additional travel bags filled with shoes (Which also led to a longer, intense “conversation” with the Kenyan customs officers 😉).
The children’s joy was huge and soon every pair of shoes had found new shining children’s eyes.
As always, the talks with Mama Gudrun were very warm-hearted and we were able to talk about the happenings at Nice View and the upcoming plans and projects.
The time we spent together with the children was once again unforgettable! The final drumming, singing and dancing performances by the children were the perfect end to our visit.
Video of the Nice View visit
carol singers - Complete renovation and extension of the Nice View kindergarten
Do you remember? At the end of 2023, we applied to the Arlesheim carol singers with the “Nice View Kindergarten roof renovation” project and were awarded the contract – what a great pleasure, because the roof renovation is urgently needed:
The weather conditions in Kenya have meant that repairs to the makuti roofs (palm roofs) are becoming more and more frequent and the woven “palm roof panels” are also becoming increasingly expensive due to the high demand. Nice View has repeatedly suffered water damage in the interior rooms and the enormous risk of fire is another reason why the responsible in Nice View want to gradually convert all roofs to corrugated iron material and wood sealing in the inner roof.
These roof renovations are part of an overall renovation and expansion of the Nice View kindergarten, including a social office. With our annual donation totaling EUR 33,000 – including EUR 13,000 from the carol singers – we were able to make a very large contribution to this major project and work could already begin in March 2024. Thanks to the well-coordinated Nice View construction and maintenance team, which has been trained by Edi Dürr for decades, everyone knows what to do. Everything that has to do with wood is made in Nice View’s own carpentry workshop. No external company is required for the implementation of Nice View building projects, renovation and conversion work.
After Edi’s death Gudrun and Denise took over the site management and the construction work was completed in June 2024.
"einzigARTig" arts and crafts market and Christmas markets
Our markets are simply part of the year!
We got off to a very successful start in March at the “einzigARTig” arts and crafts market, where we were once again able to appear as a guest exhibitor with our colorful and funny ceramics birds.
We are already looking forward to the next participation from 04.04.-06.04.2025 – which, by the way, will be the 10th anniversary of this beautiful market. Save the date now, more information will follow.
Our Christmas markets have almost become a tradition. Many visitors now come specifically to our stand, but we have also been able to get a lot of new visitors interested in our heart project Nice View Children’s Village and therefore also in our exhibited goods.
In addition to our well-known markets in Münchenstein and Aesch, we ventured into new territories for the first time in 2024, namely to Mariastein at the very atmospheric Advent market around the beautiful monastery.
We could not manage all these markets without our loyal helpers and supporters! A huge thank you to everyone who supports us all year round with their creative hands, their efficient stove or as a stand builder and mulled wine bringer – you are simply amazing!
Bicycle campaign "A bicycle for every child"
With our campaign “A bicycle for every child“ we wanted to create moments of happiness – and we succeeded! Thanks to your great help, we raised the money for the missing 20 bicycles in no time at all and were able to transfer EUR 5,000 to the Nice View Children’s Village in April. Finding good quality bicycles in various sizes proved to be more difficult than expected. But Gudrun and Denise worked hard to finally collect the bicycles, which made the children’s eyes light up at Christmas. In future, every Nice View child will have their own bike – simply beautiful, see for yourself:
Africa annual calendar
Just like our markets, our calendars are an integral part of our year. That’s why we have once again published our wall and table calendar and as we have heard or read from some of you – we were able to make some people happy. We’re excited to continue this wonderful tradition in the future.
Donation Nice View
It was a very successful year for Heart in Africa and we continue to grow steadily. In addition to the income from our traditional calendar sales, the sales activities at the spring and Christmas markets and our webshop we can count on the numerous and generous support of our patrons and donations.
After the EUR 5,000 donated for the bicycles in the spring, we were able to make another fantastic donation of EUR 20,000 to the Nice View Children’s Village (a total of EUR 25,000) – we think that’s just great!
At this point, a big thank you to all of you and asante sana for all your support and your great trust – without you, this would not be possible and you motivate us to keep going: “One person alone cannot carry a roof – so let’s carry on together!”
Creating future prospects in the country of origin
Outlook
Heart in Africa will continue to support the Nice View Children’s Village in the current year. It is essential to preserve and maintain what has been created and achieved so far. Or to put it in Edi’s words: “Creating future prospects in the country of origin”.
Various projects are being considered or are already being planned, and we hope that they can be implemented as soon as possible.
For example, the former social office is to be converted into a mother-child space and a retreat for the children where they can read, play or just hang out. Staff apartments are being planned and gradually all the palm leaf roofs are to be replaced with corrugated sheet metal and wood sealing on the inner roof.
Greenhouses are to be built on the various cultivation areas to protect the extremely successful harvests from the hungry monkeys.
In addition, the existing daycare facilities for children from the village are to be renovated and expanded. This will create additional jobs and the villagers will have the opportunity to work and know that their children are well looked after.
As you can see, a lot is planned and the work never stops. So we at Heart in Africa are firmly convinced that our help and support is being put to good use and is going to the right place. Transparency creates trust, so guests are always welcome in the Children’s Village and everyone can see for themselves what has been achieved with their contribution.
We ourselves will be in Msambweni for a few days at the beginning of February – as part of a private trip – together with a good friend and will spend a lot of time with the children at Nice View.
As last time, we have again collected sports/gym shoes in good condition (difficult to obtain in Msambweni), which we can take with us for the children young and old. Our cellar already resembles a shoe store, but if anyone still has girls’ or women’s models (sizes 34 – 39), we’d love to have them!
We have once again ordered the popular toiletry bags and make-up bags from the Children’s Village’s in-house tailors, as well as the new colorful cushion covers – so you can look forward to seeing what you can find in our webshop after our return.
We are really looking forward to seeing everyone and are excited to see what has happened since our last visit. A report will follow.
We are counting on you
Let's continue
We are approaching our new association year with passion and enthusiasm.
We welcome active support in any form. Make us known, talk to your friends and acquaintances about us and our heart project, bring ideas, share our contributions or how about a sponsorship as a gift?
We are certain that together we can continue to bring about positive change and help many children in 2025.
With the following video, we and the children from Nice View would like to thank you all for your loyal support and your trust in “Heart in Africa”.
Warmly and as always:
Kwaheri kwa sasa! See you soon 🙂
Your Heart in Africa Team
