In January 2005, one US Dollar fetched over 80 Kenyan Shillings (KES). Recently, 3 years later, in December 2007 when we sent the monies for school fees, the same Dollar drew just 60 KES, a decline of over 25%. Even worse, this exchange rate has been fluctuating quite drastically on a daily basis hitting a severe low of at the beginning of January 2008. The cost of schooling and boarding of a child has also increased steadily over the last few years.
The SOS Program is currently 20% short on school fees that are due in January and February 2008. This is indeed a blow to this program since the additional monies we need to raise are not for providing new services but rather for maintaining the existing ones. In short, we need your help to fight this adversity and continue SOS. Please reach deeper into your pockets and consider donating additional funds if you can.
To ensure SOS’s long term continuation in the face of these unforeseen external events, we will be increasing the sponsorship cost for an orphan from $400 to $500 going forward as of 2008. We are proud of the fact that we have been able to run this program with no cost increases for over 2 years and that almost 100% of your sponsorship donations have gone and will continue to go directly to the program’s needy orphans. Later this year, we will be meeting with Kenyan school officials to investigate cost cutting opportunities.
Sponsors like you are the reason SOS exists. We are confident that you will rise to this new challenge to ensure that these orphans have a real chance at life through great education and good health.
This news update was featured in the February 2008 issue of the SHARE Newsletter. Sponsors will receive a printed copy of this Newsletter in mail. A printable copy may be downloaded from http://shareafrica.org/newsletter